Updated: 05:43 PM EST
Judge Decides to Move Peterson Murder Trial
By BRIAN MELLEY, AP

MODESTO, Calif. (Jan. 8) - A judge ruled Thursday that accused murderer Scott Peterson cannot get a fair trial in his dead wife's hometown and ordered the case moved out of the county.

Judge Al Girolami said extensive news coverage of the case, including 8,000 articles published worldwide and more than 150 stories in the local newspaper alone, swayed him to agree with the defense that the trial should not be held in Modesto. He did not immediately say where the trial would be held.

''A change of venue is necessary to protect the integrity of the proceeding,'' Girolami said.

The trial was scheduled for Jan. 26 in Modesto, but will most likely be postponed now that the location has been changed.

Peterson, a 31-year-old fertilizer salesman, is charged with two counts of murder and faces the death penalty in the killings of his wife and unborn son, whose bodies washed ashore in San Francisco Bay several months after Laci Peterson's Christmas Eve disappearance. Peterson denies killing his wife and says he was fishing the day she disappeared.

Prosecutors argued that news coverage of the case is so widespread that moving the trial would be pointless.

But defense lawyer Mark Geragos said in court papers that Peterson has been demonized and that the prosecution's argument ''can be boiled down to the old adage, 'Sure we can give him a fair trial, then we will take him out and hang him.'''

The judge said a number of other factors also influenced his decision. He said that though the population of Stanislaus County has grown significantly from its rural roots, there are still 15 larger counties in California where it would be easier to find jurors who know less about the case.

Girolami said coverage of the case had raised Scott Peterson from a regular citizen to a notorious one, while simultaneously heightening the celebrity level of Laci Peterson.

He referred to more than 100 people who gathered outside the Stanislaus County Jail to await Peterson after his arrest last year, and contrasted it with blood drives in honor of Laci Peterson and the 3,000 people who attended her internationally televised memorial service.

In addition, thousands of people fanned out across Central California to search for her, and there has been talk of naming a park for her and the boy the couple planned to name ''Conner.''

Girolami had several options: Keep the case in Modesto; move it out of the county; or select a jury in another county and bus them to Stanislaus County every day.

Geragos said surveys showed there was less bias against Peterson in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

He cited numerous examples of the hostility against Scott Peterson. When he was brought in for booking, a crowd of more than 100 people waited outside the jail, some shouting ''murderer.'' Peterson's house was vandalized twice. And T-shirts have been sold with Peterson's likeness and the motto: ''Modesto, a killer place to live.''

''The depth of pretrial animosity ... is obvious to any breathing human being in Stanislaus County,'' Geragos wrote.

Prosecutors blamed much of the publicity on Geragos' ''media grandstanding'' and said he was trying to inflame the court by hurling invective and accusations.

01-08-04 17:07EST

Judge: Try Peterson in bigger city

By JOHN COTÉ and GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITERS

Last Updated: January 8, 2004, 03:57:27 PM PST

Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda counties are on the short list of where Scott Peterson's trial on double-murder charges will be held. Superior Court Judge Al Girolami ruled this afternoon that the trial should be moved out of Stanislaus County because of massive pre-trial publicity.

Girolami directed the prosecution and defense to suggest three options each. He told them to consider the following criteria for those locations:

They must be larger metropolitan areas.
They must be communities within driving distance to Modesto.
They must be near a major airport.

Girolami and the attorneys came up with the three Bay Area options. The judge will send the list to the state Administrative Office of the Courts, which will then issue its own list, based on which counties have the available space and personnel for the case.
Girolami said he regretted the inconvenience and hardship the move will cause for witnesses in the case, and the significant cost for the county.

* Continue for complete article link :
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/7977582p-8849387c.html

Where do the jury folks come from? Is it other counties within the state, or can they bring out of staters to CA to serve jury duty?

By GARTH STAPLEY and JOHN COTÉ
BEE STAFF WRITERS

Last Updated: January 9, 2004, 05:51:42 AM PST

Several university students said Thursday that they fabricated survey results factored into in a judge's decision to move Scott Peterson's capital murder trial out of Modesto.
Judge Al Girolami learned of the phony-poll allegation just before 5 p.m. and, through a court intermediary, refused to comment.

"We falsified the info," said a 20-year-old criminal justice student at California State University, Stanislaus. "The stuff we submitted wasn't true."

He referred to the 10-county Peterson bias survey compiled by 65 students and overseen by Professor Stephen Schoenthaler.

Informed Thursday evening of the students' claims, Schoenthaler said, "I'm stunned and I find it hard to believe. It seems impossible that I could have missed something like that."

