Peterson Trial Will Be Moved

Citing extensive media coverage and public demonstrations against accused killer Scott Peterson in Stanislaus County, a judge ruled Thursday that Peterson can’t get a fair trial in his wife’s hometown and ordered a change of venue.

“A change of venue is necessary to protect the integrity of the proceeding,” said Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Al Girolami. A hearing Jan. 20 will determine where the trial will be held.

Girolami ruled out counties in the San Joaquin and southern Sacramento valleys, and said he was not inclined to transfer the case to Los Angeles County. Prosecutors said they favored San Mateo or Santa Clara counties. Defense attorney Mark Geragos said he preferred Los Angeles, Orange or Alameda counties.

Girolami handed down his ruling Thursday after Geragos argued in court papers that Peterson, 31 -- charged with two counts of murder in the killings of his pregnant wife, Laci, and the boy she was carrying -- has been demonized by the media.

Geragos said arguments that the trial should remain in Modesto “can be boiled down to the old adage, ‘Sure, we can give him a fair trial. Then we will take him out and hang him....’ The depth of pretrial animosity ... is obvious to any human being in Stanislaus County.”

Prosecutors countered that a fair trial could be held in Modesto, saying unbiased jurors could be found in the county of 480,000 residents. The prosecutors said Geragos was trying to inflame the situation with invectives and accusations.

The judge faced three options: keeping the case in Modesto; selecting jurors in another county and busing them to Modesto; or ordering a change of venue.

Girolami said the more than 150 articles in the local paper and more than 8,000 stories published and aired worldwide led him to believe the trial had to be moved.

The media coverage, Girolami said, had made Scott Peterson notorious, at the same time turning his late wife into a celebrity. The judge referred to the largely hostile crowd that gathered outside the Stanislaus County Jail after Peterson’s arrest, contrasting that group with the 3,000 sympathetic mourners at Laci Peterson’s memorial service.

Officials said Peterson’s trial, originally scheduled for Jan. 26, probably will be pushed back for weeks, if not months, by the cumbersome process of changing venue.

Times special correspondent Don A. Wright in Modesto, staff writer Eric Malnic in Los Angeles and Associated Press contributed to this report.