Peterson Attorneys Seek to Exclude Key Evidence

MODESTO, Calif. — Lawyers representing Scott Peterson, the Modesto fertilizer salesman accused of killing his wife and unborn child, have asked a judge to exclude evidence, alleging two detectives mishandled the items.
Peterson's attorneys want the judge to keep strands of hair and other pieces of evidence out of the double murder case, according to documents filed late Monday at Stanislaus County Superior Court.
DNA tests have shown that the hair may belong to Peterson's slain wife, Laci, a source told The Modesto Bee before a sweeping gag order was imposed in the case.
The defense also is seeking to exclude testimony from a hypnotized neighbor and evidence from tracker dogs and tracking devices hidden in vehicles Peterson owned, rented or borrowed from family members, according to the defense documents.
Laci Peterson was almost eight months pregnant when she was reported missing Christmas Eve. Her badly decomposed body was found in April along the shore of San Francisco Bay . The body of her unborn son was discovered just over a mile away.
Scott Peterson has pleaded innocent to two counts of murder in the deaths. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 20.
Police found a single hair in a pair of pliers at the bottom of Peterson's boat during a Dec. 27 search, according to the defense documents.
The pliers were photographed with "one hair and a specific numbered placard in the picture." Multiple police reports refer to a single hair being found, the defense contends.
Detectives Al Brocchini and Dodge Hendee "spontaneously decided to review" the hair Feb. 12, defense attorney Mark Geragos wrote in the documents.
"These two Modesto Police officers supposedly found a second strand of hair while reviewing the evidence alone and without any supervision by a criminalist or lab technician," Geragos wrote.
The two hairs were submitted to a state Department of Justice crime lab the next day along with two of Laci Peterson's hairbrushes, according to the documents.
The defense contends that the DNA tests used are unreliable and that the detectives broke "the chain of custody" when they examined the items alone.
Geragos also contends that all tracking evidence is unreliable and should be excluded.

I have heard/read rumours of the hair found in the boat, but we have not heard MPD confirm it.

IF THERE IS A HAIR IN THE BOAT, AND IT WAS MATCHED UP BEFORE THOSE COPS "BROKE THE CHAIN OF CUSTODY" that is completely imcriminating evidence against SP in my opinion.

I have been doing alot of reading on the case, mostly forums. There are so many out there shouting SP's innocence.

One of the most fascinating things I read was why isn't LE looking for Laci's head? We know they have been back out to the Bay, presumably looking for anchors, but who knows why?

13 days and counting.

(Edited to correct my math :)

It makes me shudder to write that sentence....

Who says they AREN'T looking for her head? I think they're looking for whatever evidence is still in the bay (but it must be like looking for needles in haystacks). That would include whatever other parts of Laci are still there....

And it may still be attached to an anchor.

Gruesome.

Do a search on David Sween and you will probably find his web site spouting SP's innocence. He also believes all of the leaks have came from MPD. I'm confused by who he is, that's why I ask if you have heard of him.

Poor Laci.

Can't wait for the preliminary hearing.

Others say he has "proven" that Scott Peterson is innocent....ummmm, 'scuse me, Mr Big Shot Sween, how you claim that when you haven't seen all the EVIDENCE? (I mean, although I THINK Scott is guilty, I'm apt to change my mind once I see the evidence (or possible lack therof)- and I'm not claiming to have "proven" Scott's guilt).

Sounds like a lot of hoo-haw to me......I'd like to find an actual website of his- I wasn't able to to get onto alot of the sites mentioning him because I'm using my computer from work while on lunch break, and it has a pretty strong filter (no access to free pages, etc)....

Modbee.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted on 10/08/03 05:35:11 A.M. PDT
By JOHN COTÉ
BEE STAFF WRITER

Scott Peterson's defense team may have a tough time keeping out evidence from hair attached to a pair of pliers found in his boat, legal observers said.

