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1110
1 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
2 IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF STANISLAUS
3
4 THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF )
CALIFORNIA, )
5 )
Plaintiff, )
6 )
vs. ) Case No. 1056770
7 )
SCOTT LEE PETERSON, )
8 )
Defendant. )
9 _____________________________ )
10
11 Before the Honorable A. GIROLAMI, Judge, Department 2
12
13 Thursday, November 13, 2003, at 9:35 a.m.
14
15
16 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION
17 NINTH DAY OF HEARING
18
19
20 APPEARANCES:
21 DAVID HARRIS and RICK DISTASO, Deputies District
Attorney, appeared for and on behalf of the People.
22
MARK GERAGOS and KIRK McALLISTER, Attorneys at Law,
23 appeared for and on behalf of the Defendant.
24 ____________________________________________________________
25
JACQUELYN ZILL YARD, CSR NO. 4044
26 JANICE M. CARDOZO, CSR No. 5268
Official Court Reporters
27 800 11th Street, Room 220
Modesto, CA 95354
28 (209) 525-6373
1111
1 Thursday, November 13, 2003 -- 9:35 a.m.
2 ---o0o---
3 THE COURT: Good morning.
4 MR. DISTASO: Good morning, Your Honor.
5 MR. McALLISTER: Good morning.
6 THE COURT: Recall the matter of Peterson, case number
7 1056770. All parties are present.
8 You may continue the cross-examination of Detective
9 Brocchini --
10 MR. McALLISTER: Thank you, Your Honor.
11 THE COURT: -- Mr. McAllister.
12
13 ALLEN BROCCHINI,
14 called as a witness for and on behalf of the People, having
15 previously been duly and regularly sworn, resumed the stand
16 and testified further as follows:
17
18 CROSS-EXAMINATION (CONTINUED)
19
20 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Detective Brocchini, when you were
21 being asked questions by Mr. Distaso last Thursday, you said
22 that your job as the investigator was -- and this was
23 standard practice -- was to eliminate Scott Peterson as a
24 suspect; is that right?
25 A. That was one of my primary responsibilities.
26 Q. And now -- but that changed, didn't it? This got
27 personal, didn't it?
28 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. It's
1112
1 argumentative.
2 THE COURT: Sustained.
3 MR. McALLISTER: Q. During the times when you talked
4 to some of these witnesses or other people who knew Scott
5 Peterson, did you ever tell one of them that you were going
6 to take Scott Peterson down?
7 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. It's
8 argumentative and it goes beyond the scope.
9 THE COURT: Overruled.
10 THE WITNESS: No. I don't think so.
11 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Did you ever tell one of these
12 people of Scott Peterson's friends that you were going to
13 get Scott Peterson?
14 A. No.
15 Q. Did you -- specifically, I want to ask you about
16 Aaron Fritz. That was the gentleman I referred to
17 yesterday. You remember talking to him; right?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Those were all phone conversations?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And were you recording those phone conversations?
22 A. Not that I know of. I may have recorded one, but I
23 don't remember. I don't know.
24 Q. Okay. Typically, in those conversations, you
25 weren't recording them all, were you?
26 A. No.
27 Q. Then my question: Do you know if Mr. Fritz was
28 recording your calls?
1113
1 A. I have no idea.
2 Q. Thinking about it now, do you have a recollection
3 of telling Mr. Fritz that you were going to get
4 Mr. Peterson?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Do you have a recollection of telling Mr. Fritz
7 words to the effect that you were going to take him down?
8 A. No. I know I probably told him, "I'm going to get
9 who got Laci." I probably told that to everybody. We're
10 going to get to the bottom of this. But I'm fairly certain
11 I never said, "I'm going to get Scott Peterson."
12 Q. But Fritz is the same gentleman you told us
13 yesterday you were trying to "plant the seeds of suspicion,"
14 your words, in his mind.
15 MR. DISTASO: Objection. Asked and answered.
16 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Right?
17 THE COURT: Sustained.
18 MR. McALLISTER: Q. When you were planting the seeds
19 of suspicion in Fritz's mind, do you have a recollection
20 that you also told him that you were going to get Scott
21 Peterson?
22 MR. DISTASO: Objection. Asked and answered.
23 THE COURT: It's asked a little differently.
24 Overruled.
25 THE WITNESS: No, I never said that. I never --
26 MR. McALLISTER: Q. You never -- when you were
27 planting the seeds of suspicion with Mr. Fritz, you never
28 suggested to him other possible suspects who might have
1114
1 abducted Laci; is that correct?
2 A. Did I suggest them or did I tell him that we were
3 working on other possible suspects? Because I did tell him
4 that.
5 Q. You did tell him you were working on other possible
6 suspects?
7 A. Well, no. I told him that we were working on every
8 lead that was coming in, and there was a lot of leads coming
9 in and I told him we were working on everything.
10 Q. Okay. But when you refer to planting the seeds of
11 suspicion, your intent there was to raise doubts in his mind
12 no,t about some other suspect somewhere, but about Scott
13 Peterson. That was your tactic; right?
14 A. I had a reason for doing that, and that wasn't it.
15 Q. You wanted to ultimately get information from Scott
16 Peterson through Fritz; right?
17 A. Well, I wanted to get information from all of them,
18 but that isn't why I planted the seeds of suspicion.
19 Q. You wanted to turn Fritz against Scott Peterson;
20 right?
21 A. I didn't plant seeds of suspicion to turn Fritz
22 from Scott Peterson. I had a reason and that wasn't it.
23 Q. When you -- but you didn't suggest any other
24 suspects when you were planting those seeds; right?
25 A. When I was planting those seeds, I was just
26 planting seeds of suspicion regarding Scott Peterson.
27 Q. Regarding Scott Peterson, and only Scott Peterson;
28 right?
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1115
1 A. I planted seeds of suspicion regarding Scott
2 Peterson, but I did talk about other leads. I let Fritz and
3 everybody know that this wasn't -- we weren't zeroed in on
4 anybody. We still had an open mind.
5 Q. When you -- but, in fact, you were zeroed in on
6 Scott Peterson; is that correct?
7 A. Are you asking me my opinion?
8 Q. Were you -- was your -- your intent was to put
9 Scott Peterson in jail; right?
10 A. No. My intent was to catch -- like I told Scott
11 that night, to get whoever got Laci. That was my intent and
12 still is.
13 Q. And to eliminate him as a suspect; right?
14 A. That's right.
15 Q. Now, you even tried to get Scott fired from Trade
16 Corp.
17 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
18 MR. McALLISTER: Goes to motive, bias and interest,
19 Your Honor.
20 THE COURT: Overruled.
21 THE WITNESS: I don't know if I tried to get Scott
22 fired. I mean, I talked to Trade Corp. about some
23 suspicious dealings that appeared suspicious to us. And,
24 yeah, I did talk to Trade Corp. about that.
25 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Now, you were having conversations
26 with Trade Corp. -- now, Trade Corp. was Scott Peterson's
27 employer at this time; right?
28 A. Yes.
1116
1 Q. And that was a foreign corporation; right? It was
2 headquartered somewhere like Spain or someplace; right?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And the warehouse that we've been talking about,
5 that was the Trade Corp. warehouse; right?
6 A. For America, yeah.
7 Q. Right. Now, your conversations were with --
8 about -- with the Trade Corp. people primarily were with
9 their corporate attorney; right?
10 A. I spoke to Scott's boss, and I spoke to the
11 corporate attorney, and I spoke to the accountant.
12 Q. Okay. And you presented them with records that you
13 thought looked suspicious in terms of expenditures; right?
14 A. That's right.
15 Q. And, in fact, to get those records, you actually
16 called in the power of the FBI to subpoena records to the
17 federal grand jury in Fresno to question the propriety of
18 his expenditures with Trade Corp. Am I right?
19 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
20 MR. McALLISTER: Goes to motive, bias and interest,
21 Your Honor.
22 MR. DISTASO: That they used the FBI, grand jury
23 process, how is that relevant? How is that relevant to
24 motive or bias?
25 MR. McALLISTER: Means he's going --
26 THE COURT: Overruled.
27 THE WITNESS: The answer's no. I didn't use the FBI.
28 I got consent from Trade Corp. I got a consent letter from
1117
1 Spain to the corporate attorney and to the accountant, and
2 it was -- they consented to allowing us to looking at those
3 records.
4 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Did you -- did you serve a search
5 warrant on Trade Corp. for their records?
6 A. No. Not that I know of. I'm fairly certain I got
7 consent.
8 Q. Did you supply a list of charges, Trade Corp.
9 charges, to FBI Special Agent Scott and have him subpoena
10 the underlying documents supporting those transactions?
11 A. I'm not sure where you're going. I don't
12 understand your question. I know Trade Corp's documents
13 came via consent. If you're talking about Scott Peterson's
14 documents, like his check and his checkbook, is that what
15 you're asking?
16 Q. No. Once you had some charges that you found from
17 Trade Corp. or on Trade Corp. accounts or credit cards, did
18 you then reflect on your February 5th report that you
19 supplied the list of charges to FBI Agent Scott, who said he
20 would subpoena those to confirm what items had been
21 purchased?
22 A. May I refer to the report that you're referring to?
23 Q. Sure.
24 A. Do you know which one it is?
25 Q. February 5th is what I've got.
26 A. Can you ask me the question again, Mr. McAllister?
27 Q. Yeah. Did you supply a list of charges on
28 Trademark -- Trade Corp. accounts or credit cards to FBI
1118
1 Agent Scott for the purpose of him subpoenaing those
2 businesses to confirm what the charges reflected?
3 A. No.
4 Q. Did you have any conversations at all with FBI
5 Agent Scott?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Relating to Trade Corp. expenditures?
8 A. The way I remember, it was all related to personal
9 credit cards and checking accounts. I don't remember any
10 Trade Corp. stuff. I do remember giving Terry Scott like
11 all of the VISAs, all of the, you know, purchases like from
12 Home Depot, Orchard Supply, any hardware store. And from
13 what I remember, they were all on Scott's personal account,
14 and I asked Scott to, you know, subpoena the records from
15 Home Depot, Orchard Supply, or a few other businesses I
16 don't remember off the top of my head, to see what those
17 purchases were for.
18 Q. Lowe's?
19 A. Lowe's, that's right.
20 Q. But that was for the purpose of seeing if you could
21 find some kind of impropriety in how Scott Peterson was
22 spending Trade Corp. money; right?
23 A. No. I had a purpose, but that wasn't it.
24 Q. And then during all this time, when you're talking
25 to the corporate attorney, you're telling him, "Now, don't
26 tell McAllister about anything we're talking about"; right?
27 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
28 THE COURT: Sustained.
1119
1 MR. McALLISTER: Q. This is what I'm asking you about.
2 It's the heading that starts out "Agent Terry Scott." And I
3 guess that's that FBI agent?
4 A. Uh-huh.
5 Q. "On Wednesday, February 5th, I supplied the list of
6 charges to Scott." "Scott" meaning Agent Scott?