University Vice Provost Diana Demetrulias said her office will launch an investigation today.

Chief Deputy District Attorney John Goold suggested that the revelation could cause Girolami to reconsider his decision.

"Oh, my God," Goold said when informed of the students' claims. "It certainly sounds like this would affect the underpinnings of the judge's decision."

The student and five others -- all seniors -- said Thursday that they made up every answer on all the surveys they submitted because they found it difficult to gather legitimate data.

They did it, they said, because they were short on time and money. They were required to participate in the survey for 20 percent of their grade and were given no money for dozens of lengthy long-distance phone calls, they said.

Another senior said she struggled to complete half of her required surveys, then gave up and faked the rest. Another said she refused to cheat but didn't have the resources to do the survey, so she didn't -- knowing that her grade could be lowered from A to C.

Three of the eight said they used answers from friends and relatives on some surveys, also in violation of survey ethics.

The rest of this article:
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/7981057p-8852389c.html

In court Thursday, Harris questioned Schoenthaler's motives, suggesting the professor sought public distinction. He said the survey was poorly designed and gave students the opportunity and motive to falsify their data.

"You have to ask yourself what else is wrong with (the survey) when you ask college students for credit to go back to their house or their dorms to make long-distance calls," Harris said.

The students said Schoenthaler told them they could expect people further away to know less about the case. They said they fabricated the surveys accordingly.

"You just make it up," said a 21-year-old student.

Schoenthaler gave the students survey materials two days before Thanksgiving, he and they said.

"It's just an asinine thing to make a student do a week before finals," a 22-year-old student said. "There is no way (Schoenthaler) can say this is legitimate, because he wasn't there when we supposedly made it up."

A 21-year-old student said: "It's bogus."

Students unaware of survey use

Some students said they would have come forward earlier but they had no idea their fabrications would be used to help sway a judge making such an important decision.

A 35-year-old student said, "This is a death penalty case. This guy's life is on the line. I'm absolutely outraged."

Judge Al Girolami will decide where the trial will be held after a hearing set for next Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The likely location for the murder trial of Scott Peterson, charged with killing his wife and their unborn child, has been narrowed to four counties, a California state court official said.

Three of the four are in the San Francisco Bay Area, the spokesman for the state courts administration said. The fourth is Orange County in Southern California, according to the state spokesman.

The three Bay Area counties -- Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara -- are favored by Peterson's trial judge, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami, who approved a change of venue from Peterson's hometown of Modesto last week, agreeing that pretrial publicity could taint the jury pool there. (Full story)

Peterson attorney Mark Geragos had urged that the trial be moved to Los Angeles County.

Girolami will decide where the case will be tried after a hearing set for next Tuesday. Another judge may be assigned to the trial, depending on the eventual site chosen.

Peterson, 31, is charged with killing his 27-year-old wife, Laci, and their unborn son. At an arraignment hearing in December, Peterson denied the charges. (Full story)

Laci Peterson was last heard from Christmas Eve 2002. She was eight months pregnant. Scott Peterson, a fertilizer salesman, told police he left to go fishing that morning and she was not there when he returned late that afternoon.

In April 2003, the bodies of Laci and the couple's unborn son washed up on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, just miles from where Scott Peterson said he had been fishing.

He was arrested days later in San Diego and brought back to Modesto to face murder charges. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Peterson's trial is scheduled for January 26, but most likely will be postponed because of last week's decision to change the location of the trial.

On Wednesday, Peterson's defense attorneys are expected to ask that the case be dismissed, a request expected to be denied.

The Associated Press

MODESTO, Calif. Jan. 20 — The judge in the murder case against Scott Peterson on Tuesday ordered the trial moved about 50 miles away to San Mateo County because of hostility toward Peterson in his dead wife's hometown.

Judge Al Girolami ruled earlier this month that the trial had to be moved out of Modesto to ensure Peterson got a fair trial in the slaying of his wife, Laci, and unborn son.

Girolami had four counties to choose from and picked San Mateo, the county south of San Francisco. Girolami had said he wanted a county close enough to Modesto so witnesses could drive there.

Before deciding to move the trial, Girolami rejected the prosecution's motion to keep the trial in Modesto. Prosecutors said Girolami unknowingly relied on fake data in a survey of potential jurors that was conducted by college students, some of whom have since admitted they cheated and made up results.

Girolami, however, said the survey had little role in his decision to move the case to another county, although he had cited it in his previous decision to move the case because he said Peterson would have a difficult time getting a fair trial in Modesto.

Peterson, 31, has pleaded innocent to two counts of murder for allegedly killing his pregnant wife just before Christmas 2002 and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. In April, the remains of her body and the fetus she was carrying washed ashore in the bay two miles from where her husband said he was fishing when she vanished.

