Plot Alleged : Judge Isolates Inmate Held in Wife’s Death
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A Superior Court judge Thursday ordered a Tarzana man accused of soliciting the death of his daughter and her attorney while in County Jail to be isolated from other prisoners.
Citing “potential threats to victims in this case,” Superior Court Judge Robert D. Fratianne ordered Robert Peernock, 50, who is also accused of killing his wife, to be housed away from the general jail population.
Fratianne told jail officials to restrict Peernock’s telephone calls. The judge said Peernock can only call his attorney, Sherwin Edelberg, and that the calls must be placed by a deputy sheriff to prevent Peernock from contacting anyone else.
Fratianne also ordered that only Peernock’s attorney be allowed to visit him in County Jail, where he is awaiting trial.
On Dec. 23, Municipal Judge Michael S. Luros ordered Peernock kept from other prisoners, but Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer, saying she had learned earlier Thursday that Peernock had been mistakenly reclassified and put with other inmates, asked that he be moved.
Fratianne granted her request over the objections of Peernock’s attorney.
Peernock was arrested Sept. 4 after his oldest daughter, Natasha Sims, 18, and the body of his estranged wife, Claire Laurence Peernock, were found in Peernock’s car July 22. The vehicle had been doused with gasoline and had struck a utility pole in what police said was a staged accident.
An autopsy on Claire Peernock found that she had died before the crash of head wounds that were inconsistent with injuries usually associated with a traffic accident.
Peernock pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, arson and kidnaping in connection with the July 22 incident.
He also pleaded not guilty to a murder-solicitation charge Dec. 10 after allegedly attempting to have his daughter and her attorney killed. A County Jail inmate reported to authorities that Peernock offered to pay him to kill Sims and attorney Victoria W. Doom.
Doom is representing Sims in a personal-injury lawsuit against her father. The suit asks for $5 million in damages.
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