Detective Testifies in Scott Peterson Hearing

A detective who spent Christmas Eve questioning Scott Peterson and the next four months trying to find his missing wife testified Wednesday about how officers had enlisted Peterson’s friends, neighbors and mistress in the effort to snare him.

Detective Al Brocchini said he had called friends of Scott and Laci Peterson to point out news articles about his extramarital affair and a $250,000 insurance policy that Peterson had taken out on his wife.

The officer said he had tried to get friends to prod Scott Peterson for details about what had happened to his wife, who reportedly vanished Dec. 24 while he was fishing. The remains of the 27-year-old substitute teacher and her unborn son washed ashore in San Francisco Bay in April, only a few miles from where Peterson said he had been angling.

At one point, Brocchini made a note that he “was attempting to plant the seeds of suspicion” in a friend of Laci Peterson.

The testimony came as the defense continued cross-examining Brocchini, the first detective to investigate the disappearance of the pregnant woman, in a hearing to determine if Peterson is to be tried on two counts of murder. The defense has said that investigators focused suspicion on Peterson and failed to catch the real killers.

Defense lawyer Mark Geragos also renewed his claim that investigators had neglected to notify him of surveillance tapes taken outside Peterson’s home. He called the failure “a problem of monumental proportions” and said it could lead to a request to dismiss the case.

Brocchini said he had taken part in discussions with other officers about themes that the mistress, Amber Frey, should discuss when talking with Peterson during phone calls she was secretly recording. He said he didn’t recall coaxing her to suggest to Peterson that there had been an accident and he had panicked, but he vaguely recalled that officers had told her to pretend she was a suspect in the disappearance so that Peterson would feel sorry for her and take the rap, Brocchini said.

Brocchini said he had been more concerned with her spilling the news that she was cooperating with police.

“Laci was missing and he wasn’t talking about Laci, he was talking about himself and where he was in Europe,” Brocchini said about a phone call that came in when officers were at Frey’s house in Fresno.