Peterson Trial Is Moved to San Mateo County

The murder trial of Scott Peterson was moved to San Mateo County Tuesday after a Superior Court judge reaffirmed that a fair trial wasn’t possible in Modesto, the hometown of Peterson’s dead wife.

Stanislaus County Judge Al Girolami said Tuesday that San Mateo County was the best choice. He said it was far enough away that local hostilities toward Peterson would not taint the jury pool but close enough for the parade of Modesto witnesses to commute.

The courthouse in Redwood City, across San Francisco Bay from where Laci Peterson’s body washed ashore last April, is a 90-minute drive from this mostly agricultural community.

Peterson’s attorney, Mark Geragos, had requested the venue change, citing scores of articles in the Modesto Bee and extensive radio and TV coverage on local stations. The stories date back to Christmas Eve 2002 when 27-year-old Laci Peterson, eight months pregnant with the couple’s first child, vanished from their Modesto home.

Prosecutors had wanted to keep the trial in Modesto, arguing that Girolami had relied on a tainted survey to determine that residents were too biased to give Peterson a fair trial. Several local college students assigned to survey potential jurors on the phone admitted that they broke rules by interviewing friends, not strangers.

But Girolami said the survey played only a small part in his initial decision earlier this month to move the trial. He cited concerns that the case had generated far too much local news coverage in a county of fewer than 500,000 people. He noted that area residents turned out by the thousands to search for Laci Peterson, mourn her death and give blood in her memory.

Geragos, who is juggling his defense of Peterson with that of singer Michael Jackson, had wanted the trial moved to Southern California. He said San Mateo County was a good second choice.

Some Modesto residents have grown weary of seeing their courthouse and police station as a nightly backdrop on cable TV news shows. Not everyone, then, will be sad to see the media high-tail it to San Mateo County, even though the hordes had been a boon to local hotels and restaurants.

Modesto’s loss may be San Mateo County’s gain.

“We’ve had a lot of calls already from the media about hotels, motels and restaurants, and we’re putting a link on our website,” said Larry Buckmaster, head of the Redwood City Chamber of Commerce. “It will have a substantial economic impact on the county, no doubt. But there might be costs associated with it, too, such as extra security.”

Peterson, 31, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder for allegedly killing his wife and the son she was carrying and dumping her body in the bay. The remains of Laci Peterson and her unborn son washed ashore about two miles from where Peterson said he had gone fishing the day she disappeared.

Prosecutors contend that the motive stemmed, in part, from his love affair with a Fresno massage therapist.