In the Jan. 8 ruling, the judge said his main concern was that there was too much local news coverage of the case in the county of fewer than 500,000 people. He also said area residents had become too attached to the case turning out in the thousands to search for Laci Peterson, mourn at her memorial service and give blood in her name.

Four counties had offered to host the trial: Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara in Northern California and Orange just south of Los Angeles.

Prosecutor David Harris asked the judge to keep the case in Modesto or consider moving it 80 miles north to Sacramento, the state capital, if the county has an available courtroom and staff for the anticipated five-month trial.

Girolami eliminated Sacramento as a possibility during his earlier ruling, but Harris said he should reconsider that decision based on new evidence of the apparently fraudulent survey.

The survey conducted by students at California State University, Stanislaus found that prospective jurors were less likely to be biased against Scott Peterson in the San Francisco Bay area or in Southern California than they were in Modesto, where Laci Peterson grew up.

Nine students at the university have since anonymously told The Modesto Bee they made up results for the phone poll or broke the rules for conducting the survey by interviewing friends.

Prosecutors have subpoenaed sociology professor Stephen Schoenthaler, who oversaw the study, for the hearing. Schoenthaler said he did not detect the fraud.

The trial is scheduled to start Monday, but will likely be postponed.

The trial scheduled to begin January 26, 2003 will most likely be delayed due to transfer of documented records etc.
..............................................................................................................
Modbee.com January 22, 2004
Trial boosting Redwood City's economic hopes

By JOHN COTÉ
BEE STAFF WRITER

REDWOOD CITY -- John Anagnostou could barely contain his excitement at the thought of a media swarm descending on this Bay Area city's quiet downtown for Scott Peterson's double-murder trial.

"This is good," said Anagnostou, president of the Redwood City Downtown Business Group and co-owner of a theater and adjoining nightclub a few blocks from the courthouse.

"Is it good that we're getting notoriety because of a murder trial? No. But is it good because all of the press is here? Absolutely," he said.

Local business leaders see the decision to move Scott Peterson's murder trial to this bedroom community halfway between San Francisco and San Jose as a shot in the arm for a hospitality industry yet to recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the move to San Mateo County has drawn mixed reactions from residents and created a logistical labyrinth for court and law enforcement personnel.

"We've had other high-profile trials, but nothing that can equal this," said Bronwyn Hogan, spokeswoman for the San Mateo County Sheriff's Department, which operates the county jail and provides courtroom security. "We just have to deal with this."

Officials have scheduled a flurry of meetings to handle the transition.

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

There is much more. Please continue for complete article at the following link:
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/8037709p-8900135c.html

Numbers support Peterson trial shift

BY GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITER

By the numbers, Scott Peterson appears to have made a smart move by getting his murder trial switched from Modesto to San Mateo County.

"By the numbers" means looking at demographic indicators, which give only a peek into pools of potential jurors in each community.

But players on each side of the high-profile case give more than a passing glance at the numbers, looking for any possible advantage.

"We would research to figure out what kind of English to put on it," said Amy Singer, founder and president of

Florida-based Trial Consultants Inc. "If the community likes cowboy music, you don't want to play opera."

And here is what the numbers say

Compared with Stanislaus County, San Mateo County is:

Older. The median age is 36.8 years, compared with 31.7 in Stanislaus County.

Wealthier. Per capita income is $36,045 annually, compared with $16,913 here.

Better-educated. Thirty-nine percent of San Mateo County residents have college degrees, compared with 14.1 percent here.

More liberal. Republican Party membership is 26.3 percent there, compared with 43.22 percent in Stanislaus County.
On their faces, each factor tends to favor a defendant, some jury experts say. *Please continue at the link for complete article

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/8075943p-8934882c.html

""You don't want any fishermen on the jury if you're Scott Peterson," Singer said.

Sturgeon anglers in particular have scoffed at the image of Peterson fishing alone in stormy San Francisco Bay in a 14-foot aluminum boat. Testimony from a 12-day preliminary hearing revealed that Peterson had a near-useless anchor, carried an ultralight pole more suited for stream fishing, had not owned a yearlong fishing license since 1994, and "couldn't say" what type of fish he tried to catch when a policeman asked him later that day."

Anyone have any idea?

Doubtful there will be much accomplished today, paper shuffle etc. Defense Attorney Geragos must begin trial in Los Angeles county on (Williams case ) February 3...that's an order!

"...Peterson's trial is scheduled to begin Monday, but attorneys on both sides are proposing that hearings be delayed until Feb. 17. That's two weeks from the date set for William's trial to start..."