"It sounds like a play out of the O.J. Simpson playbook," said San Francisco Assistant District Attorney James Hammer, alluding to the defense contention that police planted evidence in that murder case.

Peterson's defense is claiming that police mishandled evidence after officers initially reported finding a single 5- to 6-inch dark hair on the pliers Dec. 27.

Two strands of hair were noted after two detectives checked out the items from the Modesto police evidence room weeks later, according to defense documents filed Tuesday in Stanislaus County Superior Court.

The hairs and two hairbrushes used by Laci Peterson were submitted the next day to a state Department of Justice crime lab for analysis, according to the documents.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos wrote that it is "reasonably certain the evidence has been altered in some way," adding that officers reviewed the evidence without supervision by a criminalist or lab technician.

DNA tests show the hair could have belonged to Laci Peterson, a source has said.

Physically linking Laci Peterson to her husband's newly purchased fishing boat -- bought in early December while she was about seven months pregnant -- is "potentially very powerful evidence," Hammer said.

Peterson said he last saw his wife on the morning of Dec. 24 before taking the boat on a solo fishing trip to San Francisco Bay. He told police he returned to find her gone from their Modesto home.

Her body and that of her unborn son, Conner, were found in April along the bay's eastern shore, within four miles of where Peterson said he launched his boat.

Peterson has been charged with two counts of murder in the deaths. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The defense is using various arguments to try and exclude from court an array of evidence, including information from wiretaps, scent-tracking dogs and GPS tracking devices hidden in Peterson's vehicles. The defense also wants to bar testimony from a witness police had hypnotized.

The issues are to be hashed out at preliminary hearing set for Oct. 20.

Several legal observers said it may be difficult to keep the hair evidence out on the basis that police broke the so-called chain of custody.

Modesto police spokesman Detective Doug Ridenour refused to discuss the Peterson case, citing a gag order in the case. But Ridenour said that in general, detectives can look at items that have already been logged into the secure evidence room.

"They have every right in the world to check the evidence out to do further investigation," Ridenour said.

Evidence can re-examined

Detectives assigned to a case can check items out from evidence clerks after specifying why they need to re-examine the item, Ridenour said. Officers can privately examine the evidence in small rooms with locked doors adjoining the evidence room lobby. Ridenour said he was not aware of any security cameras to monitor activity in those rooms.

Many explanations for extra hair

There are explanations short of planting evidence to explain the appearance of a second hair after police reports only referred to a single hair, said Dr. Michael Baden, a New York forensic pathologist who worked on Simpson's defense team when the former football star was accused of killing his ex-wife and her friend in 1995.

"Sometimes people can make a mistake," Baden said. "Some kinds of hair can break."

Roger C. Park, an evidence law specialist at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law, said the appearance of two hairs did not automatically taint the evidence.

"The fact that it was one hair here and two hairs later, I don't know if that's enough for a jury to conclude it wasn't the same hair sample," Park said.

If prosecutors could effectively demonstrate the hair they want to submit was found on the pliers in the boat, a judge would be compelled to allow it into evidence, observers said.

"It all comes back to relevancy," said Bradley Brunon, a prominent Los Angeles defense attorney. "There has to be enough reliable identification of the source and identity of the hair to connect it the investigation."

"The significance would be for the jury to decide," he said.

That significance was an open question, according to some observers.

"Her hair would have some evidentiary significance if she'd never been in that boat before," Baden said.
"Then the issue comes up, what if one hair got caught on Scott's clothing and then was passed to the boat and dropped there?"

Bee staff writer John Coté can be reached at 578-2394 or jcote@modbee.com.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/7561226p-8471812c.html

Dragonfly, I'm not sure he has an actual website, but I found the same as you, lots of web forums containing spam spouting the same message. They all sound more to me like an assault on law enforcement, rather than an actual belief or knowledge that SP is . It sure makes for interesting reading, and I have read some valid points.

