| Defense Suggests Fabricated Memories October 25, 2004 Geragos put Detective Craig Grogan back on the stand, after he testified earlier for the prosecution. Scott Peterson's attorneys on Monday suggested witness accounts of what police deemed as odd behavior by the former fertilizer salesman only surfaced after they learned Peterson was having an affair. During Monday's questioning of the lead investigator, Mark Geragos noted how Peterson's friends and family members were supportive of him until the affair became public, and only then did disparaging accounts of his actions on or around the day his wife vanished come to police. Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, testified previously about the first telephone call she received from Scott Peterson on the day Laci vanished. "He said, 'Hi mom.' He said, 'Is Laci there?"' Rocha recounted near the start of trial in June. "I said, 'No,' and he said that her car was in the driveway and the dog was in the backyard with the leash on and Laci was missing." The fact that Peterson used the word "missing," instead of saying his wife wasn't home alarmed Rocha, she said. He had just returned about an hour earlier. "I knew something was wrong," she testified. Geragos noted that Sharon Rocha only remembered that Peterson had used the word "missing" on Jan. 28, more than month after Laci vanished on Christmas Eve day. Prosecutors allege Peterson killed Laci on or around Christmas Eve day, then dumped her body in San Francisco Bay. The remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore about four months later, a few miles from where Peterson claims to have been fishing alone the day his wife vanished. Defense lawyers claim someone else abducted and killed Laci. Rocha had spoken with police many times before the revelation of Peterson's use of the word "missing" came out, Geragos noted, adding that she only remembered him using that word after she found out he had been having an affair. "The first time you heard that was on Jan. 28?" Geragos asked Modesto police Detective Craig Grogan Monday. "Yes," Grogan replied. Geragos noted family members were supportive of Peterson until they learned of his affair -- the motive, prosecutors allege, for the murders -- and may have fabricated incriminating details later. The defense lawyer pointed out how, in a previous television interview, Sharon Rocha said she knew Laci was missing that first night "just by the panic in Scott's voice." She never mentioned the word "missing." On cross-examination by prosecutors, Grogan said the revelation about the affair may have simply stirred up old memories. "That information did cause them to question what his actions may been in all of this," Grogan said. "They may have told me more things at that point then they would have told me at the time when they were in full support of Mr. Peterson." Later, defense lawyers played an April 18, 2003, wiretapped telephone call between Peterson and his brother, Joe, in attempts to downplay Peterson's actions on the day he was arrested. Police testified previously that on April 18, as authorities worked to identify the bodies that had been discovered days earlier, Peterson appeared to try to lose officers tailing him in and around the San Diego area. He would be arrested later that day, after the bodies were identified. Defense lawyers have suggested he thought the people following him were reporters. In the wiretapped phone call, Peterson tells his brother he won't be able to make it to a family golf game because he was unable to lose the "private investigators" following him. Asked about his state of mind, Peterson said, "I could just cry for hours." Some legal analysts said much of Monday's testimony was anticlimactic. "Geragos raised expectations because of his personality and what he said in his opening," Talbot said, citing Geragos' promise to prove that Conner Peterson had been born alive. "I expected to see a lot more dramatic testimony, a stronger suggestion of innocence." Burlingame defense attorney Paula Canny said: "I did expect more of a grandiose-type presentation. We all want a home run, but the best cases are single, single, single, single." HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST EVIDENCE PHOTOS WIRETAPS JURORS AUTOPSY MAGAZINES ATTORNEYS LACI'S ALBUM |
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| LACI & CONNER "Please Lord bring justice to this family. How can anyone not see the obvious truth behind the lies and deceite?" PHYLLIS * ARKANSAS * GUESTBOOK |
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| Is Geragos calling Sharon a liar? |
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