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CNN Live Today
Gag Order Issued in Peterson Case
Aired June 13, 2003 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, you may be seeing fewer details coming out in the Laci Peterson case in the upcoming murder trial of her husband, Scott. A judge has issued a gag order preventing lawyers, witnesses, and police from discussing the case publicly.
Our Rusty Dornin is standing by in Modesto, California. She's got more, well at least we hope she's got more since everyone out there is clamming up now. Good morning, Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Rusty - I mean good morning, Rusty - good morning, Leon. It shows you how early it is here.
Lips must remain sealed on all sides of this case or they will face contempt of court charges and some likely hefty fines. As expected, Judge Al Girolami passed a sweeping gag order, as you said, affecting attorneys, witnesses, even police in this case. He cited massive publicity. He claims there has been so much chatter on the local and the national news stations that even a change of venue wouldn't affect it.
Now, what he's worried about is right before jury selection he feels that the gossip and the rumors that would be going on in the news media could affect jury selection and it would affect and possibly prevent an impartial jury from being selected.
Now, we spoke with three of Laci Peterson's friends last night, one of whom could be affected. She hasn't been notified but she was one of the last people to speak to Laci Peterson the night before she disappeared and Stacey Boyers said she's very happy about this gag order.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STACEY BOYERS, FRIEND OF LACI'S: I'd like to see this case tried in the courtroom. I don't want to see it publicized. I don't want to hear about it on the news.
DORNIN: Do you think it could influence potential jurors to hear things?
BOYERS: You know, I don't know. I mean this is our first time having to deal with anything like this. We don't know but we do know that it's hard to turn on the TV and hear how your friend was murdered and the details of it and, you know, it would just be best if the details were kept inside the courtroom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORNIN: Very interesting was the judge cited the precedent in this case. It was Shepherd v. Maxwell. That was Sam Shepherd in 1966, the subject of the TV series "The Fugitive." Apparently, there was so much pretrial publicity, the Supreme Court ruled that Shepherd be released from prison and he chided the judge in that case claiming there should have been a gag order, so that was the precedent in this case.
Now, in another courtroom here, while one judge was busy clamping down, another was wanting to unseal documents in the case. Judge [unintelligible] wants to unseal the eight search warrants conducted before Scott Peterson was arrested; however, that won't happen until next month on July 8th, one day after the Appeals Court issues its final decision in that case.
In other news, it looks like the July 16th preliminary hearing is going to be delayed. We hear from the prosecution that it looks like one of their pathologists will be on vacation, is unable to be here and both sides are saying there probably will be a delay in that - Leon.
HARRIS: Good deal, thanks Rusty. We'll check back with you later on, Rusty Dornin reporting now in the early hours out there in Modesto, California.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 13, 2003 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, you may be seeing fewer details coming out in the Laci Peterson case in the upcoming murder trial of her husband, Scott. A judge has issued a gag order preventing lawyers, witnesses, and police from discussing the case publicly.
Our Rusty Dornin is standing by in Modesto, California. She's got more, well at least we hope she's got more since everyone out there is clamming up now. Good morning, Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Rusty - I mean good morning, Rusty - good morning, Leon. It shows you how early it is here.
Lips must remain sealed on all sides of this case or they will face contempt of court charges and some likely hefty fines. As expected, Judge Al Girolami passed a sweeping gag order, as you said, affecting attorneys, witnesses, even police in this case. He cited massive publicity. He claims there has been so much chatter on the local and the national news stations that even a change of venue wouldn't affect it.
Now, what he's worried about is right before jury selection he feels that the gossip and the rumors that would be going on in the news media could affect jury selection and it would affect and possibly prevent an impartial jury from being selected.
Now, we spoke with three of Laci Peterson's friends last night, one of whom could be affected. She hasn't been notified but she was one of the last people to speak to Laci Peterson the night before she disappeared and Stacey Boyers said she's very happy about this gag order.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STACEY BOYERS, FRIEND OF LACI'S: I'd like to see this case tried in the courtroom. I don't want to see it publicized. I don't want to hear about it on the news.
DORNIN: Do you think it could influence potential jurors to hear things?
BOYERS: You know, I don't know. I mean this is our first time having to deal with anything like this. We don't know but we do know that it's hard to turn on the TV and hear how your friend was murdered and the details of it and, you know, it would just be best if the details were kept inside the courtroom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORNIN: Very interesting was the judge cited the precedent in this case. It was Shepherd v. Maxwell. That was Sam Shepherd in 1966, the subject of the TV series "The Fugitive." Apparently, there was so much pretrial publicity, the Supreme Court ruled that Shepherd be released from prison and he chided the judge in that case claiming there should have been a gag order, so that was the precedent in this case.
Now, in another courtroom here, while one judge was busy clamping down, another was wanting to unseal documents in the case. Judge [unintelligible] wants to unseal the eight search warrants conducted before Scott Peterson was arrested; however, that won't happen until next month on July 8th, one day after the Appeals Court issues its final decision in that case.
In other news, it looks like the July 16th preliminary hearing is going to be delayed. We hear from the prosecution that it looks like one of their pathologists will be on vacation, is unable to be here and both sides are saying there probably will be a delay in that - Leon.
HARRIS: Good deal, thanks Rusty. We'll check back with you later on, Rusty Dornin reporting now in the early hours out there in Modesto, California.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