7 A. That's right.
8 Q. "Scott," meaning Agent Scott, "said he would
9 subpoena these businesses to confirm the items purchased."
10 A. That's what I testified to.
11 Q. Right?
12 A. That's right.
13 Q. And was that subpoena -- that was through that
14 federal grand jury subpoena; right?
15 A. Agent Scott used the federal grand jury to subpoena
16 those records.
17 Q. Thank you.
18 And then ultimately you presented what you -- what you
19 found in that investigation to Trade Corp. through its
20 corporate attorney; right?
21 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
22 THE COURT: Overruled.
23 THE WITNESS: No.
24 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Did you --
25 A. I presented stuff to Trade Corp. It had nothing to
26 do with those purchases. It had something to do with
27 something else.
28 Q. The answer that you got back -- you did get an |
1120
1 answer back from Trade Corp.; right?
2 A. Not regarding what we're talking about.
3 Q. On the 19th of March, didn't you get an e-mail from
4 Ross Lee, the corporate attorney, saying that there had been
5 an internal analysis done of these expenditures which
6 verified that they were appropriate?
7 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Calls for
8 hearsay.
9 THE COURT: Sustained.
10 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Were you disappointed when you got
11 that e-mail from Mr. Lee?
12 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. It's irrelevant.
13 THE COURT: Sustained.
14 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Was your purpose in trying to get
15 Mr. Scott Peterson fired because you thought that maybe, if
16 his one tie left to Modesto was not there, that maybe he
17 would flee?
18 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. It's not
19 relevant.
20 THE COURT: Sustained.
21 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Your biggest fear as you were
22 doing this investigation -- now, your investigation starts
23 December 24th; right?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. The month of January passes. Scott Peterson's not
26 arrested. Right?
27 A. Right.
28 Q. February passes. No arrest. Right?
1121
1 A. Right.
2 Q. Meetings. Investigation. Meeting with the DA's.
3 March. March comes and goes. More meetings and still no
4 arrest. Right?
5 A. That's right.
6 Q. Now, throughout this time, your biggest fear was
7 that this case would get solved by someone else, wasn't it?
8 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. It's
9 argumentative. It's not relevant what his fear was or
10 wasn't.
11 THE COURT: Goes to bias. Overruled.
12 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Right?
13 A. No. My biggest fear was that Laci and Conner
14 wouldn't have came up.
15 Q. Well, from early on in your dealings and your
16 talking with all the other detectives, you learned that
17 there was a parallel investigation going on? There was an
18 investigation being done by a private investigator and by
19 me. You knew that, didn't you?
20 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
21 THE COURT: Overruled.
22 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Go ahead.
23 A. I learned about that.
24 Q. Well, you had -- there were instances where you and
25 your -- at least your fellow officers, would go out and talk
26 to a witness and the witness would present them with one of
27 Mr. Ermoian's business cards; right?
28 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
1122
1 THE COURT: Overruled.
2 THE WITNESS: Yeah.
3 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Diane Jackson; right?
4 A. I never spoke to Diane Jackson.
5 Q. No. But you learned that she'd already been talked
6 to by Mr. Ermoian, the private investigator; right?
7 A. That's right.
8 Q. How about Ann Hardinger, the Berkeley harbormaster?
9 Phil Owen goes to talk to her, and she presents one of
10 Mr. Ermoian's business cards; right?
11 MR. DISTASO: Objection. Calls for hearsay, double
12 hearsay.
13 MR. McALLISTER: I'm not offering it for the truth of
14 the matter asserted.
15 THE COURT: Sustained.
16 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Now, that worried you, didn't it?
17 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
18 MR. McALLISTER: Goes to motive, bias or interest,
19 despite Mr. Distaso's objection.
20 THE COURT: Sustained. I'll let you have some leeway
21 but --
22 MR. McALLISTER: As the investigating officer, Your
23 Honor, I think we're entitled to wide leeway on the issue of
24 bias.
25 MR. DISTASO: Your Honor, I think we've gone way wide,
26 you know, very wide already.
27 THE COURT: Let's hear the question and then I'll rule
28 on it.
1123
1 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Surveillance was being conducted
2 at my office during this four-and-a-half-month period,
3 wasn't it?
4 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
5 MR. McALLISTER: No.
6 THE COURT: Sustained.
7 MR. McALLISTER: Your Honor, it goes to the motive,
8 bias or interests of this officer.
9 THE COURT: It also goes to possible investigation of
10 any type. Let's get to the questions that go to bias and
11 interest or other motive.
12 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Let me ask you a question that I
13 asked you last Thursday and you didn't answer. Were you and
14 your officers following my pickup truck?
15 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
16 THE COURT: Sustained.
17 MR. McALLISTER: Well, Your Honor, that --
18 THE COURT: I'm not going to let you go into every
19 aspect of the investigation. You get to some point to show
20 that he's doing something out of the ordinary, I'll let you
21 ask that.
22 MR. McALLISTER: Out of the ordinary? How about this?
23 Q. Busy as you were, you pretended to be a tipster
24 phoning in tips to the Laci Tip Line that Jackie Peterson,
25 Scott's mother, and Scott Peterson set up. Am I right?
26 A. I phoned one tip in. I copied a tip we received,
27 and I just phoned it in, the exact same tip we got, to see
28 if they would follow up on it or pass it on to us.
1124
1 Q. Well --
2 A. That took me about a minute.
3 Q. Well, you were worried that tips would be coming in
4 and followed up by someone other than you or your officers;
5 right?
6 A. I was worried, but it wasn't about that. I was
7 worried a good tip would come in and it wouldn't get
8 followed up on.
9 Q. And in terms of that tip line, once again, you
10 called Mr. Scott, the FBI agent, and had him use that
11 federal subpoena to subpoena the records of the -- whatever
12 it was called -- Laci Info. Tip Line, the Jackie Peterson
13 tip line, didn't you?
14 A. I asked him to do it. I don't know if it was done,
15 but I wanted that done.
16 Q. You wanted it done, because you wanted to know all
17 the tips that were coming in there; right?
18 A. I was following up on every tip there was, and I
19 wanted to know if he was getting tips we weren't getting.
20 Q. Because if there was any tip of any sort that
21 seemed to be legitimate, you wanted to follow up on it;
22 right?
23 A. I wanted it followed up on. I can't say I wanted
24 to do it. I know for sure I didn't want to follow up on it.
25 Q. No, but I mean, even if it wasn't personally you
26 doing it. If there was a legitimate -- seemingly legitimate
27 tip that came in and you happened to be around, you would
28 make sure that somebody else picked up the ball if you were
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1125
1 unable to; right?
2 A. Yeah.
3 Q. I mean, you happened to be there. You told us you
4 happened to be there when this Amber Frey called in?
5 A. That's right.
6 Q. And that was just happenstance that you happened to
7 be there. But when that came in, that seemed to be worth
8 paying some attention to; right?
9 A. That's right.
10 Q. And so you acted on it?
11 A. That's right.
12 Q. And if you had been busy doing something else or
13 called away, you would have made sure somebody else acted on
14 it?
15 A. That's right.
16 Q. When you called yourself a "core detective," is
17 that -- I mean, with that, does that have some authority
18 that you can make sure that other people are following up on
19 things, if you were unable to, because of the volume of work
20 that you're doing on this case?
21 A. I don't think the name "core" has anything to do
22 with that. As a detective on any case, if I need help, I
23 can ask for it.
24 Q. Okay.
25 A. And another detective or another officer will help
26 me.
27 Q. Okay. Now, what color's my pickup truck?
28 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. It's not
1126
1 relevant.
2 THE COURT: Sustained.
3 MR. DISTASO: Although, if Mr. McAllister wants to be
4 sworn and testify to that, I guess I don't have any
5 objection to that.
6 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Have you seen my pickup truck?
7 MR. DISTASO: Objection. It's not relevant.
8 THE COURT: Sustained, Mr. McAllister. Let's move on.
9 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Okay. So the -- your interest
10 then was following up all legitimate leads and still
11 eliminating Scott as a suspect?
12 MR. DISTASO: Objection, it's been asked and answered
13 numerous times and ways.
14 THE COURT: Yeah, sustained.
15 MR. McALLISTER: Q. So let's go to February 27th.
16 You open your binder, but I will challenge you to find
17 a report about this one.
18 A. I am just getting prepared.
19 MR. McALLISTER: February 27th, Modesto Bee comes out.
20 Ask that this be marked next in order.
21 THE CLERK: Exhibit Z.
22 (Defendant's Exhibit Z was marked for
23 identification.)
24 THE CLERK: Exhibit Z.
25 MR. GERAGOS: Z?
26 THE CLERK: Z.
27 MR. DISTASO: Give me a second, Mr. McAllister.
28 (Reading Exhibit Z.)
1127
1 MR. DISTASO: Okay. Thanks.
2 MR. McALLISTER: Q. I'm showing you the Exhibit Z, and
3 this is the -- this is just the front and back page of The
4 Modesto Bee for February 27th. There's a story on the
5 Peterson case on that right column. You see that?
6 A. I see it.
7 Q. And have you seen that story before?
8 MR. DISTASO: Objection. Relevance to stories in The
9 Modesto Bee.
10 THE COURT: Overruled.
11 THE WITNESS: I've seen it.
12 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Okay. Now, that's a story -- and,
13 of course, the title is "No Call Back on Sighting of Laci,"
14 but this is information from Bill and Vivian Mitchell;
15 correct?
16 A. Yes.
17 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Calls for
18 hearsay.
19 THE COURT: Sustained.
20 MR. McALLISTER: When you --
21 MR. DISTASO: I move to strike the detective's answer.
22 THE COURT: I didn't hear it, but it's stricken if
23 there was one.
24 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Well, did you read this article?
25 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
26 THE COURT: Overruled.
27 THE WITNESS: Yes.
28 MR. McALLISTER: Q. I mean, did you read it -- you
1128
1 were reading Bee articles daily; is that right?
2 A. I can't say that, but I read a lot of them.
3 Q. For instance, we called talked about yesterday, you
4 were calling Mike Richardson at 6:40 in the morning telling
5 him to read The Modesto Bee when he didn't even live in
6 Modesto. I mean, you were reading these things back then;
7 right?
8 A. Yeah, I didn't read every one of them, but I read
9 them.
10 Q. When you read the articles about the Mitchells, did
11 that seem inconsistent with the investigation that you had
12 done?
13 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. That article
14 calls for hearsay.
15 MR. McALLISTER: It's not being offered for the truth
16 of the matter.
17 MR. DISTASO: Then, I guess, what's it being offered
18 for?
19 THE COURT: I'll allow it. Overruled.
20 THE WITNESS: No, I didn't.
21 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Well, you have established in your
22 investigation, and had by that point, Scott Peterson's
23 whereabouts from approximately 9:30 in the morning to
24 4:30 or 5:00, whenever he gets home; right?
25 A. Yes.
26 Q. And the phrase "time line," you know what that is;
27 right?
28 A. Yes.
1129
1 Q. And, in fact, you had actually told this to Aaron
2 Fritz. You were satisfied with the time line from 9:30 on,
3 but you needed to know more about what happened before then?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Is that correct?
