Peterson Trial Juror Dismissed; Judge Calls Him a ‘Distraction’

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. —  Intense media coverage of Scott Peterson’s capital murder case was blamed Wednesday for the removal of a juror, but the judge denied a defense motion for a mistrial.

“You’re not to listen to, watch or read any media reports of this trial,” Judge Alfred Delucchi admonished the panel before selecting an alternate to replace juror Justin Falconer.

Outside court, Falconer said the judge told him he had become a “distraction” after television cameras recorded him joking with the brother of Peterson’s slain wife. The juror later discussed media scrutiny of the incident with his girlfriend -- a violation of court rules.

Peterson’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, demanded a mistrial.

“I’ve got a client who is on trial for his life,” he said. Geragos said saturation coverage had tainted the case. “I think it’s an outrage what is going on.”

Delucchi denied the mistrial request.

The judge didn’t specify why he had dismissed Falconer, but outside court, the ousted juror told reporters that Delucchi suggested the deciding factor was his interaction with Laci Peterson’s brother.

Last week, Falconer briefly exchanged words with Brent Rocha at a courthouse metal detector. Falconer appeared to have ducked trouble after Delucchi concluded he did nothing wrong when he quipped to Rocha that he was blocking television cameras from getting an unobstructed shot -- a story Rocha corroborated.

According to a transcript of a closed-door meeting with the judge, Falconer also said he discussed with his girlfriend media coverage of that interaction.

After talking with the juror and Rocha in his chambers Monday, the judge declared that “there was no misconduct” and the juror could remain on the case.

That all changed Wednesday.

Freed to discuss the trial, Falconer, 28, an airport screener, said he thought his exchange with Rocha was “all blown out of proportion” by the media.

He also said he thought prosecutors were doing a poor job and said he would judge Peterson not guilty if asked to deliberate the case now.

“There’s no way that you could possibly convict him,” he said. “He’d be innocent, because the prosecution hasn’t given us any reason to believe otherwise so far.”

The jolting turn of events came just before Geragos launched into a caustic cross-examination of the detective who first investigated Laci Peterson’s disappearance.

Prosecutors allege that Scott Peterson, 31, murdered his pregnant wife in their Modesto home on or about Dec. 24, 2002. They charge that he then dumped her body into San Francisco Bay, using as cover a story that he went fishing.

Defense lawyers assert that someone abducted Laci Peterson that day, then framed her husband after hearing his widely publicized alibi.

Soon after Geragos began his aggressive questioning of Det. Allen Brocchini, the judge recessed for lunch so that “everybody can calm down.”

Brocchini had told prosecutors Tuesday that it became an exercise in futility to try to eliminate Peterson as a suspect in his wife’s disappearance.

Peterson was the last person to see his wife alive on Christmas Eve morning.

He says he left his Modesto home for a solo fishing trip on the bay, and returned to find his wife gone.

When the bodies of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore four months later, mere miles from where Scott Peterson says he launched his boat, authorities arrested Peterson, whom they had been tracking for months.