Geragos: Transients could have deposited bodies in bay

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2:04 p.m.: REDWOOD CITY - Scott Peterson’s attorney this morning suggested that transients camped by Interstate 580 near Albany could have deposited Laci Peterson’s body in a channel whose mouth to San Francisco Bay isn’t far from where her remains were recovered.

Also this morning, Judge Alfred Delucchi stretched the trial’s gag order to cover a legal analyst who spent several hours Sunday with Scott Peterson conducting mock interviews in case the defendant takes the witness stand.

Though Hoffman Channel has figured in some of the four-months-plus of trial testimony, defense attorney Mark Geragos only this morning made clear that it could have provided a water route from illegal encampments a few hundred yards away.

Geragos long has contended that transients in Modesto’s Dry Creek Park kidnapped Laci Peterson as she walked her dog on Christmas Eve 2002 and placed her body to correspond with her husband’s well-publicized alibi.

Scott Peterson told police he fished alone that day, less than two miles from where the remains of mother and son washed ashore four months later.

East Bay Regional Park police officer Timothy Philipps testified this morning that he found plastic sheeting with duct tape and a metal rod on the day Laci Peterson’s remains were discovered about 1,000 feet away.

“To me, the (plastic’s) odor was similar to the odor of the remains,” Philipps said.

A detective previously testified that he thought the odor was consistent with ocean debris. And a scientist has testified that the duct tape on the plastic was different from tape adhered to tatters of Laci Peterson’s maternity pants.

Geragos wants to convince jurors that someone other than his client wrapped her body in the plastic. That could present an alternate explanation for why Laci Peterson’s remains were much more decomposed than her baby’s.

A pathologist has testified that Conner Peterson was protected in his mother’s womb until just before being released by advanced decomposition shortly before the bodies were recovered.

But Philipps, when questioned by prosecutor Dave Harris, also acknowledged that a specially trained cadaver dog did not respond when asked to scent the plastic sheet. And advanced rusting suggested that the metal rod could have been exposed to the elements for quite some time, Philipps agreed.

Authorities did not forensically test other fabric found within hundreds of feet of Laci Peterson’s remains, according to previous testimony.

But Philipps acknowledged that one was comparatively new women’s panties that could not reasonably be connected to the Modesto woman, whose torso had tattered maternity panties.

Today’s session began more than two hours late when the judge announced the muzzling of attorney Michael Cardoza, who has observed the trial since opening statements began June 1.

Monday, Cardoza acknowledged that he twice interviewed Scott Peterson as a trial-preparation courtesy to Geragos.

Cardoza refused to say whether he considered himself grafted into the defense team and insisted that he provided no advice on whether Peterson should take the stand. But several media outlets, including The Bee, said they no longer would use his expert analysis because his objectivity had been compromised.

Others questioned whether Peterson had violated the gag order by speaking to someone not clearly part of his legal team.

This morning, Delucchi said, “The court is of the opinion that an attorney-client privilege was indeed created by the arrangement between defense counsel (Geragos) and Mr. Cardoza. So the court has imposed the gag order on Mr. Cardoza.”

Delucchi, a retired Alameda County Superior Court judge on special appointment for Peterson’s double-murder trial, is acquainted with Cardoza, a former prosecutor from the same county.