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| LACI & CONNER May The Truth Be Told |
| DAY 3 - June 3, 2004 TRIAL OF SCOTT PETERSON |
| LAURIE WESENBERG and CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON Manager and Owner of Salon Salon TESTIFIED |
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| Laurie Wesenberg and Christopher Johnson, the manager and the owner of the salon where Laci Peterson's sister works and where the couple went the night before Laci vanished, took the stand. With photographs projected onto a giant screen that showed the layout of the store, both talked about the salon's surveillance system and what could be captured on video. Prosecutors called witness Laurie Wesenberg, to explain why despite four surveillance cameras monitoring the business, there was no videotape of the Petersons' visit to the salon. She testified that she reviewed two tapes from security cameras placed at the store,but neither was from that date. She told Modesto police nothing relevant to the investigation was on them. Sounding incredulous, Harris asked whether police simply took her for her word "in a murder investigation" that nothing was on the tape. Yes, she said, nothing was on the tape because it had already been recorded over. Wesenberg said the salon taped over recordings after a week and that Johnson, the owner, had not pulled the tapes and notified police until two weeks after Laci's disappearance. Wesenberg, the manager of the salon, indicated that the even if they had set the tapes aside, they likely would not have shown her because the cameras were aimed only at a back office and a front desk. Since family members got their haircuts for free, she said, neither Laci nor Scott would have been in the shot. But immediately after Wesenberg testified, Christopher Johnson, owner of Salon Salon, ttook the stand and appeared to contradict her. He said Laci and her husband came to the salon in the early evening. Johnson said Laci sat on a black couch while her sister, Amy Rocha, cut Scott Peterson's hair. He said there were cameras trained directly on the front door and the couch where Laci sat. He said he rarely reviewed the tapes and acknowledged that the security cameras where Wesenberg's domain. Pressed by prosecutor Rick Distaso about whether he or Wesenberg had more experience with the videos, he replied, "Definitely Laurie." The defense, in its turn, wanted to know why the police had waited nearly a month before asking to see tapes from the evening when the Petersons were in the shop. By the time investigators got around to it, according to the witnesses, the tapes had been recorded over. Under questioning by Geragos, Johnson said he thought his salon had a two-week cycle of tapes and 10 security cameras. The longer time frame would have made it more likely their tapes would still have had those images recorded on Dec. 23. "Police were in there within a week of Laci disappearing, right?" defense lawyer Mark Geragos asked Johnson. "Yes," he answered. "When they were in there you didn't disguise the cameras?" Geragos asked sarcastically. "No," Johnson answered. Johnson said police never asked for them and that it was he who later offered them up as possible evidence. The significance of the tapes is that investigators might have seen what Laci was wearing that evening to help them better pinpoint when she was killed. Johnson said Laci was wearing a dark-colored shirt, perhaps brown, and pants that were beige or another light color that contrasted with the couch. The witnesses from the spa recalled her wearing black Capri pants and a white shirt earlier in the day. Laci's outfit is critical. After she disappeared, Scott told police she was wearing black pants and a white shirt when he last saw her on Dec. 24. But when her remains washed up on the shore of San Francisco Bay in April 2003, she was dressed in khaki maternity pants. If she was wearing the same pants that Johnson saw her in Dec. 23, it could be strong circumstantial evidence that she was killed on Dec. 23 and that Peterson's account is a lie. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST JURORS LACI'S FAMILY LACI'S ALBUM WIRETAPS AMBER AMBER'S ALBUM |