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| Per Dog handler: Scent found at pier February 26, 2004 Laci Peterson's scent trail ended on a pier at the Berkeley Marina, a dog handler testified Wednesday during a hearing leading to Scott Peterson's double-murder trial. Boats can be tied at the pier, said dog handler Eloise Anderson, testifying for prosecutors. They say they believe Scott Peterson, who was having an affair in late 2002, killed his pregnant wife, Laci, drove her body to the marina, ferried it in a fishing boat and dumped it in San Francisco Bay. Scott Peterson told police he launched a 14-foot aluminum boat at the marina on Christmas Eve 2002, fished alone briefly and returned to an empty house that evening. He said his pregnant wife was not home. The bodies of mother and son were recovered in mid-April two miles from where he said he fished. Delucchi rebuffed a defense effort to throw out Anderson's testimony after she said another of her dogs "alerted" to cadaver scent in Scott Peterson's warehouse but could not pinpoint the location. Defense attorney Mark Geragos erupted, accusing prosecutors of deliberately withholding that information until Anderson took the stand. It was not in- cluded in Anderson's official report, which stated that the dog "demonstrated frustration by barking but did not go to her full alert," and defense attorneys presumably had no way to prepare counterarguments. That touched off an exchange with prosecutor Dave Harris, who said, "We resent the fact that if something doesn't go Mr. Geragos' way, he accuses us of misconduct and hiding the ball." Delucchi tried to calm the tension, saying, "Mr. Geragos, with all due respect, I think you're overstating it." The judge agreed to let prosecutors continue building a case for allowing jurors to weigh dog tracking evidence. All of Wednesday's testimony was devoted to scent-tracking dogs, which prosecutors are trying to use in a unique fashion in the Peterson case. They say the investigative technique is sound, while Peterson's attorneys contend that it is unreliable. Dog-tracking evidence has been upheld by California appeals courts only three times, according to court documents filed by Peterson's defense. In each of those cases, the dogs were tracking suspects, not victims, and were put on the scents within one hour. Peterson prosecutors are trying to introduce evidence from searches up to 11 days after Laci Peterson disappeared. Prosecutors contend that the dogs were properly trained and handled and successfully tracked Laci Peterson's scent from a known location, the couple's Covena Avenue home, to the bay. Tracking dogs follow scents of people believed to be alive. Cadaver dogs are trained to find bodies. Anderson handles both kinds of dogs. She said her cadaver dog, Twist, indicated on Dec. 27, 2002, that a body had been put in a shed in the Petersons' back yard, while her tracking dog, Trimble, picked up Laci Peterson's scent at the marina on Dec. 28. Earlier this week, another handler testified that her dog picked up Laci Peterson's scent on Jan. 4 along Highway 132 west of Modesto, a route police believe Scott Peterson traveled when allegedly driving the body to the bay. Wednesday, Anderson said Trimble on the same day picked up Scott Peterson's scent for several miles along the same stretch of road. Before tracking, the dogs separately got whiffs of Laci Peterson's sunglasses and of one of Scott Peterson's slippers. Both handlers said dogs can follow scents of people in cars, even several days after. Responding to questions from one of Peterson's attorneys, Anderson acknowledged that: -Twist had trouble picking up cadaver scent in the Petersons' shed and in Scott Peterson's boat, which was stored in his warehouse. And the dog sensed something amid containers around a workbench in the warehouse, but could not pinpoint the location. She attributed the dog's behavior to cross-scents from fertilizer in the shed and from chemicals in the warehouse. -Trimble explored vegetation on the upwind side of a logical path to the Berkeley Marina pier. Defense attorney Shepard Kopp said one would expect human scent, which can be carried on a breeze, to be stronger on the downwind end. -She did not list in her official report on the marina search any environmental conditions such as wind, rain or sun, all of which can deteriorate human scent. -Regarding the Jan. 4 search along Highway 132, Anderson said she took Trimble about 50 yards south of the road and directed the dog to find Scott Peterson's scent. Trimble went to the highway and headed west, Anderson said. -Trimble veered at Highway 33, she said, apparently because Peterson had driven there that day to observe the tracking dogs. He was stopped at a roadblock thrown up by Modesto police, Anderson said. Under questioning by Harris, Anderson said her dog is trained to follow the freshest scent of the tracking subject. When she directed Trimble back to Highway 132, the dog continued west, she said. The defense appears poised to argue that Laci Peterson's sunglasses, presented to the dogs in the hope they could pick up her scent, had been contaminated because her husband had previously handled the glasses, opening the possibility that Trimble tracked Scott Peterson's movements at the marina. "He may or may not have handled the glasses, I'm not sure," Anderson said when questioned by Kopp. A detective testified at Peterson's preliminary hearing in November that two police officers took items out of Laci Peterson's purse, which contained the sunglasses, on Christmas Eve 2002 shortly after she was reported missing. Detective Jon Evers testified that he did not remember whether Scott Peterson handled the glasses at that point, but said it was possible a detective handed items to Peterson as the officer went through the purse. Dog handler Cindee Valentin said she may have used the same pair of rubber gloves when handling the sunglasses and the slipper used to give the dogs a means to pick up Scott Peterson's scent. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT COURT-STORIES TRIAL EVIDENCE-NEWS ALIBI-WITNESS LIST |
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