I'm at work too, hope I don't get caught, I'm going to have to train myself to stay off once things get going on October 20 :)

I've also read this concerning him: "Still touting the non-existent "criminal investigator" David Sween from the non-existent news service on the bogus web page?"

So who knows if this guy is even for real at all.....if anyone finds a website that seems to be "owned" by him, I'd like to know where it is.

I read a lengthy, rambling article seemingly written by him on a "wrtv" website which I can no longer seem to find.....it made very little sense, though- he seems to be a 'conspiracy theorist', very paranoid.

I think it is just an assumption by that detective that if the head is missing it was removed to hide evidence like that.

that's the way I took it too. It's just an ASSUMPTION on the part of Mr. Sween. Personally, I think Laci's head is missing, because her neck gave way through decomposition.

Then shortly after LE took 2 of Laci's hairbrushes.
Then they said they have two hairs. Did the first hair break? or did they mix up their evidence. (?)...hairs and hairbrushes!!!

Reminders of the days of LAPD, BPD IMO.

If the hair on the pliers is a match for Laci and they were found in the boat, then they should only enter into evidence that hair and not the second one.

Also, couldn't they tell the difference between the hairs, by testing for salt, or whatever was in the boat.. I mean if it is a clean hair like out of a brush, wouldn't it show in a test? I would imagine that the one found in the boat had stuff on it from being in the toolbox or the boat itself... was there blood on this second hair or on the first hair found tangled in the pliers?

What difference is there if it was one hair or two hairs- if they match, then it makes no difference whatsoever, in my opinion.

This contention that LE is "planting" evidence is rather insulting if you ask me....seems to me that they'd need to do a better job than adding ONE hair to the one already found.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? It does seem odd that they washed up near one another, and in the same time frame.

Sam, do you think they will find remaining parts of Laci?

They must be assuming that here is Laci's body, anchored down, decomposing, and Conner finally breaks thru the abdominal wall and breaks free, then within the next 24 hours Laci breaks free of the anchors.

I think what probably happened is that at some point Laci broke free of her anchors, with her abdominal wall already ragged and being "fed" upon by marine life, etc.....as her body is making it's way thru currents to the shore, it's being tattered even more, and at some point fairly close to shore, Conner finally breaks free.

Graphic, maybe, but this case is graphic....

But I think it is very likely that Conner broke free from Laci just a day or so prior, if not that day itself and they floated along, winding up close to each other. I, too, believe that her legs will be found, chained or cemented into blocks on the bottom of the ocean where the sonar image found something. Her head is probably near by the feet.

Please do post that image if you can locate it. I don't remember seeing it...

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1353998,00.html


Cops' big secret in Laci's death
Sonar experts located body in Bay in March
By William Brand, STAFF WRITER
POINT ISABEL -- Weeks before the remains of Modesto's Laci Peterson and her unborn son Connor washed up on the Richmond shoreline, investigators say they had found her watery grave through side-scan sonar that penetrated the inky darkness inside a Chevron shipping channel.
But before they could retrieve the bodies, they believe a heavily laden tanker passed over or near the burial spot, churning up the channel's bottom and dislodging the sunken corpses.

The wind, choppy waves and high incoming tides influenced by the full moon -- as well as gases from the deteriorating remains -- combined to eventually bring the bodies to shore.

Sources said the original grave site was miles away from where the only suspect in the case, Laci's husband Scott Peterson, told police he had gone fishing Christmas Eve. That was the day Laci, eight months pregnant, was reported missing, triggering a search that received national attention.

Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden confirmed investigators believe they found the body as early as mid-March, but could not retrieve it. "The waves came up and we couldn't go down. I can't tell you the frustration we felt," Wasden said.

No one who participated in the search said a word to reporters waiting on shore the day the sonar detected Laci's body. "We thought if the suspect knew we had found her, he might flee," one law enforcement source said.

