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| Defense: Scott Peterson a philanderer, not a killer November 2, 2004 Scott Peterson's lawyer acknowledged Tuesday that his client was "a 14-carat a--hole" for cheating on his pregnant wife, but urged jurors to set aside their disgust and focus on what he said were reasonable interpretations of the circumstantial evidence against him. In his closing argument, defense attorney Mark Geragos said prosecutors painted the fertilizer salesman as "the biggest jerk to walk the face of the earth" in an effort to distract the jury from tenuous evidence linking him to the murders of Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn son. "They hope you'll say, 'They may not have the evidence, but I hate this guy," Geragos told the panel. "The only thing they are banking on is that you are going to hate him, and if you hate him, you are going to suspend rationality." Peterson was conducting an affair with massage therapist Amber Frey on Dec. 24, 2002, when his pregnant wife went missing. Geragos told the panel that the revelation of that infidelity caused police and his wife's relatives to see all his actions as suspicious. "He was a gentleman who, unfortunately, when [his wife and unborn child] went missing, was having an affair. Everything afterwards can be explained by virtue of that," he said. Geragos, who took Peterson's case saying he hoped both to exonerate his client and find the true killers, conceded that after five months of hinting at involvement by satanists, burglars, Frey, transients and even Laci Peterson's relatives as possible culprits, the defense was unable to identify a perpetrator. "I would love nothing more, and I mean this, than to solve this case and to point to somebody and say this is who did this," Geragos said. "But the fact of the matter is that they have not proved this case, they have not proved that Scott Peterson did anything except lie." With Peterson, dressed in a gray suit, watching intently from the defense table, Geragos blamed the police's rush to judgment for the failure to solve the case. He said investigators worked from the assumption Peterson killed his wife and that belief colored every interview they conducted and every report they wrote. "If you presume this guy is guilty, I suppose you can put a sinister spin on anything," he said. He said police overlooked evidence that the 27-year-old mother-to-be was alive Christmas Eve morning when prosecutors claim he took her body to the San Francisco Bay. Her remains and that of her fetus were found on the bayshore in April 2003. Geragos pointed out that someone had surfed the Web on the couple's laptop at 8:40 a.m. for a sunflower-motif umbrella stand and a scarf. Laci Peterson had a sunflower tattoo on her leg. A curling iron had been left on the bathroom console, and pajamas Laci Peterson allegedly wore were in the hamper. He also noted that the white tennis shoes her husband said she normally wore to walk their dog were never found. "Clearly she was alive. Clearly she was not a victim of a soft kill," he said, referring to prosecutors' theory that Peterson strangled or suffocated his wife the previous night or as she dressed that morning. Geragos also ridiculed what he considered to be the prosecution's constantly changing motive for the murder. "First it is [mistress] Amber [Frey], then it is financial, then it is 'Because I want to be free,' then it's 'Because I don't want a kid,'" he said. Prosecutor Rick Distaso argued in his summation Monday that Peterson killed his wife of five years because the responsibilities and expense of a child would cramp the secret double life as a bachelor he desired. Geragos claimed Peterson's interest in Frey had waned by the time his wife disappeared and that it was the massage therapist who wanted a relationship. "I think it is a fair statement he thought he was going to get some sex and it was not going to be any heavy duty commitment," he said. Standing before the six-man, six-woman panel, Geragos said, "I'm not asking you to nominate Scott Peterson as husband of the year." "But I tell you, on most accounts, he treated Laci with respect ... he cheated on her, and he's a 14-carat a--hole for doing it ... but I've known lots of people in relationships that worked," Geragos said. The lawyer suggested that, when his wife vanished, Peterson kept up contact with Frey because he wanted to keep his secret until Laci Peterson was found alive and returned home. Geragos said that he knew that as soon as the affair was revealed, suspicion would focus — wrongfully, he claimed — on him. "If she goes to the police, he knows the search is off ... he's going to become an object of suspicion," he said, noting that, in fact, the volunteer search center did close the day after the National Enquirer reported their affair. Geragos waged a piece-by-piece attack on the prosecution case, from dog evidence of Laci Peterson's scent at the Berkeley Marina to the defendant's sale of her car a month after she went missing to the brown hair police found in pliers in his boat. He said that, if her body was dumped into the bay in the location where Peterson fished, the 51 searches by police dive teams should have turned up the remains or weights. "We are talking about an area that is 2 feet deep," he said, as "51 searches = 0 Evidence" was projected on a television monitor behind him. "If the body was there, you'd be able to see it." Jurors, who appeared riveted during Distaso's summation, took fewer notes during Geragos' argument, but appeared attentive. Most followed him as he paced in front of the jury box pointing at two flat-screen televisions that displayed photos and bits of testimony under titles like "An ultimate unreasonable interpretation" and "Scott gave full cooperation to police." When at one point he ridiculed the prosecution motive, saying incredulously, "He is going to kill his wife and child because he doesn't want to pay child support?" the first alternate juror, a young mother of four boys, nodded her head as he made the comment. Juror 11, however, a middle-aged woman who has appeared put off by Peterson, frowned and stared at the floor as the lawyer gestured toward his exhibits. The panelist has surgery scheduled for the week of Nov. 15 and has told the judge she will have to leave the jury if no verdict is reached by then. She would be replaced by the first alternate, who made frequent eye contact with Geragos throughout his argument. The lawyer told Judge Alfred Delucchi that he would conclude his argument Wednesday morning. Distaso will then deliver a rebuttal. The jury could begin deliberating Wednesday, but more likely Thursday morning. Loyola law professor Stan Goldman, who taught both Distaso and Geragos, said the defense lawyer may have purposefully pushed the conclusion of his argument to Wednesday morning for strategic reasons. "You don't want the jury to go away to deliberations with the last thing they've heard all day is the prosecution and the judge," he said. Delucchi's courtroom was packed for the arguments. Peterson's parents, sister-in-law, sister and brother sat across the aisle from investigators and Laci Peterson's mother, father, brother, sister-in-law, half-sister, aunt, uncle and high school friends. Other detectives and members of the victims' family listened to the argument in an overflow room with an audio feed. He could face the death penalty if convicted. It was unclear whether Peterson voted in Tuesday's national election. Inmates do not have access to a polling place, but can cast absentee ballots. His brother, John, said outside court that he believed his brother had filled out a ballot, but was not certain. "I know he usually does fulfill his civic duty," John Peterson said. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST |
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| LACI & CONNER "To Laci's Family & Friends, You are in My Prayers" NAOMI ~ VIRGINIA ~ GUESTBOOK |
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