6 A. Sounds right.
7 Q. Okay. So that the information that you read in The
8 Modesto Bee on February 27th has somebody there talking
9 about seeing Laci walking around the La Loma neighborhood at
10 a time when you can account for Scott's whereabouts; right?
11 MR. DISTASO: Objection. Calls for hearsay.
12 THE COURT: I don't understand what you're trying to
13 get at, Mr. McAllister. You've been going on
14 cross-examination for well over two and a half hours.
15 MR. McALLISTER: Well, if --
16 THE COURT: Let's get focused.
17 MR. McALLISTER: Well, the focus is, Your Honor, it is
18 absolutely inconsistent that Laci Peterson could be walking
19 around a La Loma neighborhood at the hour the Mitchells said
20 if Scott Peterson had anything to do with her disappearance.
21 Right?
22 MR. DISTASO: Objection. It's argumentative. The
23 thing is the answers from the Mitchells -- if they want to
24 call the Mitchells to the hearing, they can.
25 THE COURT: I've heard enough, Mr. Distaso. Sustained.
26 If you want to bring that evidence in, the Court will
27 consider that. Whether or not it affects his investigation
28 or not, I can't see how that goes to bias or interest. |
1130
1 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Well, in your statement earlier
2 that you wanted to check out every lead, upon reading this
3 article, which we have as Exhibit Z, from The Modesto Bee,
4 February 27th, did you go out to talk to these people, the
5 Mitchells?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Did you tell one of your other detectives, hey, you
8 better get out and talk to these people?
9 A. No.
10 Q. You didn't want to hear what these people had to
11 say, because it was inconsistent with your theory; right?
12 MR. DISTASO: Objection. It's argumentative.
13 THE COURT: Yeah, sustained.
14 MR. McALLISTER: Q. And you started opening your
15 binder there. You have no report about the Mitchells
16 because you never did talk to them; is that correct?
17 A. That's correct.
18 Q. How long did it take you to drive over to the --
19 from your station to Peterson neighborhood? Ten minutes?
20 A. Probably.
21 Q. It would be accurate to say that you spent more
22 time posing as a tipster, phoning in tips to the Jackie
23 Peterson tip line than you did checking out the Mitchells?
24 MR. DISTASO: Objection.
25 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Is that accurate?
26 MR. DISTASO: Objection. It's argumentative.
27 THE COURT: Sustained.
28 MR. McALLISTER: Q. Another name: Homer Maldonado.
1131
1 Did you ever go talk to that gentleman?
2 A. No.
3 Q. Or his spouse?
4 A. No.
5 Q. Did you ever see that name come up in the sort --
6 in the progress of your investigation?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And, just for your information, that was someone
9 who said that they had seen Laci walking in the neighborhood
10 at a point where you knew Scott to be over at the warehouse?
11 A. That isn't what they said when they called us.
12 That is what The Bee reported two months later.
13 Q. Okay. So I guess then you really wanted to burn up
14 the rubber and get over there and see what really they
15 meant; right?
16 A. No.
17 Q. But you never did anyway; right?
18 A. No.
19 Q. Never went over to talk to them?
20 A. I didn't.
21 Q. Did you -- did one of your fellow officers go over
22 at your urging to talk to them?
23 A. Did somebody talk to them? I don't know. At my
24 urging, no.
25 Q. You didn't want to hear it.
26 MR. DISTASO: Objection. It's been asked and answered.
27 It's argumentative, also.
28 THE COURT: Sustained.
1132
1 MR. McALLISTER: No other questions.
2 THE COURT: Mr. Distaso.
3 MR. DISTASO: Thank you, Your Honor.
4
5 REDIRECT EXAMINATION
6
7 MR. DISTASO: Q. Detective, let's go back. Early on
8 in the cross-examination where the -- Mr. McAllister was
9 asking you about what you said to the defendant regarding
10 taking pictures and collecting evidence there at the house.
11 Did you ask him specifically if CSO or Community Service
12 Officer Lovell could take pictures at his house?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. What did he say to that?
15 A. Take pictures in his house.
16 Q. That's what I meant.
17 A. He said yes.
18 Q. And do you remember exactly what you said regarding
19 Mr. Lovell looking for or collecting any evidence?
20 A. Do I remember my exact words? No. I know what my
21 intent was but --
22 Q. What -- the words you wrote in your report, can you
23 read those again?
24 A. "Is it okay if Doug Lovell goes in and takes
25 pictures and looks for evidence?"
26 Q. Okay. When you said look for any evidence, did
27 you -- what was your intent with that?
28 MR. McALLISTER: Object to that. It's irrelevant what
1133
1 his intent was.
2 THE COURT: Sustained.
3 MR. DISTASO: Q. Did -- have you ever told
4 Investigator Lovell or CSO Lovell before to look for
5 evidence prior to this case?
6 MR. McALLISTER: Objection. Irrelevant.
7 THE COURT: Overruled.
8 THE WITNESS: I've told a lot of people to look for
9 evidence. I mean, if you're going to ask me a specific date
10 and time I told Lovell, but, as a CSO, on many crime scenes,
11 yeah, I've told him to look for evidence.
12 MR. DISTASO: Q. Okay. And when -- as part of the --
13 are you aware of what the procedures are at the Modesto
14 Police Department if a CSO or evidence tech is looking for
15 evidence and locates something that they think is evidence?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. What do they do?
18 A. They collect it.
19 Q. When -- when you met the defendant's dog, do you
20 remember what the dog's name was?
21 A. McKenzie.
22 Q. And are you -- are you familiar with dogs in the
23 sense that, I mean, do you have dogs or you've dealt with
24 dogs in the past?
25 A. Yes.
26 Q. Okay. Can you tell the Court, what was the
27 circumstances of meeting McKenzie? Just what happened?
28 MR. McALLISTER: Objection. Asked and answered.
1134
1 MR. DISTASO: Well, I don't --
2 THE COURT: It's been so long ago, I'll overrule that.
3 THE WITNESS: I opened the French doors that lead into
4 the backyard, and I stepped out onto the patio, and I bent
5 down and I said hello to McKenzie.
6 MR. DISTASO: Q. Okay. Did the dog come over?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And where was the defendant when this was going on?
9 A. Standing behind me and the doorway.
10 Q. How far outside of the house were you?
11 A. Six or seven feet.
12 Q. And what did you -- what did the defendant say when
13 the dog came over?
14 A. That was unusual.
15 Q. Did he say why that was unusual?
16 MR. McALLISTER: Objection. Hearsay.
17 THE COURT: Overruled. I'll allow it.
18 Go ahead.
19 THE WITNESS: We -- before he said how protective it
20 was. He didn't say why, but my --
21 MR. McALLISTER: Objection. Then the question's asked,
22 he's answered it.
23 THE COURT: Sustained.
24 MR. DISTASO: Q. Did he say any other words other
25 than, "That's unusual"?
26 A. No. No.
27 Q. The fishing license that were found, do you have a
28 list of all of the fishing license that were found, either
1135
1 during the -- at any time during the investigation at either
2 the defendant's home or that the defendant handed to you?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And what all -- what were all the fishing license
5 found?
6 A. Well, on the 26th, Scott handed me a two-day
7 fishing license.
8 Q. And what were the dates for that license?
9 A. It was valid for 12/23, 12/24.
10 On the 27th, Detective Ruskamp and I recovered a
11 two-day fishing license from a duffel bag that was in the
12 shed in the backyard, and it was valid for 8/30 and 8/31 of
13 2002.
14 On the 27th, Detective Dodge Hendee recovered a 1999,
15 two-day fishing license from Scott Peterson's glove
16 compartment, valid for October 16th and October 17th of '99.
17 On 12/27, Detective Hendee recovered a two-day fishing
18 license from the boat that was inside the green bag inside
19 the boat, valid for 7/23 and 7/24 of 1999; and on 12/27,
20 Detective Hendee recovered a year-long fishing license for
21 1994 out of the glove compartment of Scott's truck.
22 Q. Now, Mr. McAllister asked you a number of questions
23 about the comment that the defendant made to you about the
24 electricity in the shop. When you went to the shop area,
25 when that comment was made, where were you located?
26 A. In the office.
27 Q. And when you were in the office of the shop, was
28 the office the main focus of your interest?
1136
1 A. No.
2 Q. What was the main focus of your interest?
3 A. The boat, seeing the boat.
4 Q. And the boat, of course, was located in the
5 warehouse?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And did you make a distinction in your mind or did
8 you even consider whether the electricity worked in the
9 office versus the shop?
10 A. No.
11 Q. Now, when you went into the shop area, were you
12 able to sufficiently light it --
13 MR. McALLISTER: Objection. Leading question.
14 THE COURT: Sounds like it's going to be.
15 MR. DISTASO: Q. How -- how did you light up the area
16 in the shop?
17 A. With my -- with my headlights on my car and my
18 flashlight.
19 Q. Okay. Did you feel the light was sufficient that
20 you could see or at least the boat that you were looking at?
21 A. It's all I had at the time that I thought, and it
22 was sufficient for -- you know, I couldn't have any more.
23 So --
24 Q. When you were looking at the boat, did you look --
25 did you extensively search the boat? What I mean by that,
26 did you search the boat as if you were executing a search
27 warrant on the boat?
28 A. No.
1137
1 Q. Did you ever actually climb inside the boat?
2 A. No.
3 Q. Did you physically touch anything in the boat?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And what was that?
6 A. The fishing box.
7 Q. And where -- do you remember in the boat where the
8 fishing box was?
9 A. It was just inside the left side of the boat
10 between the seat, the front seat and the back seat.
11 Q. Okay. Did -- and did you open the fishing box?
12 A. Yes, I did.
13 Q. And then after you'd looked inside, then did you
14 close it?
15 A. Yes, I did.
16 Q. Did you look under the seats of the boat?
17 A. No.
18 Q. In the sense, I mean, did you get down there and
19 physically eyeball underneath the seats?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Did you ever reach your hand and kind of sweep
22 around under the seats?
23 A. No.
24 Q. In your report, you listed a number of items that
25 you saw in the boat. Was that every item? Did you list
26 every item that you saw?
27 A. No.
28 Q. And why did you pick the particular items to list?
1138
1 A. They just stood out. I mean, they stood out.
2 Q. Other than touching the tackle box or the fishing
3 box, tackle box, whatever you want to call it, did you touch
4 any other items?
5 A. No.
6 Q. You said previously that you placed your notebook
7 in the boat; is that right?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Do you remember where you put it?
10 A. I just remembered I put it on the left side of the
11 boat, somewhere near the edge on a seat. I thought I put it
12 on the second seat.
13 Q. Did you see the pliers? Let me ask you this.
14 Eventually, are you aware of what were -- were a pair of
15 yellow-handled pliers found in the boat?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Did you see those pliers in the boat on the 24th?
18 Did you physically eyeball them on the 24th?
19 A. No.
20 Q. Did you see them later in a photo that you'd taken
21 of the boat?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. From the 24th?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And then when did you determine that the pliers
26 were important or had some interest to you?
