• July 12, 2004
• Vol. 62
• No. 2

Turning the Tide?

Despite Key Stumbles, the Peterson Prosecution Shows Signs of Life

Nine years before Laci Peterson's corpse washed ashore, Scott Peterson may have told a friend his own plan for "how he'd get rid of a body," Det. Allen Brocchini testified at Peterson's double murder trial on June 29. According to the source, who claimed to be a college classmate of Peterson's when he called the Modesto Police Department's tip line the day after Peterson's arrest: "He said he would tie a bag around the neck with duct tape," put weights on the hands and dump it in the ocean, Brocchini told the hushed court. "Fish activity would eat away the neck and hands. The body would float up with no fingers, no teeth, so no I.D."

Dramatic stuff—and just what the prosecution needed. During a tense four days on the stand, Brocchini suffered a pummeling by defense attorney Mark Geragos, who sought to depict him and his fellow investigators as bunglers who had prejudged Scott as guilty (see box). Brocchini's account of the tip, however—which he said he did not pursue because he didn't find it "credible"—helped demonstrate that he hadn't pounced on all evidence pointing toward Peterson. "This is obviously a strong point for the prosecution, and it is very emotional, but they need to bring the man who said this into the courtroom," says former prosecutor Michael Cardoza. "This whole thing suggests to me that the prosecution is feeling the sting of the defense and is now desperate and they are throwing stuff against the wall to see if any of it sticks."

Prosecutor Rick Distaso's case could get more of a jolt if and when the jurors learn details of a discovery made by the first investigators on the scene at the Peterson home and documented by them in one of several just-published photos. In addition to the poignant pictures of the table set by Laci for the Christmas meal that never took place, there's what maybe the money shot: a copy of the Yellow Pages on the kitchen counter. It's open to an ad for Richard S. Herman, a criminal defense lawyer. But, notes Herman: "It's a full-page ad with a cardboard insert. The ad is designed so that if the book is opened casually, it should fall to my page. It's a brilliant piece of advertising."

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The Brocchini Factor

On trail with Scott Peterson: Lead detective Al Brocchini

Det. Al Brocchini was called away from his Christmas Eve dinner to look into Laci's disappearance. Later Brocchini, 45, reportedly vowed, "I'm going to get who got Lad." The defense contends he became obsessed with the case and has accused him of mishandling evidence and putting out false or inaccurate reports. During his 11 years with the Modesto Police Department, Brocchini has been in the hot seat before; he's been accused of withholding evidence, coercing a confession and deliberately triggering a mistrial. (He has never been charged with any of these offenses.) Among the most controversial aspects of Brocchini's testimony in the Peterson case:

THE BOAT Brocchini seemed to find Peterson's fishing story suspicious. He later admitted that he had "excised" from his report information that a woman said she had seen Laci at the warehouse where Peterson kept his boat the day before she disappeared. (The woman's story was, however, in another detective's report.) This would undercut the prosecution's theory that Laci didn't know her husband had a boat and explain how a strand of her hair could have been found in the vessel. "There were audible gasps in the courtroom when Brocchini said he excised the statement. It was like the glove didn't fit," says Loyola law professor Stan Goldman. "Those gasps will remain in the jurors' memory."

THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS Geragos contended that Brocchini failed to follow up on leads pointing to suspects other than Scott Peterson. Among them: tips concerning three dark-skinned men with a van that at least one witness has placed near the Peterson home at around the same time Laci disappeared.

"None of this is terribly convincing," says George Bisharat, a professor at Hastings College of the Law. "But Geragos doesn't have to prove that anyone was more likely culpable than his client if he raises sufficient questions about the prosecution's case."