Defense begins with cement testimony

By JOHN COTÉ
BEE STAFF WRITER

E-Mail

Comments (0)

Text Size:

tool goes here

3:13 p.m.: REDWOOD CITY - Concrete samples taken from the side of Scott Peterson’s driveway match concrete from a homemade anchor found in his boat, a defense expert on building materials said this morning.

That testimony, offered after Peterson’s attorneys opened their defense today, contradicted a prosecution analyst’s assessment and came amid indications the defense is considering putting Peterson on the stand.

Former Alameda County prosecutor Michael Cardoza said this morning that at the request of the defense, he had twice done mock cross-examinations of Peterson last week.

Cardoza refused to comment on the substance of the sessions, which he said took place in the San Mateo County jail and lasted hours. Defense attorney Mark Geragos observed the questioning but did not ask for Cardoza’s assessment, according to the former prosecutor.

“I’m not recommending anything,” Cardoza said. A court-imposed gag order forbids Geragos from commenting on the issue.

Multiple legal analysts have discounted the idea that Peterson would take the witness stand to rebut charges he murdered his wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner. Such a move would open him up to cross-examination by prosecutors, who have shown the 31-year-old fertilizer salesman to be a serial liar.

One legal analyst said having Cardoza question Peterson was a defense move to shape public perception and to influence any jurors who stray from the judge’s order to avoid media coverage.

“I think Geragos is both a great lawyer and master manipulator of the press,” former San Francisco prosecutor James Hammer said. Peterson’s defense was trying “to get out their message, which I think is: Scott would really like to testify, but his lawyer just won’t let him.”

Cardoza, whose regular observations as a television legal analyst often have been critical of the prosecution, said he had not joined the defense team.

After being called into court during the lunch break to meet with Judge Alfred Delucchi - a retired Alameda County judge who presided over cases Cardoza prosecuted - the attorney said he had not been placed under the gag order.

That meeting came after Steven Gebler, an engineer with Construction Technology Laboratories Inc., testified that concrete from the side of Peterson’s driveway was consistent with what the Modesto man said he did.

Prosecutors contend Peterson murdered his pregnant wife and unborn son around Christmas Eve 2002 and used homemade concrete anchors to weigh her body down in San Francisco Bay.

Peterson told his brother-in-law he made only one anchor - found in his fishing boat - and used some of the concrete in his driveway.

A prosecution expert has testified the concrete in the anchor didn’t match that in the driveway because the driveway sample had larger rocks intermittently mixed in it. Such size rocks are not found in bagged concrete mix sold in retail stores, geologist Robert O’Neill said.

Geragos suggested his client poured the bagged concrete on top of older concrete or gravel material on the side of the driveway. Gebler said that was consistent with the samples he observed, including one passed around to the jury this morning on a silver tray, where the larger stones were found only on the bottom of the sample, not mixed in.

“Is that consistent throughout these samples?” Geragos asked.

“Every one of them,” Gebler replied.

Prosecutors are expected to cross-examine Gebler this afternoon.