27 A. On February 11th.
28 Q. And what was it on February 11th that made you
1139
1 realize that the pliers, you know, had some interest to you?
2 A. Detective Grogan and I were -- and I think the
3 sergeant, we were in a room, and we're looking at all the
4 photos we had taken from all of the search warrants and just
5 kind of hashing over what's been done; and we came across a
6 photo of number 144-A, and it was a pair of pliers with a
7 big long hair sticking out of it.
8 Q. Then after you saw that, did you go back then and
9 look through the photographs to see if those pliers were
10 anywhere in the photographs that you took?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Now, what detective was responsible for getting all
13 of the photos that were taken in the entire case, getting
14 them together and sending them to my office for discovery?
15 A. Detective Rudy Skultety.
16 Q. Did you ask him approximately how many photos total
17 were taken in the case?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. What did he say?
20 A. He said there was -- as of today or yesterday,
21 there was between 13 and 1,400 digital photos and about a
22 thousand 35-millimeter photos.
23 Q. And do you know how those photos were provided in
24 discovery to us?
25 A. Yes.
26 Q. How was that?
27 A. Digital format on a CD.
28 Q. Did that include the 35-millimeters as well?
1140
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Now, when you took the pictures in the defendant's
3 shop on the 24th, where did you get that camera from?
4 A. A patrol officer that was working patrol, Doug
5 Ridenour Jr.
6 Q. Did you ever change the camera's film during the
7 time you were taking the pictures?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Now, are you aware of last Friday, did Detective
10 Grogan and Detective Skultety take your original negatives
11 from that film out of evidence and have them developed into
12 prints at the Camera Center?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Did you talk to them about it?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And did you compare the original negatives that you
17 had taken with the prints that they had made?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. What I mean by that, did you look at the negatives
20 and compare them with the prints?
21 A. Yes, I did.
22 Q. And see -- were they -- were these prints the
23 prints of the negatives that you took?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Let me show you some photos.
26 THE COURT: You want those all done individually?
27 MR. DISTASO: I don't need them all done, quite
28 frankly, but I guess --
1141
1 MR. GERAGOS: I know this is not my witness, however --
2 THE COURT: If it will save time, speak up.
3 MR. GERAGOS: Yes. There is a problem with these. I
4 have specifically been requesting these. I specifically
5 requested that these photos be turned over. The photos were
6 not turned over. I got the photos last Thursday in a
7 similar package with the videos. I have since then made
8 other requests because I believe that these were not timely
9 discovered either to Mr. Distaso or to myself. They were
10 then discovered to us, as the term is used, on Thursday, I
11 believe, or actually may have even been Monday.
12 MR. HARRIS: Monday.
13 MR. GERAGOS: Monday of this week. I have requested
14 that I be able to look at the negatives. I do not believe
15 that it's appropriate at this point for them to have this
16 officer testify as to anything to do with these photos since
17 they were not provided either to the prosecution or the
18 defense until Monday of this week, and Mr. Distaso and I
19 have been trying to make arrangements for me to have an
20 expert come in and take a look at whatever it is took place,
21 because clearly something took place with these photos that
22 were originally overexposed, now not overexposed; originally
23 turned in, turned over to the defense in one format, now
24 they are turned over in a different format, and apparently
25 were not turned over to the prosecution at all.
26 So I have tentatively scheduled with Mr. Distaso having
27 my expert come in and take a look at these on Tuesday, if we
28 can arrange it today, and I would object to them being
1142
1 entered into evidence or this officer testifying to any of
2 them.
3 MR. DISTASO: Actually, Your Honor, that's mostly not
4 true. The part that's correct is that I did give him a copy
5 of these prints that I had made from the original negatives,
6 which we just had made on Friday. The original negatives
7 have always been booked into evidence. They've always been
8 there. I then said because we had some issues with the
9 photos in the questioning, I said, you know what, I'm not
10 going use these digital ones been provided. I told the
11 detectives I want original prints from the negatives that
12 I'm going to use in court, and I had those made Friday. I
13 think they came to me Friday afternoon or something. I got
14 them to the -- I had prints made for the defense as well. I
15 got him those copies of the prints on Monday.
16 These pictures have all been discovered to them in
17 digital format. There are pictures that -- what he's
18 characterizing as overexposed, they're actually in evidence.
19 They're kind of washed out. Those were just scanned
20 incorrectly. In fact, if you look at the pictures, the
21 Court can see that they're the exact pictures that I'm
22 introducing now that are in prints. They can cross-examine
23 the detective all they want on this.
24 I have agreed to have Mr. Geragos and whatever photo
25 expert he wants go with my detectives over to the Camera
26 Center. They can look at the negatives together. But this
27 information has been all discovered. This is just
28 additional prints that I had made from the original
1143
1 negatives which I didn't -- I didn't have prints from the
2 original negatives because it came over in CD format, which
3 I'm certainly allowed to do. This is not any surprise or
4 shock or new evidence or anything else of that nature. I'm
5 making accommodations to have these negatives looked at by
6 their detectives. The negatives are listed on the property
7 sheets that they've been aware of from day one.
8 So, like I said, other than the fact that I gave him
9 the prints on Monday, I do disagree with the
10 characterization that has been represented to the Court.
11 MR. GERAGOS: Well, if the Court wants to just take a
12 look at the photos that they first used and marked to put
13 into evidence and then put take a look at the photos today.
14 THE COURT: Are you talking about the ones you placed
15 in evidence?
16 MR. GERAGOS: They have 88 through 92 and then I
17 entered into the other 13. Take a look at the original 13.
18 Mr. Distaso buried in that several paragraph statement
19 of his, slipped in, "It was scanned incorrectly." What that
20 means is that they were absolutely illegible. Today or
21 Monday I all of a sudden get what appear to be legible
22 photos, which in his own reports that he turned over, he
23 maintains that he had never seen them either.
24 MR. DISTASO: Well, no, I told the Court that. I mean,
25 I didn't have these prints until Friday afternoon. So, I
26 mean, I'm not misrepresenting anything to the Court. I told
27 the Court that. I had the same things that the defense had
28 that were on the digital format. But because there was this
1144
1 issue with them being the original -- I mean, being blurred
2 out that came over to us, I told the detectives I wanted
3 original prints off the negatives. There's nothing improper
4 about that, nothing sneaky or underhanded about that. I'm
5 certainly entitled to do that.
6 THE COURT: We'll take a recess. During the recess,
7 you can look at them closely. I'll allow you to examine --
8 THE BAILIFF: Remain seated.
9 THE COURT: Wait a minute.
10 MR. GERAGOS: I didn't hear the rest of the ruling.
11 THE COURT: You people want to come back in, you better
12 stay quiet right now.
13 I'm sorry?
14 MR. GERAGOS: I didn't hear the rest of the Court's
15 ruling. You'll have them --
16 THE COURT: I got interrupted by the crowd trying to
17 reach the rest room.
18 Essentially, we'll mark those prints. During the
19 recess, you'll have an opportunity to look at them all. I'm
20 going to allow the direct examination to proceed on those.
21 Whether they get introduced in evidence or not will depend
22 upon your cross-examination. I'll allow more time on that.
23 You can call him back on that tomorrow, if you need him.
24 MR. GERAGOS: We can defer that until after Tuesday if
25 I need it?
26 THE COURT: Tuesday? I don't think we're going to go
27 that long.
28 MR. GERAGOS: At the current pace, I have no idea when
1145
1 this prelim may end.
2 THE COURT: I'd say you'll be entitled to cross-examine
3 him at a later time.
4 MR. GERAGOS: Okay.
5 THE COURT: We'll take our recess here until 20 to
6 11:00.
7 Now, you may leave.
8 (Proceedings recessed at 10:25 a.m.)
9
10 (People's Exhibits 98 through 124,
11 inclusive, were marked for
12 identification.)
13
14 ---o0o---
|
|
|
|
|
AFTERNOON SESSION
1146
1 hursday, November 13, 2003 10:40 a.m.
2 THE COURT: Record will show everyone is present.
3 You may continue your redirect, Mr. Distaso.
4 MR. DISTASO: I think those photos are marked.
5 THE CLERK: Right here.
6 MR. DISTASO: They're over here somewhere? Oh. Are
7 you going to look at those other ones real quick?
8 MR. GERAGOS: You're going to put those in now?
9 MR. DISTASO: These.
10 MR. GERAGOS: You need to mark these. Take that.
11 MR. DISTASO: Q. Okay. Detective, take a look at 98
12 through -- People's 98 through People's 124. 98's like a
13 contact sheet. The -- People's 98 through 124, what -- do
14 you recognize those photos?
15 A. I do.
16 Q. And are those the photos I just asked you about
17 that we -- that I had made into prints from the negatives?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Okay. And do those photos accurately reflect the
20 pictures that you took on December 24th of 2002?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. All right. In one of those pictures -- and if you
23 can go ahead and find it. Is there a picture there that
24 shows the pliers that we've been talking about?
25 A. It's Item Number 115.
26 Q. Okay. So People's 115?
27 A. Uh-huh.
28 Q. All right. And what about -- is there any of those
1147
1 pictures that show where you left your binder in the boat?
2 A. Yes. Photo Number 113.
3 Q. Now, Mr. McAllister asked you about the tip that
4 you called in to the Laci Tip Line. Can you explain for the
5 Court what happened in regard to that?
6 A. We had received a tip on our tip line that was
7 worthy of being followed up on --
8 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. Nonresponsive. Move to
9 strike.
10 THE COURT: Sustained. Just answer the question.
11 MR. DISTASO: Q. Well, actually, did you receive a tip
12 on the Modesto Police Department Tip Line that you believed
13 should be followed up on?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And did you get other -- just for comparison, did
16 you get other tips that were clearly, I guess, so far out in
17 kind of the crazy realm that they didn't need to be followed
18 up on?
19 A. That wasn't the only reason we didn't follow up on
20 some tips. Some tips came in so detailed they didn't need
21 follow-up on. Some tips came in so outlandish, from a
22 psychic or something, that they didn't need following up on.
23 And then there was a lot in the middle.
24 Q. Okay. And the ones that were in the middle,
25 were -- those were the tips that were mostly followed up on?
26 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. Leading question. Move to
27 strike.
28 THE COURT: Sustained.
1148
1 MR. DISTASO: Explain --
2 Q. Just explain the procedure for the tips you said
3 fell in the middle.
4 A. The tips that came in, if we could eliminate them
5 by just the tip themselves, meaning, you know, they say they
6 saw Scott or Laci on Christmas Day, I mean, we know he was
7 with me on Christmas Day, so we would just flat out
8 eliminate a tip like that.
9 If we got a tip in that was very detailed, meaning
10 they -- you know, they told us they thought they saw
11 somebody, they thought they saw what they were wearing, but
12 they couldn't say who it was, and it was a detailed tip that
13 didn't need any more questions asked, we didn't follow up on
14 it.