But with Scott Peterson now in jail on charges of killing Laci and Connor, those close to the investigation confirmed the detection of Laci's body weeks before it washed ashore April 14.

Sources say the remains, possibly wrapped in some sort of plastic and held down by heavy material, were found by side-scan sonar deep in a shipping channel of San Francisco Bay, about 4 miles off Brooks Island.

That's the spot of land just south of the Richmond shoreline where Peterson, 30, told police he spent the morning of Christmas Eve fishing for sturgeon.

The Bay around the island is extremely shallow -- a marine chart shows low-tide depths of less than 3 feet -- not the kind of place to find sturgeon or dump a body.

The only deep water in the vicinity is to the west, in a shipping channel that is regularly dredged to allow ocean-going vessels into port.

Strollers found Laci's unborn baby, Connor, in a tidal pond about 250 yards east of the last house in Richmond's Marina Bay on the afternoon of April 13.

Laci's partial remains -- her torso and a leg -- were discovered the next day, less than a mile across the Richmond inner harbor, lodged in concrete rip rap at Point Isabel, the popular East Bay Regional Park District dog-walking park.

A state lab in Richmond identified Laci and Connor by DNA analysis April 18.

"When those remains washed up, it confirmed everybody's suspicions," one source said. "We know where she was put, and it wasn't in that shallow area around Brooks Island," the source said.

"But when we got back out there, she was gone."

Shipping channel theory

A veteran San Francisco Bar Pilot captain, not connected to the case, said last week that the shipping channel theory sounds plausible.

Although most people may not realize it, much of the deep water in the Bay is in the shipping channels, which are dredged, said Capt. Blake Coney -- one of more than 60 expert pilots who guide ships in and out of the Bay by navigating treacherous, shifting shoals of sand.

Large tankers carrying heavy crude oil headed for the big Chevron Refinery in Richmond often have barely 2 feet of water under their keels at low tide, Coney said. The channel is dredged to about 43 feet deep, but those heavily laden tankers draw nearly that much water, he said.

A ship's screws could churn things up, Coney said.

'Like a movie plot'

"This sounds like a movie plot, and it's creepy," he said.

Coney noted that marine charts show low-tide soundings throughout the Bay. They mostly indicate depths of less than 10 feet everywhere except in the dredged channels.

Of course, the water is deeper when the tide flows into the Bay and the low-tide numbers are "mean numbers" -- the depth midway between the lowest recorded low tide and the highest low tide.

The nearest deep water from Brooks Island or from the Berkeley Marina, where Peterson said he launched his small boat, is Southampton Shoal Channel. It's the route that tankers going to Chevron take.

Outbound tankers take a wider route, more than a mile further west.

Coney added that even if Laci's killer intended to dump her in the shipping channel, then it would be easy to make a mistake.

"The sides are toed in (sloping)," he said. "But it would be very easy to miss the deepest part of the channel, get (the body) in 6 feet rather than 30 feet of water."

That's why ships entering and leaving the Bay must employ a San Francisco Bar Pilot, he said. Smiling, he recalled how the U.S. Navy supercarrier USS. Enterprise once ran aground off the Alameda Naval Air Station because its captain ignored advice from a bar pilot.

Meanwhile, Modesto Police Chief Wasden said investigators intend to follow up leads to the rest of the remains.

At a news conference last week, when he announced results of the DNA tests and the arrest of Scott Peterson near San Diego, Wasden credited volunteers, divers, search-and-rescue experts, and sonar experts who painstakingly probed the bottom of the Bay from the Berkeley Marina north to Brooks Island, then west to the shipping channel.

Among others, he mentioned Gene Ralston, a Boise, Idaho, side-scan sonar expert who helped Modesto detectives search the bottom of the Bay.

Ralston would not comment last week about the initial discovery of Laci's body.

Submerged bodies

But Ralston, who has donated his services, said he's hopeful a new search would yield the rest of the young woman's remains. He noted his sonar is very sophisticated and he has helped find submerged bodies many times.

