| Detective admits delays in contacting witnesses Tues., Sept 28, 2004 By Brian Anderson - CONTRA COSTA TIMES A Modesto grandmother and a local bread truck driver spotted women resembling Laci Peterson walking a dog the day she was reported missing from her Modesto neighborhood, a police detective acknowledged this afternoon. As a defense attorney continued hammering on the police investigation of Peterson's Christmas Eve 2002, Craig Grogan also agreed that investigators never talked to the potential eyewitnesses until long after Scott Peterson's arrest. In the case of Grace Wolf, a grandmother who lived less than a mile from the Petersons, police did not learn about the possible Laci sighting until after Scott Peterson's trial began June 1. What was more, Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos pointed out, it took a defense investigator to find the woman. Wolf apparently told the investigator this past summer that she spotted a woman resembling Laci walking a dog about 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2002. Wearing a blue jacket and black pants, the walker appeared to be the same woman who strolled by her house the previous Sunday with a similar dog and with a white man she later said looked like Scott Peterson. NOTE: Scott stated he was home with Laci at the time meringue was mentioned on the Marth Stewart show.......at 9:49! The woman, who apparently never called police, said her granddaughter talked to the couple in November or December and they exchanged greetings. One person who did call in a tip was a local delivery driver. The man reported on Dec. 30, 2002 seeing a pregnant woman around Dec. 24, 2002 walking a dog about a half mile from the Petersons' Covena Avenue house. He said two men who appeared "dirty and ragged" and did not seem to fit into the neighborhood also were spotted at a bus bench near the woman, who he said was wearing light colored pants and a dark jacket. The man said he was told an investigator would call, which he later said did not happen until he was contacted on July 29, 2004. Geragos was trying to show police failed to follow up on leads that did not appear to help show that Peterson killed his pregnant wife either Dec. 23 or Dec. 24, 2002. Peterson told police he was fishing on San Francisco Bay the day his wife disappeared. Police arrested the man April 18, 2003, days after her remains and those of the couple's unborn son turned up along the Richmond shoreline. He was charged with two murder counts for which he has pleaded not guilty. Judge Alfred Delucchi also told jurors this afternoon that they could begin deliberations next month. A series of delays has made the five-month initial estimate of the trial's length questionable. While not creating a significant delay, an earthquake earlier today rattled some nerves at the trial and brought about the morning recess earlier than usual. About 10:17 a.m., many people in Delucchi's second-floor courtroom here noticed a slight shaking. Some jurors sat up in their chairs as a buzz went around the courtroom. Delucchi said he believed there was an earthquake and that it would be a good time to take the morning recess. The room seemed to be split between those who felt the temblor -- a 6.0 quake centered near Parkfield, 195 miles to the south -- and those who did not. "I felt nothing," prosecutor Birgit Fladager said as she left the courtroom. "I heard all this murmuring from the jurors. I felt nothing." Her fellow prosecutor David Harris also didn't detect it. "I didn't feel a thing," he said. The U.S Geological Survey in Menlo Park reported the earthquake at 10:15 a.m. Another 12 tremors were logged, ranging in size from 5.0 to 1.9, over the following 15 minutes. No local injuries or damage were reported. DETECTIVE GROGAN INDEX HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST WIRETAPS MODESTO POLICE TRIAL PICTURES LACI'S FAMILY |
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| BIRGIT FLADAGER RICK DISTASO |
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| LACI & CONNER I hope (the family) knows how many people Laci has touched even without knowing her! SALINA - MICHIGAN - GUESTBOOK |
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