15 And then there was tips that, you know, "I was out
16 driving my truck," or, "I was out, and I saw a truck and a
17 boat or I saw something, I saw somebody at a bus stop that
18 could have been her," that we couldn't eliminate just by the
19 tip, then we would try to follow up on it.
20 Q. How many tip lines were there?
21 A. Two, that I know of.
22 Q. Okay. And what were those?
23 A. The Modesto Police Department Tip Line and the Laci
24 Peterson Tip Line.
25 Q. Okay. The Modesto Police Department Tip Line was
26 obviously one that your office established?
27 A. Yes.
28 Q. Who established the other tip line?
1149
1 A. I saw Scott on the TV say that he established it.
2 I don't know if it was him or his parents. But it was
3 established by Scott's family.
4 Q. All right. And why -- okay. Now, let's -- now,
5 let me ask you about this tip that Mr. McAllister was asking
6 about. What was that tip that came in?
7 A. Can I -- give me one second.
8 Q. Sure.
9 A. On January 9th, we received a tip from a Marietta
10 Wallace, who reported to us that a coworker of hers, she
11 gave us the first name of David, had been driving his truck
12 on westbound 580 on Christmas Eve about 0300 hours, or 3:00
13 in the morning, and Wallace told -- I mean, David told
14 Wallace that he had seen a large bundle wrapped in a blue
15 blanket, like a Mexican-motif-type blanket, in the back of a
16 small boat that David said looked like Scott's truck and
17 boat with this bundle in the back.
18 And so I followed up by figuring out who David was, and
19 I had him down for a couple of interviews.
20 Q. Okay. So you followed up on that tip?
21 A. Yes, I did.
22 Q. And that was a tip received on the Modesto Police
23 Department Tip Line?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And what did you then do in reference to placing
26 that tip or calling that tip into the Laci Peterson Tip Line
27 established by the defendant's family?
28 A. I don't have -- I have to look through my report to
1150
1 get the exact date, but when that tip line came up, and we
2 weren't getting any tips from it, it was being advertised, I
3 called in that exact same tip to the -- to the tip line, and
4 I gave them a cold number to the Modesto Police Department
5 as a call-back to see if anybody would call me back and
6 follow up on that tip.
7 Q. And what do you mean by "cold number"?
8 A. Just the number that comes into the police
9 department, but it wouldn't come up on caller ID, it
10 wouldn't show any way that it belonged to the police
11 department, but it was a good phone number.
12 Q. And did -- why did you -- did you call the tip in
13 exactly as it came in to you?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And why did you do that? Why did you call that tip
16 in into the Laci Peterson Tip Line?
17 A. I wanted to find out if anybody was following up on
18 tips that that tip line was getting.
19 Q. And did anyone from -- or was that tip line -- was
20 that tip then ever passed on back to anyone at the Modesto
21 Police Department?
22 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. Calls for hearsay,
23 speculation.
24 THE COURT: Sustained.
25 MR. DISTASO: Q. Well, to your knowledge, was it?
26 MR. MCALLISTER: Same objection, Your Honor.
27 THE COURT: You want to do it under Prop 115? I think
28 it's allowed.
1151
1 MR. DISTASO: That's what I'm doing it under.
2 THE WITNESS: I reviewed every tip that came in from
3 that tip line, and that tip never came in.
4 MR. DISTASO: Q. So the Modesto Police Department was
5 receiving some tips from the Laci Peterson Tip Line?
6 A. We were getting -- we were getting documents. None
7 of them were tips.
8 Q. Okay. So what were you getting from the tip line?
9 A. Different media outlets calling and asking to
10 interview Scott. That was it. We never got anything -- any
11 kind of a tip like we were getting every day from that --
12 and those tips on the Laci Peterson, they were sub -- you
13 know, they would come when we'd get --
14 MR. MCALLISTER: This is nonresponsive, Your Honor.
15 THE COURT: Sustained.
16 MR. DISTASO: Q. What types of tips would come to you
17 from the Laci Peterson Tip Line?
18 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. That calls for -- it's an
19 argumentative with an ambiguous question.
20 THE COURT: It's outside the borders of necessity. So
21 I'm going to sustain that.
22 MR. DISTASO: Q. So this particular -- this particular
23 tip that you called in to the Laci Peterson Tip Line, was
24 that tip ever then provided back to the Modesto Police
25 Department?
26 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. Same -- that's been asked
27 and answered.
28 THE COURT: Sustained.
1152
1 MR. DISTASO: Q. Now, Mr. McAllister asked you about
2 yesterday kind of at length about this surveillance and what
3 was going on regarding the surveillance of the defendant
4 during the -- during the -- January. Were you involved in
5 the surveillance of the defendant in any capacity?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And what was that?
8 A. I monitored it, mostly. I was one of the people
9 that would remain in Nextel or radio communication or phone
10 communication with a member of the surveillance team.
11 Q. Did -- were you aware of any surveillance that was
12 taking place of the defendant on January 5th?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And what -- what happened regarding the
15 surveillance of the defendant on January 5th?
16 A. He was followed by our officers -- can I just refer
17 to my report so I can get my dates right?
18 Q. Yeah, if that -- did you write a report about
19 this -- about your involvement in the surveillance?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And if you'd review your report now, would that
22 help refresh your memory as to dates and particular details?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Go ahead.
25 MR. MCALLISTER: I'm going to object to that as beyond
26 the scope of cross, Your Honor.
27 THE COURT: Overruled.
28 THE WITNESS: Our surveillance team followed him
1153
1 between roughly 7:30 in the morning and 11:40 in the morning
2 driving around in Modesto, he was driving his Land Rover --
3 MR. DISTASO: Q. Let me stop you.
4 Was that a car that, based on the surveillance, you had
5 associated with the defendant?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Okay. Go ahead. What happened next?
8 A. About 11:42, he was followed back to his residence,
9 where the surveillance units watched him go into his house.
10 He came out about an hour later wearing different clothing,
11 he got into a small silver Subaru that was parked in his
12 driveway, and then the surveillance units followed him
13 directly to the Berkeley Marina.
14 Q. Okay. Did they -- did the defendant on that
15 occasion make any stops prior to going to the Berkeley
16 Marina?
17 MR. MCALLISTER: I'm going to object to this as beyond
18 the scope of cross, Your Honor.
19 THE COURT: Didn't sound like it was covered earlier.
20 Are you going to reopen?
21 MR. DISTASO: I am asking to reopen, Your Honor.
22 THE COURT: Go ahead.
23
24 DIRECT EXAMINATION (REOPENED)
25 MR. DISTASO: Q. What -- did the surveillance units
26 report that he, the defendant, had made any stops?
27 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. Leading question.
28 THE COURT: Sustained.
1154
1 MR. DISTASO: Q. Did the defendant did make any stops
2 on the way to the Berkeley Marina?
3 A. No.
4 Q. And did they report to you what happened when the
5 defendant got to the Berkeley Marina?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. What happened?
8 A. He pulled into the Berkeley Marina boat launch
9 area, he stayed about five minutes, and then -- and he
10 stared out towards the bay, according to the officer. It
11 appeared he was looking --
12 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. That's going to be
13 speculation on the --
14 THE WITNESS: Right.
15 MR. MCALLISTER: -- part of whoever's reporting it --
16 MR. DISTASO: Okay. The officer reported to you --
17 MR. MCALLISTER: -- the part that talked about what it
18 appeared.
19 MR. DISTASO: Okay. The officer reported to you that
20 the defendant looked out towards the bay.
21 A. He looked out towards the bay.
22 Q. And what did he say happened next?
23 A. Then he drove home, drove straight back to Modesto.
24 Q. Okay. Was it ever reported to you he made any
25 stops on the way back?
26 A. No.
27 Q. Did -- were you involved in the surveillance in
28 this monitoring capacity on January 6th?
1155
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. And what happened on that day regarding the
3 surveillance of the defendant?
4 A. The surveillance units followed -- saw him leave
5 his house about 7:30 in the morning, he drove to the Red
6 Lion, where he stayed there for about 45 minutes --
7 Q. Okay. Let me stop you.
8 What was happening at the Red Lion at this time, if
9 you're aware?
10 A. The volunteer center was operating for Laci
11 Peterson.
12 Q. Okay. What happened next then?
13 A. After he left the Red Lion, they followed him to
14 Kirk McAllister's office --
15 Q. Okay. Don't tell me about that. What happened
16 next?
17 A. They followed him to the Enterprise Rent-A-Car
18 business.
19 Q. Do you know where that's located?
20 A. It's on 7th and G Street.
21 Q. Okay. What happened --
22 A. Or something and G.
23 Q. What did they say happened -- what did they report
24 to you happened next?
25 A. That he rented a small red Honda, and he left
26 his -- he left his vehicle, the Land Rover, in the
27 Enterprise lot, he rented a Honda, and then they followed,
28 the surveillance units followed him in the Honda to the
1156
1 Berkeley Marina.
2 Q. Again, did the defendant -- did they report to you
3 whether or not the defendant made any stops on the way to
4 the Berkeley Marina?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. What did they say?
7 A. That he didn't.
8 Q. Okay. And what did they say happened when they
9 arrived at the Berkeley Marina?
10 A. He parked just north of the boat launch, he stared
11 out into the bay about two minutes, then he drove back.
12 Q. And, again, on the way back, did they report to you
13 whether or not he made any stops on the way back?
14 A. On the way back, immediately after leaving, he
15 began doing counter-surveillance --
16 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. That calls for
17 speculation.
18 THE COURT: I'll sustain that.
19 MR. DISTASO: Q. Okay. On the way back --
20 MR. MCALLISTER: Move to strike.
21 THE COURT: That answer is stricken.
22 MR. DISTASO: Q. On the way back, did the surveilling
23 agents report to you whether or not they were able to --
24 whether or not they maintained constant surveillance of the
25 defendant the entire trip back to Modesto?
26 A. Yes.
27 Q. What'd they say?
28 A. They did not.
1157
1 Q. Okay. And did they say why they couldn't?
2 A. Yes.
3 MR. MCALLISTER: Objection. Irrelevant.
4 THE COURT: Overruled.
5 THE WITNESS: Yes.
6 MR. DISTASO: Q. What'd they say?
7 A. That Scott was driving erratically, meaning
8 stopping on the side of the freeway, making U-turns in the
9 middle of blocks, pulling into parking lots and stopping,
10 just briefly, and then taking off, and they were unable to
11 follow him.
12 Q. Okay. Did they ever re-acquire or come back into
13 contact with the defendant on January 6?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. What did they report to you about that?
16 A. They all returned to Modesto after losing him, they
17 set up on the volunteer center, his house and his business,
18 and about 5:18, Peterson arrived back in that Rent-A-Car,
19 he -- he returned -- I think he came to the volunteer
20 center, then they followed him -- he stayed there a minute,
21 followed him from the volunteer center back to the
22 Enterprise Rent-A-Car business where he turned in his
23 Rent-A-Car and picked up his Land Rover.
24 Q. Did -- were you involved in the surveillance of the
25 defendant on January 9th?
