| Peterson tailed by officers for weeks September 2, 2004 Dozens of investigators and police officers tried to tail Scott Peterson in the weeks after his wife vanished as he drove to elude them, jurors were told Thursday. In an abbreviated day of testimony, a string of officials from the Modesto police, Stanislaus County and the state Justice Department told how they secretly watched Peterson for a week, hoping he would lead them to his wife, Laci Peterson. Officers said they went to the Berkeley Marina, where Scott Peterson said he launched his boat on Christmas Eve 2002, the day his pregnant wife disappeared. And they went to the Medeiros part of the O'Neill Forebay near Santa Nella, state Justice Department agent Thomas Chaplin testified. In each instance, Peterson stayed only minutes, never once leaving his vehicle. And during each trip Peterson drove erratically, appearing to realize he was being followed. On Jan. 11, 2003, the chase game came to a head on southbound Highway 99. An agent briefly pulled to the side of the road after Peterson did the same, Chaplin said, adding that he told the trailing agents not to pull over. "We were operating under a `lose it before you burn it' capacity," Chaplin said. But the driver who did pull over, agent Tera Faris, had gone too far. She exited the highway in Modesto and steered behind a local business in an attempt to regain her cover, she said. The move did not work. Holding a piece of paper, Peterson pulled along side Faris' car and stared, Faris said. She did not say, and was not asked, whether anything was printed on the paper. Faris drove off and was followed for a block or two, she said. "At that point, it had essentially been burned and I didn't want any of the other agents to follow," Chaplin said. That was the last day of their surveillance involvement, he said. Prosecutors tried to show jurors Peterson acted oddly in the weeks after his wife vanished. He did not want to be followed, they suggested, and drove hundreds of miles to stay at various places for only minutes_unusual actions that helped cast Peterson in a suspicious light. Investigators believed early on that Peterson knew more about Laci's disappearance than he had let on. He said he was fishing the day she vanished and returned to their empty home in Modesto. Laci's remains and those of her unborn son, Conner, turned up in April 2003 along the East Bay shoreline not far from where Peterson said he fished on Christmas Eve. He was arrested and charged with two murder counts to which he pleaded not guilty. Defense attorney Mark Geragos offered explanations for the trips and the episodes of odd behavior. He suggested in his questions that Peterson was lured to the Berkeley Marina after reading Modesto Bee articles about the police search there. Police at that point were keeping Peterson completely out of the loop on their criminal investigation of Laci's disappearance. A trip to the O'Neill reservoir coincided with a newspaper story and a work-related trip to a local business that was nearby, Geragos said. One time, officer Mark Weiglein testified, Peterson was spotted by a state Justice Department air unit at a housing construction site with three others. Geragos said they were checking out a tip that had been called in. Time and again, Geragos offered explanations, pointing out to jurors that while Peterson was posting fliers up and down the Central Valley, police were watching him rather than helping him. "The vast majority of time he was doing what he should be doing," ldefense awyer Chuck Smith said of Peterson. "It doesn't give a powerful evidence of guilt." HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST WIRETAPS |
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| LACI & CONNER "My thoughts and prayers to you and your family" JOHN ~ CA ~ GUESTBOOK |
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