Another member of his firm has been participating in a search of lakes and reservoirs in Texas, looking for parts of the space shuttle Columbia.

"This sonar is the best way to see stuff underwater," Ralston said. "In San Francisco Bay, because of all the silt, you've got zero visibility on the bottom.

"At the range we're looking at, I've seen things as small as a half-gallon can, a small coffee can. The bottom varies; there are some rocky areas and lots of smooth, mud bottom. Some places the floor is reticulated -- like the surface of the moon -- there are little pockmarks."

Ralston said he's prepared to help again. "We're optimistic we'll be able to find the rest," he said. "I only hope we can get there before the killer hires someone to go out. You know, money talks."

Investigators would not comment.

Those who know a lot about angling question Peterson's story about fishing around Brooks Island.

"I don't believe I would have tried fishing around there," said Gary Freedman, who works at the Berkeley Marina Sports Center, a supplier for fishermen.

"The day was windy and cold, and mostly sturgeon like deep water," he said. "I don't think my choice would have been to fish that day and if I did, I would have been more inclined to launch my small boat at Antioch or Pittsburg -- closer to where the fish are."

Back at the spot where the Bay gave up Laci Peterson, bedraggled flowers and rain-soaked teddy bears mark a make-shift shrine.

People still come, add a flower, or a note, and stand for a moment, staring silently at the windswept Bay.

http://www.rense.com/general33/evpcase.htm

I'm looking for the photos too, haven't had any luck yet either. But here is an interesting article from January.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi%2Dbin/article.cgi%3Ff=/c/a/2003/01/12/BA34245.DTL

Divers find anchor, not body
Family relieved object wasn't Modesto woman

Divers searching for the body of Laci Peterson in the murky waters of the Berkeley Marina made no progress Saturday, as what they thought might be a body turned out to be an old rusty boat anchor.

Although that discovery relieved Peterson's family and friends, it further frustrated investigators with remarkably few leads in their search for the pregnant 27-year-old, who vanished on Christmas Eve.

Investigators are no closer to finding Peterson than when she disappeared, and their daylong search of the marina -- the fourth by Modesto police -- probably will be the last, said Modesto police Sgt. Ron Cloward.

Investigators have focused heavily on the marina because that is where Peterson's husband, Scott Peterson, claims to have spent the day fishing when his wife disappeared. They returned on Saturday because a sonar used during a search on Thursday discovered an object that police said could be a human body.

Although investigators have not called Scott Peterson, a 30-year-old fertilizer salesman, a suspect in his wife's disappearance, suspicion continues to swirl around him.

Many of those crowded into a volunteer center at the Red Lion Hotel in Modesto hugged and applauded at word that the mysterious object in the marina was just an anchor.

"I had to laugh," said Susan Peterson Caudillo, who came from her home in San Diego County to help search for her missing sister-in-law. "I just think it's really funny that it was a boat anchor. It's like -- hello."

Caudillo said she hopes the cloud hanging over her brother's head will at long last be lifted.

"We're thrilled that it's over and that there is no more waiting," she said.

"We want all avenues researched and we understand that Scott is part of that. But maybe now we can move on. I would love to see (investigators) efforts put in other areas."

Divers discovered the object Thursday near the end of the old Berkeley pier about two miles from shore. Police said they believed there was a "50-50 chance" that it was a body, but unfavorable weather and diver fatigue forced them to discontinue the search until Saturday.

Nearly 100 police, sheriff's deputies and divers from Alameda, Solano, San Mateo and Stanislaus counties returned to the marina early Saturday morning.

Divers hit the frigid water at about 11 a.m., diving one at a time to depths of 25 to 27 feet and searching the muddy bay floor by hand. Alameda County sheriff's Capt. Gene Battaglia, who led the search, said they hoped to cover 18,432 square feet.