26 A. Yes, I was.
27 Q. And, again, was it in this monitoring capacity?
28 A. Yes.
1158
1 Q. And just I guess in a little more detail of that,
2 what did that involve with you as far as communicating with
3 the surveilling units or officers?
4 A. They -- during this time, we had a 24-hour
5 surveillance, and so if he ever left or moved, they would
6 call me, whether on my Nextel or my home phone and keep me
7 updated so I could keep Detective Grogan and the others
8 updated.
9 Q. About where the defendant was going?
10 A. And what his activities were.
11 Q. On January 9th, what did the agents report to you?
12 A. That about 7:00 in the morning, Peterson came out
13 and was seen putting some suitcases into a Rent-A-Car that
14 he had rented the day before.
15 About 10:30, they saw him drive away from the home, and
16 he drove straight to the Berkeley Marina in the rented
17 truck.
18 Q. And what did they say happened next?
19 A. He said he circled the parking lot, stopped,
20 briefly stared out into the bay for a few minutes, and then
21 drove away.
22 Q. And did they say where he went?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Where did he go?
25 A. He went from there to the San Luis-O'Neill Forebay,
26 and then he went to the Double Tree in Bakersfield, and he
27 stayed there for the night.
28 Q. Did -- as part of your investigation, did you speak
1159
1 to a woman by the name of Shawn Sibley?
2 A. Yes, I did.
3 MR. MCALLISTER: I'm going to object to this as beyond
4 the scope of cross.
5 MR. DISTASO: I've offered -- I've actually asked to
6 reopen, Your Honor, and I'm actually asking for any purpose.
7 MR. GERAGOS: If that's the case, could I just indicate
8 for the Court we may get into a situation where we're
9 gonna -- there will be a request for a tag-team
10 cross-examination based on the discrete areas.
11 It appears that Mr. Distaso is now going to, hopefully
12 in an effort to speed things along, have this officer 115
13 other witnesses. And if that's the case, then we'd just
14 request for specific areas we'd be allowed to do that
15 specific cross.
16 THE COURT: Is that the intent? You're eliminating a
17 witness by 115?
18 MR. DISTASO: That's exactly what I'm doing, Your
19 Honor.
20 THE COURT: I'll allow it.
21 MR. DISTASO: And I don't object to this procedure for
22 the limited witnesses that I do this for.
23 Q. What -- detective, when did you meet with
24 Miss Sibley?
25 A. On December 30th.
26 Q. And why did you meet with her?
27 A. She was Amber Frey's best friend at the time, and
28 she was there with Amber Frey when -- when we arrived in
1160
1 Madera to interview Amber Frey.
2 Q. Okay. And what did Miss -- did Miss Sibley tell
3 you that she had had some contact with the defendant in this
4 case?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And what did she say -- what did she tell you about
7 that?
8 A. That she met the defendant in Anaheim, California,
9 during a conference, like a farm-type conference on
10 October 23rd and October 24th.
11 Q. And what did she say her -- her relationship or
12 acquaintanceship was with the defendant?
13 A. She never knew him until that conference, and then
14 they got to know each other at the conference. They had
15 dinner, they had drinks, they -- they visited until I think
16 3 o'clock in the morning. They were friends. And then --
17 then they became business associates also.
18 Shawn Sibley worked in a -- in a -- in ag, in a
19 business that did like -- her company would survey or test,
20 like, farm products. And so he began calling her on a
21 business relationship and a personal relationship.
22 Q. Okay. So they -- did she report to you -- just to
23 speed this along a little bit, did she report to you that
24 they had frequent phone contact over a couple-week period?
25 A. Yes.
26 Q. And what did she tell you in regards to -- did she
27 give you any information in regards to her involvement in
28 the relationship between the defendant and Amber Frey?
1161
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. What did she say about that?
3 A. That Scott had asked her if she had any friends
4 that were, you know, available. And after many
5 conversations, she finally agreed to let Scott meet Amber,
6 as long as Scott, you know, was serious.
7 Q. Was serious about what?
8 A. A relationship.
9 Q. Okay. And did she then somehow facilitate or set
10 up this first contact between the defendant and Amber Frey?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. How'd she do that?
13 A. Through -- she supplied each of them with phone
14 numbers, and their first contacts were on the phone.
15 Q. The -- did she then tell you about a contact she'd
16 had regard -- with the defendant regarding information that
17 she had found out about the defendant potentially being
18 married?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. What did she tell you about that?
21 A. That on December 6, she found out from somebody
22 that worked in her company, that actually applied for a job
23 with Scott, that Scott was married, and he lived in Modesto,
24 and that was both different than what he had ever told Shawn
25 Sibley.
26 Q. Okay. Did she say what -- did she tell you what
27 she then did?
28 A. She called -- first she called one of Scott's
1162
1 employees and asked if the employee knew if Scott was
2 married, and he wouldn't -- he wouldn't tell her. He told
3 her to call Scott. So she called Scott herself.
4 Q. Okay. And what -- what did she tell you that --
5 what took place during that conversation between Miss Sibley
6 and the defendant?
7 A. He -- Scott asked Miss Sibley, he begged her, she
8 said, not to tell Amber about it, he would do it. He said
9 that he sometimes tells people he's married, and he tells
10 some people he's not married, because he's lost his wife.
11 Q. And what else -- did he say anything else?
12 A. Can I look at my report?
13 Q. Go ahead.
14 MR. MCALLISTER: May the record reflect here that
15 there's a long pause while Mr. Brocchini reads his report?
16 THE COURT: About 30 seconds.
17 THE WITNESS: Okay.
18 MR. DISTASO: Q. Go ahead, detective.
19 A. That Shawn told Scott, "Look, all I care about, are
20 you married or aren't you married?"
21 And Scott said, "Look, I'm not married, I lost my wife,
22 and let me break it to Amber."
23 Q. And did she tell you whether or not that she called
24 Amber and told her about this information?
25 A. She said she did not.
26 Q. Did she say what the defendant's emotional state
27 was when he was giving her this information?
28 A. Yes.
1163
1 Q. What did she -- how did she describe that?
2 A. As -- he was -- sounded extremely upset and like he
3 was crying.
4 Q. Did she say whether or not she received a call from
5 the defendant where he again spoke to her about this
6 information about his wife being lost and how it related to
7 Amber Frey?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. What did she say about that?
10 A. She said on the 9th, Scott called her back, and he
11 told her that he had told Amber everything. And then Shawn
12 Sibley said she immediately called Amber and confirmed what
13 Scott had said.
14 Q. And did she say whether or not she had seen,
15 physically seen the defendant and Amber at a party on
16 December 11?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. What -- what did she say about that?
19 A. She said that Scott and Amber attended her fiance's
20 birthday party on December 11th.
21 MR. DISTASO: Nothing further, Your Honor.
22 THE COURT: Mr. McAllister, you want to start?
23 MR. MCALLISTER: Yeah.
24
25 RECROSS-EXAMINATION
26 MR. MCALLISTER: Q. When you -- you know Mr. Lovell
27 from other cases, you've told us, right?
28 A. Yes.
1164
1 Q. Doug Lovell, right?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. He was around yesterday on another case in the
4 hallway, right?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Now, when you tell Mr. Lovell to, quote, "look for
7 evidence," is that a code word for "grab any evidence you
8 can see without consent of the person"?
9 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Misstates the
10 testimony.
11 THE COURT: Overruled.
12 THE WITNESS: Are you asking about in this case or in
13 any case --
14 MR. MCALLISTER: Q. No, I'm saying is it some general
15 practice, if you tell him, "Doug, look for evidence," that
16 that has some meaning beyond those words between you and
17 him, that that really means, "If you see something that
18 might be interesting, scoop it up and take it and" --
19 A. I think in other circumstances, when I've told Doug
20 Lovell, "Look, collect that mop, collect those rags, and
21 look for any other evidence," I don't need to say any more.
22 But I imagine I would say, "And collect it too." But it's
23 pretty implied that if I'm telling him to collect something
24 and look for more evidence, it means collect it.
25 Q. Well, you could look for evidence and -- you could
26 certainly look for evidence and then signal to you or one of
27 the other detectives that, "Gee, we've got some evidence
28 here," right?
1165
1 A. Well, I was hoping --
2 Q. Or, "Maybe we've got some evidence. You want me to
3 take that?"
4 A. Yeah, I was hoping he would do that, but he never
5 did.
6 Q. But when you spoke with him --
7 A. Just so we're clear, I never did speak with him
8 that night.
9 Q. With who? Lovell?
10 A. Yeah. I never did.
11 Q. On 12-24, you never actually spoke with him?
12 A. No. I told -- he wasn't there. I told Letsinger,
13 Officer Letsinger, I said, "Stand in front of the door.
14 When Lovell gets here, tell him to collect the mop, the
15 bucket, and the towels." And I know what I wrote, "Look for
16 any other evidence," and I'll go with that. That's probably
17 what I said. And that's what Letsinger told Lovell, I
18 hope -- I imagine.
19 Q. Well, you don't know that?
20 A. Well, I know he did what I asked him to do.
21 Q. Have you worked with Letsinger before?
22 A. Yeah, I've worked with him.
23 Q. So if you left directions with him, you trusted
24 that he would follow out your stated intent, right?
25 A. I trust Letsinger to relay what I told him to
26 whoever I told him to tell it to.
27 Q. And, in fact, you were going to be going over to
28 the warehouse and then, after that, to the Modesto Police
1166
1 Department while this stuff was either being looked at or
2 gathered up, right?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Did anybody recontact you of those other officers
5 while you were en route to the warehouse, at the warehouse,
6 leaving the warehouse, or at the Modesto Police Department
7 saying words to the effect of, "Hey, should we do this?
8 Should we take this?"
9 A. No.
10 Q. "What are your instructions?"
11 A. No.
12 Q. Nobody recontacted you to get any clarification of
13 that?
14 A. No, I was clear on my instructions, and nobody
15 contacted me because they had other questions.
16 Q. Now, and had you gotten consent from Scott Peterson
17 to get the mop and bucket?
18 A. Had I gotten consent?
19 Q. Yeah.
20 A. I didn't ask him if I could take the mop and
21 bucket.
22 Q. So I guess the answer would be no?
23 A. I had consent to be in his house.
24 Q. Okay. You didn't walk out with a sofa, right?
25 A. I walked out with a gun.
26 Q. Okay. And, through someone else, a mop and a
27 bucket, right?
28 A. And towels.
1167
1 Q. And towels.
2 A. Right.
3 Q. But --
4 A. And photos.
5 Q. And while in your absence, Scott Peterson certainly
6 would not be there to give his consent, since he was gonna
7 be with you, right?
8 A. He was with me.
9 Q. Right.
10 A. Uh-huh.
11 Q. So when you gave those instructions to Letsinger,
12 you knew that there wouldn't be anyone there to voice any
13 objection to it, because Mr. Peterson was gonna be with you
14 going over, looking at the warehouse with consent, right?
15 A. I knew Mr. Peterson was gonna be with me.
16 Q. Now, the questions about the photographs,
17 Mr. Brocchini, are going to be handled by my co-counsel
18 here, but let me ask you one question about something you
19 were asked about during that same period of time.
