Jury hears Peterson phone call after bodies found
By Harriet Ryan
Court TV
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 The Peterson jury may be given the option of a second-degree murder verdict.
 Peterson's defense trying to poke holes in prosecution's theory.
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REDWOOD CITY, California (COURT TV) -- With the state crime lab working overtime to identify the bodies of his wife and child, Scott Peterson scheduled a golf game with his brother, according to a tape played for jurors Monday at his capital trial.
In a phone conversation secretly recorded by police on April 18, 2003, the day of his arrest, Peterson reluctantly canceled the morning tee time with his brother, Joe, saying he did not want photographs of him golfing out in the media.
He was also concerned about vehicles surveilling him.
"Oh, I can't lose these private investigators," Peterson told his older brother.
The body of a baby washed onto the San Francisco Bay shore on April 13, followed a day later by the body of a woman.
Lab techs were in the process of using DNA to match the remains to Laci Peterson and the son the couple planned to name Conner. Peterson learned the results in the back of a squad car hours after his arrest.
In the secretly recorded phone call, Joe Peterson first raised the issue of the testing of the remains.
"Any indication when they'll identify the body?" he asked.
"No," Peterson said.
After his brother wondered aloud why the process was taking so long, Peterson replied, "I think they're just holding off because they don't know who it is anymore."
The tape was played at the request of Peterson's lawyers, who began the second week of their case Monday.
Although the image of Peterson planning a golf game while waiting to hear such important news about his missing wife is not flattering, the defense apparently wanted jurors to hear other parts of the call, including the double-murder defendant's reference to the surveillance team following him as "private investigators."
Peterson tried to elude the team several times, including on the day of his arrest, and his lawyers have suggested he mistook law enforcement surveillance for stakeouts by tabloid reporters and photographers.
Members of the police surveillance team, however, previously testified that he confronted them in their unmarked cars, asking, "What agency are you with?"
Peterson sounded unemotional in the conversation, but after his brother told him that he was praying constantly for him, Peterson replied, "I could cry for hours."
'New memories'
The defense also called lead investigator Craig Grogan briefly to the stand Monday.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos questioned the Modesto police detective about statements he took from Laci Peterson's family and friends after they learned of the defendant's affair with massage therapist Amber Frey.
Geragos suggested that the accounts of odd behavior by Peterson from the victim's loved ones were "new memories" born from the betrayal they felt when they learned of the affair.
Grogan acknowledged that after the affair was revealed, he asked friends and relatives who were with Peterson around the time of his wife's December 24, 2002, disappearance to think back and tell him if they remembered anything suspicious.
He conceded that Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, did not tell him that her son-in-law had used the word "missing" to describe his wife in his first phone call until almost a month after her daughter's disappearance.
"It's possible the time frame may have some effect on the memories," Grogan said. But, he continued, "it is a significant day, so people will tend to remember that a little bit better than something that was innocuous."
Judge Alfred Delucchi told jurors that they would hear more tape recordings after the lunch break. The panel may begin deliberating as early as next week.
Peterson, who celebrated his 32nd birthday Sunday, faces the death penalty if convicted of two counts of capital murder. The trial began on June 1.
