Jury to Hear Confession but Not Accusation Over Investigator

A jury will be allowed to hear the confession of a rape suspect but will not be told that one of the suspect’s chief investigators has been accused of molesting teenagers, a Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Steven Z. Perren said he sees no compelling reason to cloud the case against Peter A. Stocks, 39, with the molestation allegations against former Ventura Police Det. Gregory W. Irvine.

“It’s tremendous prejudice in terms of misleading the jury,” Perren said. “With at least one independent witness and hard evidence, . . . the court sees no particular significance” in allowing the jury to hear such allegations.

The ruling dealt a severe blow to Stocks, an unemployed construction worker arrested last summer on suspicion of attacking three elderly women in Ventura and the Ojai Valley between June and August 1995.

An attorney for Stocks, who has pleaded not guilty, sought Wednesday to get a videotaped confession removed from evidence because one of the interrogators--Irvine--was recently investigated on suspicion of molesting at least three girls.

According to arguments made in court, police approached Stocks in a parking lot last summer and asked him to come to the police station for further questioning. During videotaped and tape-recorded interrogations, Stocks reportedly confessed to the crimes.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Kelliher successfully argued that the jury should be allowed to hear Irvine testify, but said the defense should not be allowed to bring up the molestation allegations, which surfaced in a private memo earlier this year.

“The relevance of the allegations we are seeking to exclude is virtually nil,” Kelliher said. “They are simply allegations that anyone can make.”

Perren agreed, saying that even without Irvine’s testimony, the case against Stocks seems strong. “I’m not even sure Irvine is a necessary witness in the case,” Perren said.

No charges have been brought against the former detective, however--a fact that Deputy Public Defender Susan Olson called “conspiracy” on the part of the district attorney’s office.

“Were [Irvine] not a police officer whose testimony is needed, he would be prosecuted,” Olson said.

The trial is scheduled to begin July 15.