20 You told us on redirect that you had not seen any
21 pliers in the boat when you were there on December 24th,
22 right?
23 A. That's right.
24 Q. And then only later do you see them in a photo once
25 you're looking at the photographs from -- that you
26 apparently have taken on December 24th? Right again?
27 A. That I did take on December 24th.
28 Q. And when was it that you saw the photos that you're
1168
1 talking about where you first realized that, "Gee, maybe
2 that looks like pliers"?
3 A. Say that again?
4 Q. Yeah. When was it that you were looking at those
5 photographs where you realized, "Gee, it looks like there's
6 some pliers in there"?
7 A. Well, on February 11th, we saw the evidence photo
8 of the pliers with the hair in it. And when we saw that, I
9 said, "Wow, let me look at my photos."
10 And so then I went right away and looked at my photos,
11 and I said, "There they are."
12 Q. Now, so you were looking at first some photo that
13 someone else had taken of a plier?
14 A. I was looking at the photo of the -- that -- I'm
15 not sure who took it, but it was taken as evidence on the
16 day of the search warrant, I think on 12-27.
17 Q. And you had not previously -- were you actually
18 looking at the pliers themselves at that point on February
19 2nd -- February 11th?
20 A. Photo of the pliers.
21 Q. Photo of the pliers.
22 Okay. So after that happens, did you go in and
23 actually look at the hair itself?
24 A. Not that day.
25 Q. You went the next day?
26 A. That's right.
27 Q. February 12th?
28 Now, in mid -- where did you go to look at the hair?
1169
1 A. Went to the Modesto Police Department evidence
2 property room.
3 Q. Okay. Was there a particular room that had been
4 set aside for the property?
5 A. There is a particular room that's set aside for
6 the -- it's all a room. There's three rooms in there, not
7 counting what's in the back.
8 Q. Okay. Had a particular room been set aside for
9 evidence in this case?
10 A. At that time?
11 Q. Yeah.
12 A. Was there a particular room --
13 Q. Yeah.
14 A. -- set aside for this -- for evidence? No, I could
15 use any room I wanted in that building.
16 Q. And so to go and look at that hair physically, what
17 did you have to do, go to this evidence building, right?
18 A. I had to go in there, use my key card to get into
19 the front door, into the secure area. Then I had to ring
20 the doorbell and ask the clerk or the evidence tech to get
21 me this item of evidence, and I had to wait for it, then she
22 had to give it to me, and then I got to look at it.
23 Q. Okay. And there's a little viewing room there that
24 you can look at it in? Is that where you looked at it?
25 A. I looked at it right in the -- inside the secure
26 area at the counter right outside the window.
27 Q. Okay. And is there any sign-in sheet that you have
28 to sign in there?
1170
1 A. No.
2 Q. To view evidence, is there any kind of a log that
3 you have to either sign your name or sign your badge number
4 or have the ID person sign off that you'd been there?
5 A. To view evidence, no. Not then.
6 Q. And so then you went there, and you looked at
7 that -- and that's when you looked at that hair in an
8 envelope?
9 A. I took it out of the envelope.
10 Q. Okay. And what did you do when you had it out of
11 the envelope?
12 A. I looked at it through a magnifying glass.
13 Q. Had you brought that with you to go over there?
14 A. No, they have one there.
15 Q. Oh, they have one there? They supply that for you?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And then what did you do after you looked at it
18 under a magnifying glass?
19 A. Detective Hendee then looked at it, and then we
20 packaged it into a small box, put it back in the evidence
21 envelope, gave it back to the clerk.
22 Q. Did you make any report of your activities on the
23 12th of February relating to going to the evidence room and
24 looking at that hair?
25 A. A report was generated, but not by me.
26 Q. I guess the answer to my question would be no?
27 A. I didn't make a report.
28 Q. Now, you also were asked questions about various
1171
1 fishing licenses that Mr. Peterson had that you found during
2 the course of your investigation?
3 A. That's right.
4 Q. And the total number of those was what?
5 A. Four two-day licenses and one yearlong license.
6 Q. And those went over a span of from 1999 to December
7 of 2002?
8 A. No.
9 Q. What was the span?
10 A. There was one in 1994, two in 1999, one in 2002,
11 and one in 2003.
12 Q. Okay. Well, you say one in 2003. Are you going by
13 the date, the printed date on the license?
14 A. On the two-day license, the date is handwritten in.
15 On a regular license, the yearlong, the only one there was
16 was 1994. And so, yeah, I'm going on the date of the
17 license.
18 Q. Okay. On the most recent of those licenses, a
19 two-day license wherein it's handwritten in December 23rd
20 and 24th?
21 A. That was the date it would be valid, in the box
22 date valid, 23, 24.
23 Q. Although on the printed license itself, it said
24 2003?
25 A. 2002. I'm sorry. Two for 2002.
26 Q. Well. What are you writing down now?
27 A. My note there. I'm just making it a two. It
28 wasn't even 2003 yet, so --
1172
1 Q. Right. But that's what the license said, wasn't
2 it?
3 A. Can I look at it?
4 Q. Sure.
5 MR. DISTASO: Your Honor, it's marked as an exhibit.
6 Perhaps that would be a better thing for him to look at.
7 THE WITNESS: You're right, it does say 2003, but it
8 says --
9 MR. MCALLISTER: Q. Now, is that --
10 A. -- it was issued on 12-23 of 2002.
11 Q. Two. Although it's actually -- technically, it's
12 for the following year, right?
13 A. That's right. That's right.
14 Q. Okay.
15 A. It was handed to me in 2002, though, so --
16 Q. Well, of course. It's 2002.
17 A. Right.
18 Q. And does it have some sort of extra endorsement or
19 certification or something for where it would be used?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And what is that, sir?
22 A. It has a 2003 ocean enhancement sport fishing
23 stamp.
24 Q. Now, you said that you've got some familiarity with
25 fishing. Do you know what that means?
26 A. It means he can fish in the ocean.
27 Q. Okay. Now, regarding this tip line, now, you
28 got -- you told us earlier, last Thursday, actually, that
1173
1 you got -- at least in the early months of this
2 investigation, that you got hundreds of tips daily, right?
3 A. We were getting a lot of tips, yeah.
4 Q. So you've got a suspicion that when this -- well,
5 let me ask another question first.
6 The date that you called the Laci Info Hot Line -- and
7 that was the name of this new tip line, right?
8 A. Yeah.
9 Q. The date that you called it was the 20 -- 20th of
10 February?
11 A. I can't -- I'm trying to find -- that's going to be
12 a hard one for me to find, but --
13 Q. Well, do you want to see my copy just to --
14 A. No, because if you told me the date, I'll find it.
15 Q. Okay?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. That was the 20th of February --
18 A. Yes, it was.
19 Q. -- right?
20 And how long had that tip line been in existence at the
21 point where you called the tip line posing as a tipster on
22 the 20th of February?
23 A. I don't know what date it was opened. I know the
24 first tip that we knew about that they received was on the
25 13th of February. So it would have been a week. But I
26 don't know for sure what date it was started.
27 Q. Okay. Well, the information that you had was that
28 it had been operating a week or maybe a couple weeks at that
1174
1 point?
2 A. Well, because we were -- I know my partner asked
3 Scott about it, and he gave us some tips, and the first tip
4 we got --
5 Q. You mean tips from the Laci Info Tip Line?
6 A. Yeah, he gave us some tips. And the first tip we
7 got was dated on the 13th. So I don't know if there was --
8 it does say Tip Number 115, so I don't know -- he didn't
9 give us 115 of them, but -- that's why we were a little
10 concerned. He gave us like -- they're all numbered, 15, 16,
11 17, and then there would be like two or three missing, and
12 then there's more.
13 So we weren't sure if he was culling out tips that were
14 on him or on tips that were on Laci sightings that we didn't
15 know about, and he was only giving us, you know, "The
16 Associated Press from San Diego wants to talk to you,"
17 "Private investigator, very important, please call," you
18 know, "Somebody lives in Don Pedro and is a retired police
19 officer wants to help," stuff -- those were the only kind of
20 tips we were getting, and I was curious about the tips we
21 weren't getting.
22 Q. Well, you were concerned that there were other tips
23 out there that somebody else may be getting and working on,
24 right?
25 A. I was concerned there was other tips out there that
26 somebody else was getting and not working on.
27 Q. And so you thought there were tips that you weren't
28 getting, and so you fed a tip to this tip line to see if you
1175
1 wouldn't get it; is that right?
2 A. If -- there was a couple of tips fed to this tip
3 line to see what would happen with them.
4 Q. Oh, Detective Grogan tried this, doing this too,
5 right?
6 A. I don't remember Grogan. I remember a female FBI
7 agent doing it, though.
8 Q. Well, this -- this must have been a major detour in
9 your investigation while you're now investigating the tip
10 line, right?
11 A. It really wasn't a detour, Mr. McAllister. It took
12 me a minute to do this tip. But we were interested in what
13 the tip line was getting, and we were concerned that we
14 weren't getting any tips, any -- with substance from it, and
15 it was disturbing to us.
16 Q. Well, there was no drop-off -- there was no
17 corresponding drop-off of the number of tips that the
18 official Modesto Police Department-endorsed tip line was
19 getting, right?
20 A. I can't say that. There may have been a drop-off.
21 I don't know.
22 Q. I mean, this didn't all of a sudden start looking
23 like the, you know, KVIE auction with a lot of people
24 waiting to listen to the phones, but they're not ringing?
25 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.
26 THE COURT: Overruled.
27 THE WITNESS: Our phones were ringing.
28 MR. MCALLISTER: Q. Okay.
1176
1 A. But we were following up on every lead,
2 Mr. McAllister. Even the leads we weren't getting we wanted
3 to follow up on.
4 Q. And that's why you subpoenaed the FBI -- or got the
5 FBI to subpoena the information from the tip line, right?
6 A. I had a reason that I wanted this tip line
7 subpoenaed. Like I said, I don't know if it did, but I had
8 a reason, and that wasn't it.
9 Q. You're at that point obsessed with the idea that
10 someone else may solve this case ahead of you, weren't you?
11 MR. DISTASO: Objection. Argumentative.
12 THE COURT: Sustained.
13 MR. MCALLISTER: Q. And then it wasn't just a minute
14 that it took to phone the tip line. Then didn't you have to
15 have somebody cull through the information or wait by the
16 phone or do something to see if any of these various tips
17 that other people, including -- other than you were calling
18 in to see if they were acted upon? Didn't you have to
19 double-check, "Did anybody call this cold phone today?"
20 Right?
21 A. It had an answering machine on it. And, I mean,
22 when you're in the office 12, 13, 15, 16 hours, it ain't
23 hard to look over and see if the line is blinking, like
24 maybe somebody called it back. That didn't take me any time
25 at all.
26 Q. Now, when you -- you said that you put this hair in
27 a box. Where did that box come from?
