Peterson wiretap testimony request rejected
From Rusty Dornin
CNN
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Scott Peterson
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REDWOOD CITY, California (CNN) -- A judge Monday rejected a request by Scott Peterson's attorney for a different judge to testify about why he authorized wiretaps of Peterson without a court reporter present.
Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi said it was not unusual for a judge to grant wiretaps or search warrants without a court reporter on hand. Delucchi said a court reporter's presence is not necessary when making such decisions.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos had wanted Judge Wray Ladine to testify because it would be essential to finding out "exactly what he told" an investigator about the wiretaps.
Franklin Gumpert, who represented Ladine, blasted the defense request. "It would turn upside down every criminal proceeding," he said.
Delucchi agreed: "Requiring Judge Ladine to testify would be contrary to public policy."
Laci Peterson, who was 27 and nearly eight months pregnant, disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002.
Peterson, 31, is charged with killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son. Their bodies washed up separately on the shore of San Francisco Bay in April 2003.
The location was about 80 miles away from the couple's home in Modesto but just miles from where Peterson told police he was fishing in a boat on the day she vanished.
He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if he is convicted.
Since last week, prosecutors and the defense have been wrangling over the admissibility of wiretapped phone conversations.
Geragos successfully argued to relocate the trial from Modesto in Stanislaus County to Redwood City in San Mateo County last month because of pretrial publicity. (Full story)
