| LEE PETERSON: Scott's Biggest Supporter April 19, 2004 A year after Scott Peterson's arrest on charges that he murdered Laci and their unborn son, his father is defiant and hardened against police and prosecutors. He vows that he has "adequate resources" to fund the double-murder defense led by one of the nation's most prominent attorneys. "We've got the best attorney in the country, and we'll keep him as long as it takes," Lee Peterson said, referring to Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos. "They'll (prosecutors and police) end up tucking their tails between their legs and slinking away." Lee Peterson spoke at length with The Bee last week, about the past year of his son's life in jail, the upcoming trial, and the deaths of Laci and Conner Peterson. Lee Peterson called his son "an easy target" for police under public pressure after the story of a pregnant woman missing on Christmas Eve blitzed newspapers, supermarket tabloids and cable TV news shows. That publicity also necessitates moving his son's trial a second time -- this time to Southern California, Lee Peterson said. A hearing on the issue is set for May 7. He accused police of lying to Scott Peterson's friends in attempts to alienate them from his son, including telling them that Peterson was taking methamphetamine and other drugs. He also alleged that police deliberately leaked false information to the press, such as an inaccurate account of a $250,000 life insurance policy. "Despair and sadness has turned to just anger at these guys," Lee Peterson said. "What upsets me about our legal system is the fact that police are allowed to lie the way they are to suspects, to their friends and their families. They can spread all the garbage they want. They try to isolate you from your family and friends and then break you." Detective Doug Ridenour, a Modesto police spokesman, refused to comment on Lee Peterson's allegations, citing a court-imposed gag order. That order forbids nearly everyone connected to the case -- including police, attorneys and potential witnesses, from talking publicly about evidence and other case details. Prosecutors called Lee Peterson to testify at Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing, and he is expected to be a witness at trial. Ridenour acknowledged that in certain cases police do mislead subjects during investigations, but he refused to call that lying, instead characterizing it as an investigative technique. "The truth is, in a line of questioning, and if it's allowed by law and it's outside of court, then yes, we can use that investigative technique," Ridenour said. Selective information? Modesto police told Laci Peterson's family Jan. 15, 2003, that her husband was having an affair and recently took out a $250,000 life insurance policy on her, a family member told The Bee the next day. A story relaying that information ran Jan. 17, 2003. Scott Peterson called the article "a bunch of lies" but later acknowledged the affair. But a police detective testified during Peterson's preliminary hearing that while investigating possible financial motives in the case, he and an FBI agent learned on Jan. 7, 2003 -- more than a week before police met with family members -- that the insurance policy had been taken out a year and half before Laci Peterson disappeared. The Petersons' insurance broker told the investigators that the couple had taken out equal $250,000 policies on each other and that the policies were used as an "investment vehicle" linked to the couple's retirement accounts, Detective Phil Owen testified. That information was confirmed three days after the initial interview by documents received through a federal subpoena, Owen said. "You had then confirmed at that point that there was absolutely no truth to the rumor that there was a recently purchased life insurance policy; isn't that correct?" Geragos had asked Owen. "That would be correct," Owen replied. The lead detective on the case at the time, Al Brocchini, testified that he called one of Peterson's friends at 6:40 a.m. on Jan. 17 to encourage him to read The Bee article. Brocchini testified that he "absolutely" did not know the information about the insurance policy was false and denied trying to alienate the friend from Peterson. "You knew from documents that have already been received that the policy had been taken out with an effective date, a year and a half before that?" asked Kirk McAllister, one of Peterson's attorneys at the time. "I knew it was taken out awhile back before," Brocchini answered. "I really didn't care when I was telling him to read the article." Lee Peterson said he was confident his son, facing capital murder charges in a trial with testimony set to begin May 17, would be exonerated. "It'll be sometime in October before he walks out of there," he said. Scott Peterson remains in protective custody in the San Mateo County Jail. The 31-year-old who handled fertilizer sales for a Spanish company now busies himself in his Redwood City jail cell using a laptop computer to pore over tens of thousands of documents in the case against him, his father said. Prosecution's theory Prosecutors contend that Peterson, in the midst of an affair, murdered his pregnant wife on or just before Christmas Eve 2002. According to authorities, he drove her body to the Berkeley Marina, ferried it out to San Francisco Bay in a newly purchased boat, and dumped it. The remains of Laci Peterson and her unborn son washed ashore separately just more than a year ago and less than two miles from where Scott Peterson said he went fishing the day she disappeared. He was arrested days later outside the Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego with lightened hair, a full goatee, nearly $15,000 cash and a car stocked with camping gear. Scott Peterson, who has noticeably lost weight since his arrest, appears pale but upbeat in court. He smiles when huddling with his attorneys after he enters in the morning, Geragos sometimes drapingan arm over the back of his client's chair. Peterson chats with the defense jury consultant, and occasionally with bailiffs, during breaks in jury selection. Pricey defense attorney Lee Peterson attributed his son's weight loss to a "semi-vegetarian" diet in jail. "He loves fruits and vegetables, both he and Laci did," Lee Peterson said. "He's slimmed down. He's doing well. He does a lot of exercising." Jail officials try to accommodate inmates' dietary requests for religious or medical reasons, but Scott has made no such request, said Bronwyn Hogan, a San Mateo County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. "He basically gets the same stuff everyone else gets," Hogan said. "If he chooses to not eat the meat, that's by his own choice." Peterson lives alone in a two-person cell, exercises by himself and -- like other inmates -- cuts his own hair with clippers Hogan said. As Peterson awaits his day in court, questions have swirled about how he is paying for a defense that legal observers said easily could top $1 million. "I have adequate resources. It's hard to believe," Lee Peterson said, declining to elaborate. "I live very simply, but that's a choice that we made." He and his wife, Jackie, own San Diego Crating & Packing, a shipping company in Poway. They refinanced a home in July, according to records filed with the San Diego County recorder's office. They also loaned their son $100,000 in October, with Scott Peterson using his Covena Avenue home as collateral, according to documents filed with the Stanislaus County recorder's office. That transaction -- involving a home jointly held by Laci and Scott Peterson -- helped stoke a simmering dispute between the couple's families. They were involved in a bitter public spat after Laci Peterson's family in May removed items, including her wedding dress and a rocking chair, from the couple's Modesto home in what Lee Peterson equated to a burglary. Police said the issue was a civil matter. Preventing profit from the case Laci Peterson's mother has been appointed to administer her daughter's estate and is suing Scott for the wrongful death of her daughter and grandson-to-be, while seeking to prevent him from profiting by selling book rights or movie deals about the case. "We'd like them to account for any income or profits that he's made as a result of being accused of these crimes," said Adam Stewart, an attorney representing Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha. "We want to make sure none of Laci's assets or properties are used in this man's defense." HOME INDEX LACI TRIAL NEWS SCOTT LACI'S FAMILY |
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