Peyer Pattern Was Evident, Knotts’ Lawyer Alleges : Courts: CHP had received complaints about his nighttime stops of women, according to the attorney in family’s wrongful-death suit.

Former CHP Officer Craig Peyer was “a complex and strange man” whose pattern of traffic enforcement changed by night, when he would ignore male speeders and instead stop young women for minor “fix-it” tickets, an attorney said Tuesday.

Attorney Brian D. Monaghan made the comments at the beginning of a trial stemming from lawsuits filed against Peyer and the California Highway Patrol by the family of Cara Knott. The lawsuits allege negligence by the CHP for hiring Peyer and failing to adequately supervise him. Peyer is being sued for wrongful death.

Peyer, 40, was convicted of first-degree murder in the Dec. 27, 1986, slaying of Knott, 20, whose body was found in a dry creek bed below the Mercy Road off-ramp on Interstate 15. Knott, who was a San Diego State University student, was strangled.

Peyer, the first CHP officer to be convicted of murder while on duty, is serving a 25-years-to-life sentence in state prison. He was convicted June 22, 1988.

Monaghan attempted to show jurors that CHP supervisors were aware that Peyer had a habit of stopping attractive young women after dark for minor offenses, when he worked the night shift--2 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

“When nighttime comes, the pattern changes from stopping men to stopping women,” Monaghan said.

Peyer’s superiors were also aware that he forced the women to stop at the darkened Mercy Road off-ramp, but they failed to stop the practice despite several complaints, Monaghan said. Some women were detained for up to 90 minutes.

About 31 young women testified at Peyer’s criminal trial that they were stopped at night at the isolated off-ramp. The women testified that Peyer never touched them or asked them for a date, but rather engaged them in long, personal conversations.

The Mercy Road off-ramp was the only unlighted ramp on Peyer’s beat, which stretched from Balboa Avenue and California 163 to Via Rancho Parkway and I-15. Peyer was known as “a hot pencil” by other CHP officers. While most officers wrote between 90 and 100 tickets each month, Peyer’s average was between 200 and 250 tickets for the same period, Monaghan said.

“Because he was a hot pencil, he was immune from any type of supervision,” said Monaghan, who argued that the CHP “fell flat on its face” and failed to adequately supervise Peyer. Knott’s death could have been prevented if officials had acted on complaints about other unusual night stops made by Peyer, he argued.

Peyer’s superiors received three such complaints one month before Knott’s death. Authorities received about 300 complaints about Peyer after he was arrested Jan. 15, 1987, Monaghan said.

Perry Kurtz, whose 23-year-old daughter, Leslie, was stopped by Peyer on Nov. 23, 1986, called Peyer’s supervisor three days later. Kurtz complained that her daughter was required to park in a darkened and isolated area by Peyer, Monaghan said.

Kathryn Pacelli, 39, called the CHP at about the same time to complain that she “felt a sense of risk” when Peyer made her stop at the same isolated spot one night.

The lawyer also said that another man complained several times about Peyer stopping his wife on Mercy Road. He wrote a letter to senior CHP officers on Jan. 13, 1987, but never received an answer, Monaghan said.

On at least one occasion, a CHP sergeant told Peyer about a complaint, but commended him for ordering the woman to stop at the darkened off-ramp, Monaghan said. This only encouraged Peyer’s behavior, the attorney charged.

The trial “is about supervision by the CHP. It’s about what they knew or should’ve known,” Monaghan said. “It’s about ignoring repeated complaints about Peyer. . . . There was a consistent, uninterrupted pattern that Peyer was involved in.”

“Peyer was a complex and strange man,” Monaghan said. “He was involved in a pattern of behavior that was becoming bolder and bolder.”

Monaghan also criticized CHP officials for failing to question Peyer after Knott’s body was discovered. The fact that Knott was killed on Peyer’s beat and during his shift should have been reason enough to ask Peyer at the very minimum if he had noticed anything suspicious on the off-ramp, Monaghan said.

The Mercy Road off-ramp, which was called “The Tombs” by San Diego police officers, was normally patrolled only by the CHP, he added.

According to Monaghan, Peyer’s daily activity log showed a gap between 8:10 p.m. and 10:20 p.m. on the night Knott was killed. The young woman called her El Cajon home at 8:20 p.m., before leaving her boyfriend’s home in Escondido. A gasoline credit card receipt found in her abandoned Volkswagen on Mercy Road showed she stopped for gas at 8:32 p.m. on Via Rancho Parkway, which was the northern boundary of Peyer’s beat.

Monaghan theorized that Peyer stopped Knott about 8:45 p.m.

The attorney said that Sam Knott, Cara’s father, was at home working on a puzzle at the same time. At about 9 p.m., the time homicide detectives said Knott was killed, Sam Knott inexplicably ran out of the house shouting, “I’ve got to find Cara!” Monaghan said.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Randall B. Christison, who is defending the CHP, denied that the agency was negligent in its supervision of Peyer. In a brief opening statement, Christison told jurors that Peyer alone was responsible for Knott’s death. There was no indication in Peyer’s background that he was a violent person, the lawyer added.

“What he did when he snapped that night was something he did himself,” Christison said. “It was not caused by the Highway Patrol.”

Christison also argued that CHP supervisors never received any complaints about Peyer. Instead, people voiced “concerns” about him, he said.

“He received compliments. He received commendations. He was always receiving the best reports,” Christison said.

In fact, Peyer was regarded as the best officer operating out of the CHP’s office in Old Town, Christison said. Although some criticisms of his work were noted in his performance evaluations, there were no negative entries in his personnel file, he said.

“What was Peyer like as a cop? There were no difficulties. He was by all reports a good officer,” he said.

The state attorney general’s office played a different role last year, when Peyer’s defense attorneys argued for a reversal of his first-degree murder conviction in an appeal. While Christison praised Peyer’s qualities as a CHP officer Tuesday, one of his colleagues, Deputy Atty. Gen. Janelle Davis, successfully argued last April that the murder conviction should stand.

The stops of young women showed substantial similarities between Peyer’s prior conduct and the killing of Knott, Davis argued at the time.

“Peyer regularly and frequently . . . had a pattern of stopping young women on the Mercy Road off-ramp and taking them down,” she said in arguments before the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego.

Peyer’s attorney chose to make his opening statement later in the trial, which is expected to last about four weeks.

The Knott family has not specified the amount of damages it hopes to collect from Peyer and the CHP.

Peyer’s videotaped testimony from state prison is expected to be shown next week.