Judge refuses to dismiss murder charges against Scott Peterson
Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Posted: 1:54 PM EST (1854 GMT)

MODESTO, California (CNN) -- A judge Wednesday refused to dismiss murder charges against a California man accused of killing his wife and their unborn child, ruling that prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.

After hearing about 30 minutes of argument, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Marie Silveira denied the dismissal motion filed by Scott Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, who argued that witnesses and medical evidence contradicted the prosecution's theory of the case.

Wednesday's hearing came after the judge hearing the case against Peterson, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami, had ruled in November that there was enough evidence to bind Peterson over for trial. (Full story)

Geragos is now expected to appeal Silveira's ruling to a higher court, which is likely to delay the trial, scheduled for January 26.

Peterson is charged with murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn son in December 2002. Laci Peterson was last seen on Christmas Eve 2002, and the bodies washed up separately on the shore of San Francisco Bay last April. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Peterson told police that he was fishing in the bay on the day she disappeared and had launched his boat from the Berkeley Marina. The bodies washed ashore just miles from the marina.

At his December arraignment, he repeated his declarations of innocence. (Full story)

Defense challenges police investigation
Geragos argued that witnesses put Laci Peterson in her neighborhood during the time Scott Peterson was fishing, and suspicious people were seen in a park where she walked her dog.

The attorney said that despite the focus on Scott Peterson, a more probable scenario is that she was abducted while walking her dog in the park.

Geragos also said an examination of the baby's body showed the boy had reached a development stage of between 33 to 39 weeks, while Laci Peterson's doctor had determined she was only 32 weeks pregnant at the time of the disappearance. He argued that indicated the baby could have been alive for weeks after she disappeared.

Noting that the baby was found with knotted tape around his neck, Geragos argued that the likely explanation is that the baby was disposed of in the bay in a plastic bag after birth.

Geragos also was very critical of the handling of a key piece of evidence -- a single strand of hair found on a pair of pliers in Scott Peterson's boat, which prosecutors argue could belong to Laci Peterson. Geragos questioned, as he has before, how a single strand recovered from the boat somehow became two strands of hair inside the evidence bag.

Prosecutors explained the strand of hair was broken.

Prosecutors question survey's coordinator
In another development in the case, a university professor who oversaw a controversial survey of potential jurors was in court Wednesday after prosecutors subpoenaed him.

The survey, which found strong sentiment against Scott Peterson among potential jurors in Modesto, was used by defense attorneys to successfully argue that the trial should be moved. (Full story)

But students who helped conduct the survey subsequently told reporters that some of the results were fabricated. (Full story)

Prosecutors, who oppose moving the trial, wanted to question the man in charge of the survey, Stephen Schoenthaler, a professor at California State University-Stanislaus. But Silveira said she did not have jurisdiction over the dispute and sent the matter back to Girolami's court.

Girolami has set a hearing next week on the change-of-venue issue, at which Schoenthaler is expected to testify. If the decision to change the trial venue stands, the judge will decide whether to move it to one of three counties in the Bay Area -- Alameda, San Mateo or Santa Clara -- or to Orange County in Southern California.

CNN Producer Chuck Afflerbach and Correspondent David Mattingly contributed to this report.