New judge assigned for Peterson trial
From Chuck Afflerbach
CNN
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Judge Alfred Delucchi
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REDWOOD CITY, California (CNN) -- For the second time in a week, a new judge was appointed Tuesday to hear the murder trial of a California man accused of killing his wife and their unborn son.
California Chief Justice Ronald George appointed retired Judge Alfred Delucchi, 73, to preside at the trial of Scott Peterson, which is scheduled to begin Monday.
Delucchi replaces Judge Richard Arnason, whom George originally appointed but was removed from the case last week after the Stanislaus County district attorney filed a peremptory challenge against him. (Full story)
District Attorney James Brazelton wrote that Arnason "is prejudiced against the interest of the party so that I believe that I cannot have a fair and impartial hearing before said judge."
However, Peterson defense attorney Mark Geragos filed a motion last week to throw out the prosecution's request to remove Arnason, saying the prosecution had not filed its challenge in a timely manner.
Geragos filed a brief Tuesday with the San Mateo County Superior Court repeating the argument.
"Any such challenge had to be registered on January 21 when the prosecution received notice the case had been assigned for trial to Judge Arnason. The affidavit filed on January 22 was thus a day too late. The people's challenge must be rejected as untimely," Geragos' brief said.
The prosecution is expected to file a rebuttal of Geragos' motion Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a smoke alarm forced the evacuation of the San Mateo County Courthouse in Redwood City, the Bay Area community where Peterson's trial is to be held.
A courthouse employee said a refrigerator in a judge's chambers "shorted out" and began smoking, tripping the alarms. The fire department responded and the evacuation was lifted shortly thereafter.
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Scott Peterson in court last week.
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Peterson is charged with murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn son in December 2002. Laci Peterson was last seen on Christmas Eve 2002, and the bodies washed up separately on the shore of San Francisco Bay in April 2003. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Peterson told police that he was fishing in the bay on the day his wife disappeared and had launched his boat from the Berkeley Marina. The bodies washed ashore just miles from the marina.
His trial was originally to take place in Modesto, California, where he lived with his wife, but Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami decided to move the trial, citing a saturation of pretrial publicity that could taint a jury pool. (Full story)
Delucchi, the latest judge in the case, has presided over 22 death penalty trials, according to a statement from the Judicial Council of California.
