Scott Peterson's defense lawyer is seeking a mistrial or the dismissal of all charges in his client's double-murder trial, claiming a police detective lied on the witness stand.
Mark Geragos told Judge Alfred A. Delucchi (who has already rejected Geragos's two other requests for dismissal) that Modesto police Detective Allen Brocchini lied on the witness stand about the details of a conversation he'd had with an alleged tipster, the Associated Press reports.
Brocchini testified that the tipster claimed that Peterson described, in 1995, how he would dump a dead body. The detective said Peterson allegedly told the tipster he would "tie a bag around the neck with duct tape" and sink the body in the ocean.
Brocchini testified that he did not consider the information to be credible and shelved it.
But a source who has heard a tape of Brocchini's interview with the tipster told AP that the man never mentioned duct tape, implying that Brocchini lied on the stand.
Prosecutors allege that Peterson, 31, murdered his wife and their unborn child in their Modesto home on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then dumped her weighted-down body in San Francisco Bay. Peterson has pleaded not guilty.
Delucchi said Wednesday he would hear arguments for the dismissal at a July 29 hearing.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Geragos pressed the fact to the jury that police failed to find any blood or tissue in the Peterson home that would link his client to a violent murder, asking witness Henry (Dodge) Hendee, a Modesto detective, on the stand: "Is a fair statement that the entire area from the nursery ... to the bathroom had no evidence whatsoever?"
"That's right," said Hendee.
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