28 A. That isn't what I said.
1177
1 Q. Where did you put the hair?
2 A. Detective Hendee packaged the hair in an evidence
3 box and then placed it into the evidence -- the original
4 evidence envelope.
5 Q. Were you there?
6 A. Yes, I was.
7 Q. Where'd the box come from?
8 A. Our evidence room. It's a brand new evidence box.
9 Q. What -- I guess we have to ask what an evidence box
10 is, then?
11 A. It's a small sterile box that has a lid on it, and
12 it's cardboard, and it's probably about, I would -- my guess
13 is it's two and a half inches by an inch, or somewhere
14 similar to that, by about three quarters of an inch
15 (indicates), has a small lid and so you can -- I think
16 mainly what we use it for are casings or bullets recovered.
17 Small box like that. It was placed in there, labeled,
18 sealed, placed in the original evidence envelope, sealed,
19 and turned back in.
20 Q. So what was the receptacle that that hair was in
21 when you went there February 12th and asked to see it and
22 then it was first brought out? What was it in at that
23 point?
24 A. It was in a Manila envelope, a small evidence
25 Manila envelope, which is about four and a half by, I don't
26 know, eight or nine. Flap on it. Same thing as an evidence
27 envelope.
28 Q. And how was that sealed, if it was?
1178
1 A. It was sealed with tape, with the initials of Dodge
2 Hendee, had an evidence number on it, had 12-27 on it, had
3 the case number on it.
4 Q. And where did that envelope go?
5 A. It's -- the box went back into that envelope, and
6 then that envelope was resealed, I initialed it, and we put
7 it back into evidence.
8 Q. And going back to your conversations with
9 Mr. Lovell, your instructions to him were to collect any
10 other evidence that he -- that he saw?
11 A. I never spoke to Lovell.
12 Q. But the instructions you relayed through Letsinger.
13 A. I can only go by what I wrote in my report. I told
14 him to collect the mop, mop bucket, the towels, and I don't
15 remember my exact words. I wrote, "Look for other
16 evidence." But that, to me, to Letsinger, to Lovell is,
17 "Collect it if you find it."
18 Q. Okay.
19 A. "And also use a light source to look around the
20 house and take photos."
21 Q. Okay. And did Mr. Lovell collect anything other
22 than the mop bucket?
23 A. He only collected what I had told Letsinger to tell
24 him to collect: Mop buckets, mops, and white towels.
25 Q. Okay. And the --
26 A. And the photos.
27 Q. And look for any other evidence, apparently -- that
28 look that he did produced no other evidence that he either
1179
1 latched on to that night or signalled to the attention of
2 any other officers, to your knowledge?
3 A. That's right.
4 MR. MCALLISTER: I don't have any other questions, Your
5 Honor, but Mr. Geragos does, since they've introduced some
6 new areas.
7 While Mr. Brocchini is still on the stand, I've given a
8 report to Mr. Distaso, and I would invite a stipulation.
9 It's a report of Mr. Gary Ermoian talking with Mr. Bruce
10 Peterson. And I would invite a stipulation that were
11 Mr. Bruce Peterson called as a witness, that he would say
12 that when he sold the fishing boat to Scott Peterson, that
13 he requested that Scott Peterson pay cash for the boat,
14 since it was a private sale, and he, not knowing Scott
15 Peterson previously, wanted cash for the boat. And I would
16 invite that stipulation to clear up that false impression
17 that we had the other day.
18 MR. DISTASO: Well, I don't -- I'm not going to, of
19 course, stipulate to any false impression or any kind of
20 negative connotation.
21 I'm surprised he phrased it in such a fashion, when
22 he's asking me for a stipulation on a report that he just
23 handed me that I'm not required to stipulate to.
24 But in the interest of speeding things up, I don't have
25 a problem stipulating that it was a cash sale, and
26 Mr. Peterson did not know the defendant. And I think we can
27 all assume that if you sell something, you don't know
28 someone, to request cash. So I'll stipulate to that.
1180
1 THE COURT: Well, the main part of the stipulation he
2 wants, I assume, is that Mr. Bruce Peterson asked for cash.
3 You join that or not?
4 MR. DISTASO: I don't have a problem with that.
5 THE COURT: Okay.
6 MR. MCALLISTER: Thank you, Your Honor.
7
8 CROSS-EXAMINATION
9 MR. GERAGOS: Q. Good morning, detective.
10 You were asked some questions by Mr. Distaso regarding
11 surveillance. Do you remember those?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And there were, I think you listed, three days of
14 surveillance, is that correct, that you had talked about?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Was that January 5th was the first day?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And on January 5th, was your testimony, if I
19 understand correct, you talked to somebody else, it wasn't
20 you who was actually doing the surveillance; is that
21 correct?
22 A. That's correct.
23 Q. Okay. So what you're testifying to is a report
24 that some other officer prepared, and you, as the
25 investigating officer, is now testifying to it?
26 A. No.
27 Q. Did you talk to that person?
28 A. I talked to him that day on the radio, like I
1181
1 testified, I talked to him since that day just to go over it
2 again, and I've talked to him probably 50 times since then.
3 Q. Okay. Did you ever talk to Scott Peterson and ask
4 him why he went to the Bay on January 5th?
5 A. I never did.
6 Q. Okay. In the discovery -- I know you haven't
7 reviewed all of the discovery. But in the discovery, on
8 Bates stamped pages 43, 0043, so it would have been in the
9 very beginning of the discovery, there's an article that's
10 copied from the Modesto Bee, and it says, "Dogs and divers
11 go to work in the San Francisco Bay."
12 Do you happen to know what date that article was
13 published in the Modesto Bee?
14 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. If he's going to
15 testify off the article, I'm going -- anything on the
16 Modesto Bee I'm going to object as hearsay.
17 MR. MCALLISTER: It's the -- the Court could take
18 judicial notice, it's a January 5th article in which it's
19 entitled, headline, "Dogs and divers go to work in
20 San Francisco Bay."
21 MR. DISTASO: I don't think the Court could take
22 judicial notice of the hearsay of the article.
23 MR. GERAGOS: I will supply the -- well, actually, I'll
24 mark the article, and I'll supply the sufficient foundation.
25 Since we didn't know they were going to go into the
26 surveillance, I didn't come prepared for it to do the
27 surveillance.
28 Q. But I'll ask you, officer, were you aware that on
1182
1 the morning of January 5th, before Mr. Peterson went to the
2 San Francisco Bay, that there was an article in the Modesto
3 Bee saying, "Dogs and divers go to work in the San Francisco
4 Bay"?
5 A. I don't know if you're correct on the date. I
6 don't see it on that article. If -- I know there was an
7 article, but I just can't say for sure it was the 5th.
8 Q. Okay. Well, if there was that article, it
9 certainly wouldn't look that suspicious, would it?
10 A. Oh, it would --
11 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. It's
12 argumentative. Move to strike.
13 THE COURT: Sustained.
14 MR. GERAGOS: Q. Didn't you also say there was a
15 January 9th visit to the Marina?
16 A. Yes, I did.
17 Q. Is that correct?
18 A. Yes, I did.
19 Q. Did you happen to look at the Modesto Bee -- and I
20 would point you to page 54 of your own discovery. And it
21 looks like somebody's written 1-9-03 on a Modesto Bee
22 article that says, "Marina checked anew." You ever seen
23 that? It's in the first hundred pages of your discovery.
24 A. I've read all the -- I've read a lot of the Modesto
25 Bee. I can't say I saw it in any discovery. And I don't
26 know if that is our writing or your writing --
27 Q. Oh, you think I wrote it on there?
28 A. I don't know.
1183
1 Q. Well, you wouldn't know, because you never looked
2 at it or bothered to even check if your very own discovery
3 shows the reason why the guy went to the Bay.
4 MR. DISTASO: Objection, Your Honor. It's
5 argumentative and calls for speculation.
6 THE COURT: Sustained.
7 MR. GERAGOS: Q. Officer, did you -- by the way, as of
8 the first week of January, where was Scott Peterson's pickup
9 truck?
10 A. In police custody.
11 Q. So it would have been pretty hard for him to drive
12 his own pickup truck up to the Bay, wouldn't it?
13 MR. DISTASO: Objection. It calls for -- it's
14 argumentative.
15 THE COURT: Sustained.
16 MR. GERAGOS: Q. Well, you weren't letting him -- were
17 you letting him check it out when he needed to use the
18 pickup truck, or was it in police custody?
19 A. It was in police custody.
20 Q. Still in police custody today, isn't it?
21 A. Yes, it is.
22 Q. Okay. So he doesn't get to check it out whenever
23 he needs it, does he?
24 A. No, he can't -- he can't have it.
25 Q. Okay. Now, you also said that at one point he went
26 somewhere else also, didn't you?
27 A. I said on the 6th he went to the Bay.
28 Q. Yeah. You said he went to another place as well.
1184
1 Didn't you testify to that? Didn't I hear that?
2 A. He went to the Red Lion?
3 Q. And somewhere else?
4 A. McAllister's office.
5 Q. Anywhere else?
6 A. Can I look at my report?
7 Q. Sure.
8 A. The Enterprise Rent-A-Car business.
9 Q. How about on the 9th, where else did he go?
10 A. He went to the Berkeley Marina, he went to the
11 San Luis Forebay --
12 Q. Wait. What's there? What's that?
13 A. The San Luis Forebay.
14 Q. Okay. What is that?
15 A. San Luis Reservoir, down south a little ways.
16 Q. Okay. That reservoir just happened to be being
17 searched that day?
18 A. I don't recall.
19 Q. Well, that certainly would be something you might
20 want to know as an investigator in this case to find out why
21 he's going down there, wouldn't you?
22 A. No.
23 Q. So as an investigator, you don't want to know why
24 it is he went to the Bay, you don't want to know if there
25 was an article that was dated that morning in the Modesto
26 Bee that might have triggered him going to the Bay, you
27 don't want to know if he goes down to the San Luis -- where
28 was it? The San Luis Forebay?
1185
1 A. Right.
2 Q. -- yeah, to see if there was a search going on that
3 day there? You'd rather just come to the conclusion that
4 it's suspicious because he's returning to the scene, is that
5 it?
6 MR. DISTASO: Objection. It's argumentative and
7 compound.
8 THE COURT: Sustained.
9 MR. GERAGOS: Q. Let me ask you this: Do you know if
10 he was also -- did you ever ask him, "Were you going up to
11 the Bay, Mr. Peterson, to see if you could locate two city
12 workers who saw you launch a boat that day of the 24th that
13 were witnesses?"
14 A. Did I ask him that?
15 Q. Yes.
16 A. No.
17 Q. Do you know if any officer asked him that?
18 A. I -- I think we tried to ask him a lot of things.
19 Q. Well, you followed him to McAllister's office,
20 didn't you?
21 A. Right.
22 Q. Did you ever inquire of Mr. McAllister?
23 A. He inquired of us.
24 Q. And did you ever ask him why is he going up to the
25 Bay?
26 A. When the screaming ended from his side of the
27 phone, we didn't ask him very many questions.
28 Q. Well, that was usually when he felt that you were
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