Reporters and passers-by jammed the Marina to watch as boats filled with volunteers and equipment left the launch. CNN and Geraldo Rivera were there, as were reporters from throughout the state.

The search came on the same day Peterson's friends and family had planned to attend a baby shower. Peterson, who was eight months pregnant when she disappeared, was due to give birth to the couple's first baby -- a boy -- Feb. 10. Her friend Rene Tomlinson, who was organizing the party, had already sent invitations bearing a nautical theme.

"Today should have been a day of celebration," said Kim McNeely, another friend who spent much of Saturday at the Red Lion waiting for news and fielding phone calls. "Instead, we're here."

McNeely said she and eight other women held a slumber party in Peterson's honor Friday night. They listened to music and toasted their missing friend with champagne. The women often gathered for slumber parties when they attended high school. They resumed the tradition when Peterson returned to Modesto from San Luis Obispo, where she graduated from college.

"I know that people always say that (a missing person) is so great, but with her it's so true," said Katerina Pike, a friend of Peterson's from college. "She's just this bubbly, giggly person, and she and Scott are just giddy over each other. Everything was falling into place for her."

http://www.scumbagoftheyear.com/sketch.htm

That was found on Yahoo search. I believe that Gene Ralston was the one with the actual sonar image and what I have been able to find out was that it was evidence or being considered so it was now under the gag order and protected... so if any of you out there happened to view the actual image and save it to hard drive, let us know what you feel the comparison is with the sketch that was done. I think it is right on.

The only reason that it is interesting to see this is because it disproves the theory of her being used in a ritual and that Conner may have been used as a sacrifice of sorts. I think this image would prove that wasn't true. It would also clear up that Conner was not born and was never alive outside of Laci's body.

I don't know how the rest of you feel about it, but listening to the voices scared the bejeezers out of me.

I'd really like to see the original picture- if anyone finds it, please try to post it here....my computer at home has a virus, and this one at work has such a strong filter that altho I got to see the sketch, I couldn't access the link to the sonar picture the sketch page featured.

And, Countrygirl, I too read the rense webpages a long time ago.....very bizarre. I'd really be interested to see what further messages the "folks" told that lady....

i don't recall seeing Laci's actual image. in fact, i believe that was one point of contention between LE and Ralston because LE didn't keep a copy of the image as Ralston suggested.

Hard for something like that to get on the air and then not one person has a copy of it anywhere... I am just hesitant to accept it as the real thing.

As for the head and extremities being missing - I would thing if someone were weighted down by those extremities, the bindings would put pressure on those areas and as the body decomposed.... I just don't think it is a surprise those areas would separate.

And just because it's under "gag order" doesn't mean it wouldn't pop up somewhere. You cannot "gag" what has already come out- lots of the news media is still discussing details that came out before the gag order went into effect....and they are still printing copies of partial autopsy results- the gag order would cover EVERYTHING related to Laci, but only what hasn't come out YET- it can't cover what is already "out there".

I think this whole side scan picture is a hoax....the real one wouldn't be so detailed.....and so "whole". Just my opinion, of course.....

Does anyone think the prelim will once againbe postponed since Mark G is supposed to be in LA on another case? I sure hope not...

But even tho I question it, if I remember correctly I could see something that looked like rope coming from the bottom of the image, but I don't remember seeing legs or anything extending from the image. I guess I just figured that it was a hand or arm that I saw.

I only believe about half of what I see on the internet anyways.. but that's just me.

i am leary of the authentisity of the 'image' of the sketch of the sonar image. i 'mentioned' the fact that all of Laci's extremeties appear intact in the sketch be considered in contrast with the actual condition of her remains when found. is it possible the remains became dismembered during the time the image of the sketch of the sonar image was made and the time the remains were found? sure. is it possible the image represents the artists' interpertation of what the actual sonar image might look like? i think it looks like artistic interpertation. in my opinion it bears no resemblence to examples of underwater sonar images i have seen at Ronston's site.