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Judge Hears Arguments on Making Peterson Warrants Public
Aired June 03, 2003 - 13:17 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: A judge in Modesto, California, held a brief hearing today on whether to make some search warrants public. The warrants were issued before Scott Peterson was arrested, alleged to have murdered his wife. Peterson charged with the death of Laci Peterson, his wife, and their unborn son.
The judge has yet to rule on whether to make those warrants public. Elaine Quijano, watching that hearing for us, she joins us live now from Modesto. Hello, Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.
Well, as you said, the judge in this case, Judge Roger Beauchesne, delaying that decision on whether or not to unseal those eight search warrants that were obtained prior to Scott Peterson's arrest.
Now in court today, the defense arguing that it was concerned that making those documents public would effectively compromise their investigation. The prosecution also saying that they did not want those documents to go public, because they wanted to ensure that Scott Peterson would, in fact, receive a fair trail. They also wanted to ensure that any conviction might hold up on appeal.
But after the hearing, an interesting development, as the attorney representing Scott Peterson, Matt Dalton, walked out of the courthouse. He mentioned a pair of shoes. And let's take a listen now to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT DALTON, ATTORNEY FOR SCOTT PETERSON: We want everybody that took shoes out of Laci's house to please return them. Please return shoes that were taken out of Laci's house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now what the defense is claiming is that a defense witness apparently found a pair of shoes that the defense says may be similar to shoes that Laci would have worn to go walk her dog. It's not clear exactly where those shoes are right now.
What is clear is that on Friday, the defense was very angry at Laci's family, the Rochas, having gone into the home Friday to retrieve some belongings. The defense saying that they were not done with their investigation, that they wanted to go ahead and videotape some of the items still in the home. They were very upset about that, even to the point of threatening to file burglary charges against the Rocha family. They have since backed off that and at last word they were negotiating with members of Laci's family about those items.
And the Modesto Police Department, now, Miles, treating this as a civil dispute. But the defense appearing now to focus at least part of its attention on a pair of shoes -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Elaine, I notice that the prosecutor, when asked about this -- allegations of burglary -- or whatever you want to call it, the people operating apparently on behalf of the Rochas, appearing at the household taking some items -- he deflected that entirely and said that first of all, he has no jurisdiction over that, that has nothing to do with the D.A.'s office.
Interesting little twist there. They're just going to have to sort that one out for themselves.
QUIJANO: That's exactly right. And I had a chance briefly to speak with one of the attorneys who was representing Sharon Rocha, Laci's mother, yesterday. And what he told me is that they don't plan to try to hash this out in court. That's not what they wanted. In fact, they wanted to do this out of the public view, out of the view of the media. They wanted to just settle this.
But it was only after, they say, they did not receive a timely response to some of their requests that they decided to go public and things escalated because they had been under the impression there was an arrangement, perhaps, to be worked out. But things broke down and Sharon Rocha, as he put it, acted by her heart.
Now we understand those negotiations are continuing -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano in Modesto, California. Thank you very much.
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 3, 2003 - 13:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: A judge in Modesto, California, held a brief hearing today on whether to make some search warrants public. The warrants were issued before Scott Peterson was arrested, alleged to have murdered his wife. Peterson charged with the death of Laci Peterson, his wife, and their unborn son.
The judge has yet to rule on whether to make those warrants public. Elaine Quijano, watching that hearing for us, she joins us live now from Modesto. Hello, Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.
Well, as you said, the judge in this case, Judge Roger Beauchesne, delaying that decision on whether or not to unseal those eight search warrants that were obtained prior to Scott Peterson's arrest.
Now in court today, the defense arguing that it was concerned that making those documents public would effectively compromise their investigation. The prosecution also saying that they did not want those documents to go public, because they wanted to ensure that Scott Peterson would, in fact, receive a fair trail. They also wanted to ensure that any conviction might hold up on appeal.
But after the hearing, an interesting development, as the attorney representing Scott Peterson, Matt Dalton, walked out of the courthouse. He mentioned a pair of shoes. And let's take a listen now to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT DALTON, ATTORNEY FOR SCOTT PETERSON: We want everybody that took shoes out of Laci's house to please return them. Please return shoes that were taken out of Laci's house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now what the defense is claiming is that a defense witness apparently found a pair of shoes that the defense says may be similar to shoes that Laci would have worn to go walk her dog. It's not clear exactly where those shoes are right now.
What is clear is that on Friday, the defense was very angry at Laci's family, the Rochas, having gone into the home Friday to retrieve some belongings. The defense saying that they were not done with their investigation, that they wanted to go ahead and videotape some of the items still in the home. They were very upset about that, even to the point of threatening to file burglary charges against the Rocha family. They have since backed off that and at last word they were negotiating with members of Laci's family about those items.
And the Modesto Police Department, now, Miles, treating this as a civil dispute. But the defense appearing now to focus at least part of its attention on a pair of shoes -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Elaine, I notice that the prosecutor, when asked about this -- allegations of burglary -- or whatever you want to call it, the people operating apparently on behalf of the Rochas, appearing at the household taking some items -- he deflected that entirely and said that first of all, he has no jurisdiction over that, that has nothing to do with the D.A.'s office.
Interesting little twist there. They're just going to have to sort that one out for themselves.
QUIJANO: That's exactly right. And I had a chance briefly to speak with one of the attorneys who was representing Sharon Rocha, Laci's mother, yesterday. And what he told me is that they don't plan to try to hash this out in court. That's not what they wanted. In fact, they wanted to do this out of the public view, out of the view of the media. They wanted to just settle this.
But it was only after, they say, they did not receive a timely response to some of their requests that they decided to go public and things escalated because they had been under the impression there was an arrangement, perhaps, to be worked out. But things broke down and Sharon Rocha, as he put it, acted by her heart.
Now we understand those negotiations are continuing -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano in Modesto, California. Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
