| Battle Brewing Over Peterson Trial Location November 19, 2003 Now that the preliminary hearing has ended, the next step in the Scott Peterson capital murder case appears to be a battle over just where the trial will be held. Lead defense attorney Mark Geragos reportedly is planning on asking for a change of venue either at or prior to Peterson's arraignment which is scheduled for Dec. 3, citing all the publicity the case has received in the hometown of Scott and his slain wife, Laci. Outside the courthouse Tuesday, Geragos led reporters through the process. "Generally what happens in a change of venue is that both sides will file," Geragos said. "Some times, the prosecution will concede -- which is what happened in the (San Francisco) dog-mauling case -- the prosecution conceded. Some times, they will fight it. Some times, they will propose other solutions." John Goold, the lead district attorney, said his office is weighing what to do if Geragos asks for a change of venue. "People always ask that (about a change of venue) and we are going to look at it," he said. "If we can have the trial held here, we want the trial held here. We do not want the trial here if it's not going to be done properly. If the jury pool is so bias that the defendant cannot get a fair trial (we don't want it here). Because that doesn't work for anybody... I just can't tell you at this point (if the prosecution would fight a change in venue)." Goold also expected that wherever the trial is held, it will not be anytime soon. "I really don't want to get into a crystal ball," Goold said. "You saw how long the preliminary has taken. It will take a while for this case to go to trial." Prosecutors who encircled Peterson in a loose-knit web of circumstantial evidence won the battle Tuesday to have him held for trial on two counts of first-degree murder for the death of his wife Laci Peterson and her unborn son, charges that could bring the death penalty. Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami said there was sufficient evidence the crimes were intentional, deliberate and premeditated. Peterson, 31, being held without bail, faces arraignment Dec. 3. He has pleaded innocent and his lawyers plan to file a motion to dismiss the charges and ask to move the case out of Modesto. Peterson smiled and waved to his parents as he left the courtroom following the ruling, which was anticipated by the defense because prosecutors had to meet the relatively low standard of probable cause. "The standard, unfortunately, in California, and I say it jokingly, is 'Is the defendant breathing?"' Geragos said outside court. With neither opening statements nor closing arguments, prosecutors offered little context to the clues that investigators, family members and DNA experts testified to over the 11-day preliminary hearing. Instead, the proceedings provided glimpses at the evidence police have amassed in 27,500 pages of reports since Laci Peterson was reported missing on Christmas Eve. Geragos has complained that police tried to pin the crime on Scott Peterson from the beginning and failed to investigate leads pointing to other suspects. The defense contends Laci was abducted and they have promised to find the "real killers." Instead of calling any witnesses, however, the defense sought to downplay each small piece of evidence. Peterson's repeated returns to San Francisco Bay, where he said he was fishing when his 27-year-old wife vanished, coincided with news reports that police were searching the waters there, Geragos showed. He said police failed to follow up on tips that suspicious people were hanging out in the park near the Peterson house the day she disappeared. Officers said Peterson was cooperative in the early stages of the investigation and never tried to dissuade his girlfriend, Amber Frey, from talking to police. But police said their efforts to eliminate the fertilizer salesman as a suspect were fruitless. Suspicion has been cast on him since he phoned his in-laws Dec. 24 after returning to an empty home from an impromptu fishing trip and calling his mother-in-law, Sharon Rocha. "He didn't say she wasn't home or he couldn't find her. He said 'missing,"' Rocha testified. In their effort to present enough evidence to have Peterson held for trial, but not enough to give their case away, prosecutors omitted some of the most important details: where they believe Laci was killed, what weapon was used, how her body was disposed of and why her husband allegedly wanted her dead. Lawyers and witnesses have been under a gag order, making it difficult to get explanations of the evidence, but there were plenty of hints. Evidence of Peterson's extramarital affair with Frey, a Fresno massage therapist, suggested a possible motive. Peterson bought his fishing boat two weeks before his wife disappeared -- the same day he told Frey that he "lost" his wife and was going to be spending the holidays without her for the first time. Peterson said he scrapped golf plans Dec. 24 because it was too cold, so instead he drove 80 miles to the Berkeley Marina to fish on nippy San Francisco Bay in the new boat he hadn't told his family about. That evening, however, he couldn't tell officers what he was angling for. His fishing license appeared to have been purchased the previous day. Experts said a hair found in pliers in his boat was similar to his wife's tresses. Peterson initially denied having an affair, but later acknowledged his romance with Frey, who was secretly recording phone conversations with Peterson for police. In the transcript of one of those calls introduced into evidence Tuesday, Peterson apologized for deceiving Frey by saying he was a widower at a time when his wife was still alive, but he failed to explain the inconsistencies in his stories. "You sat here in front of me and cried and broke down," Frey said on Jan. 6. "I sat here and held your hand, Scott, and comforted you and you were lying to me." The call was made as the story of Laci Peterson's disappearance became a national phenomenon and a photo of her smiling face was splashed across newspapers and television sets as police, family members and volunteers searched across California. When the remains of the mother-to-be and the fetus of a boy washed onto a San Francisco Bay shore in April, two miles from where Scott Peterson said he was fishing, police closed in. He was arrested April 18 near his parent's home in San Diego. He had just paid cash for the red Mercedes he was driving. He bought the car using his mother's name, insisting to the seller that his parents gave him a girl's name like the tortured subject in Johnny Cash's hit "A Boy Named Sue." He had bleached his hair, grown a beard and was carrying nearly $15,000 cash and his brother's driving license. The car was packed with camping gear. He was about 30 miles north of the Mexico border. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL AMBER EVIDENCE-NEWS WIRETAPS PRELIMINARY HEARING WITNESS LIST JURY ALBUMS AUTOPSY INDEX |
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