| LACI & CONNER "Please Rest in Peace and May God Lift Your Spirit to Heaven" Brittany Hannah age 14 ~ Elk Grove, CA ~ Guestbook |
| November 13, 2004 Stanislaus County prosecutor Rick Distaso took his share of hits for his courtroom style during the Peterson trial, but he was cheered as a hero by dozens of spectators as he left the courthouse a winner Friday. "Thank you!" cried several people as Distaso and co-counsel Birgit Fladager exited the building. "Stone-cold guilty!" yelled one man. "Who's laughing now?" "You the man," said Mike Moloney of San Mateo, one of about a dozen spectators who followed the prosecutor from the courthouse steps to his car in the public lot. "Once in a while, the good guys win." Distaso, flanked by burly sheriff's deputies who kept the crowd at bay, could not keep a bemused smile from his usually serious face. Still bound by the judge's gag order, he could not respond to reporters' questions or talk with his new fans. "Thanks," he said shyly a couple of times as onlookers pounded him on the back and congratulated him on beating "the Hollywood tricks" of Peterson's defense team. Crowds were still milling around the plaza in front of the court two hours after the verdict was announced. When Distaso and Fladager emerged from court, a loud cheer went up and dozens of people started clapping. Distaso, an unassuming small-town prosecutor catapulted into the limelight, probably didn't imagine this scenario. He was once ridiculed by commentators, who openly jeered his meticulous, plodding style in the opening days of his four-and-a-half month case against the Modesto man. Fladager got better press as she interviewed Detective Craig Grogan, a lead investigator in Laci Peterson's disappearance. Many predicted that flamboyant defense lawyer Mark Geragos would run circles around the prosecutors in court, and that Distaso's detail-heavy narrative would bore the jury. As Distaso's case went on, Geragos used several of his witnesses against him and poked holes in several of his theories. Pundits said Distaso was bungling the case, and that he didn't come prepared for the job. But Distaso came out swinging during his closing remarks. Facing the daunting job of convicting a man based on nothing but circumstantial evidence, the prosecutor did a good job of tying together hundreds of small details that pointed to Peterson's guilt. He called it a "common-sense" case, using a decisive tone of voice that the jury had not heard before. Obviously, it worked. "You took them down," yelled Moloney, who dogged Distaso on his way to his car. "You sent Geragos back to school." HOME INDEX LACI CONNER SCOTT TRIAL VERDICT PROSECUTION DEFENSE MODESTO POLICE INDEX ALIBI-WITNESS LIST |
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| FLADAGER & DISTASO |
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| Stanislaus County prosecutors are hailed as heroes |
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