Just a few reasons why the reward is justified

[Maggie]

If the Medina burglary occurred on 12/24, and I believe it did, then the interview with the corrections officer concerning the taped conversation he heard between an inmate and the inmate’s brother, regarding Laci Peterson walking into the Medina burglary and being confronted by Steve Todd, is Brady material and Scott should get a new trial.

I believe the transcripts themselves prove the Medina burglary took place 12/24.

From testimony, Officer Hicks:

25 MR. GERAGOS: Q. And the information about the
26 three people who were -- let me just show you something.

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1 Got Bates stamp 14765.
2 And I would just ask if I could, do you remember
3 what date, Mr. Harris -- my Mr. Harris, do you remember
4 what date that's from?
5 MR. PAT HARRIS: Which one? What's the dates?
6 MR. GERAGOS: For Diane Jackson.
7 MR. PAT HARRIS: Looks like 12-26.
8 MR. GERAGOS: Okay.
9 Q. Does it appear that at 4:10 that Diane Jackson
10 called and said that she witnessed the 459 on Covena at
11 11:40? She saw the van and the safe being removed from the
12 house?

----------------------

20060
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. And when was that safe rolled out in the front
3 yard? Do you know when -- did they tell you that happened?
4 A. Between 6:30 and 7:00.
5 THE COURT: Between 6:30 and 7:00.
6 MR. GERAGOS: Q. Do you have any problem with
7 the fact that Diane Jackson had reported on the 24th that she
8 saw the safe out on the front yard?
9 A. I don't know who Diane Jackson is.
10 Q. Okay. If the safe wasn't rolled out until the
11 26th, that would seem to be a problem with why Diane Jackson
12 saw the safe there on the 24th, wouldn't it? She reported a
13 van with a safe in the front yard on the 24th?
14 A. I'm unfamiliar with Miss Diane Jackson, Mr. Geragos.
15 MR. GERAGOS: Thank you. I have no further questions.


From Pat Harris's answer to Geragos' question, we can determine that Diane Jackson made a report at 4:10PM on 12/26, and in that report she mentioned seeing the safe on 12/24. Additionally, we know that during Detective Grogan's testimony, Geragos gave him a report to read from which says that Diane Jackson reported seeing a safe on 12/24.

Now, take note of the testimony of Susan Medina concerning her arrival back home after being away for Christmas:

9 Q. What's the first thing that you noticed as you
10 got off the freeway or you started to drive through the
11 downtown area to go to your house?
12 A. We were on G Street, and we glanced at the
13 Modesto police headquarter, it's on G Street and 10th, I
14 think, and we saw a lot of cameras. And my husband says
15 Call your son and see why Modesto is on TV again.
16
17 (Laughter)
18
19 MR. DAVID HARRIS: Q. So not getting into -- did
20 you call your son?
21 A. Yes, we did.
22 Q. And, again, if you looked at your phone records,
23 would that indicate to you about what time it was that you
24 called your son on the 26th?
25 A. That is 4:12 p.m.
26 Q. So you're driving through downtown by the police

9598
1 department, you see these cameras, call your son at about
2 4:12?
3 A. Correct.
4 Q. Did you drive home?
5 A. Yeah, we drove home.
6 Did I drive home?
7 Q. When I say you, you or your husband?
8 A. Yeah, my husband. Yeah, my husband. He was
9 driving.
10 Q. And you're still in the passenger side of the
11 car?
12 A. Correct.
13 Q. You get to your house. Was there something
14 different at this point in time?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. What was that?
17 A. We can't get into the little -- when we were
18 trying to make a right turn from Edgebrook Drive to Covena,
19 we can't get in because there were some police, like some
20 sort of barricade, and we have to identify to the police
21 people that we live in that area, to let us in.
22 Q. Did you show some identification and then they
23 let you go to your house?
24 A. Yeah, my husband tried to pull out his driver's
25 license, and he pulled it out and showed it to them that we
26 live in that area.

9599
1 Q. And then are you allowed to go through the police
2 barricade?
3 A. We were allowed.
4 Q. Did you drive -- meaning you or your husband --
5 did you go to the house, to your house?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And as you get there, do you again pull into the
8 driveway towards that side gate?
9 A. We -- we stopped the car on the driveway. We
10 didn't go into the south side yet. Just on the driveway in
11 front of our house, in front of the main -- the main house.
12 We have a driveway in there.
13 Q. Now, as you start to go into the house, do you go
14 to the front door? Or where do you go?
15 A. The south gate.
16 Q. The south gate where the car had been behind
17 before?
18 A. Correct.
19 Q. And is that gate open, closed, locked, unlocked?
20 A. Still locked with a padlock.
21 Q. And had you or your husband locked that when you
22 left on the 24th?
23 A. My husband did locked it.
24 Q. So he has to undo the padlock, and you go through
25 kind of this side gate?
26 A. Correct.

9600
1 Q. Did you notice something a little bit unusual or
2 out of the ordinary as you were there in your driveway when
3 you first get home?
4 A. Yes. We saw a lot of people. People are on our
5 lawns. There were a lot of police officers. There was a
6 car, a police car, many police cars.
7 And when we drove into our driveway, we glanced
8 at -- at our front door, and it was locked. So we thought,
9 you know, it must not be our house. And as my husband
10 proceeded to open the south gate, he told me to get out and
11 ask the couple of -- I think they were sheriff from Contra
12 Costa, to ask what's happening.


We have Diane Jackson calling the MPD at 4:10 on 12/26. The Medina’s did not arrive home until after Diane Jackson called. Obviously, Diane Jackson could not have used a non-existent media report as her source of knowledge that a safe had been stolen from the Medina's home, which means she had to have seen the safe out in front of the Medina's home on 12/24, just as she reported to the police.

We have just corroborated that the burglary did not occur on 12/26 and that the burglars lied. The burglary took place on 12/24, and, as such, the probability that the correction officer’s report has a strong basis in fact becomes much more likely, indeed.

[Maggie]

Person Interviewed: Lt. Xavier Aponte
Employment: California Department of Corrections
Position: Lieutenant
Address: California Rehabilitation Center, PO Box 1841, Norco, CA 92860
Telephone: [phone]

Results of Interview

On 12/01/2004, at 9:40 AM, Lt. Xavier Aponte was interviewed in his office at California Rehabilitation Center regarding a recorded conversation between inmate Shawn Tenbrink and his brother Adam Tenbrink that occurred in the month of January 2003. Lt. Aponte was asked if the interview could be taped recorded and he said that he preferred that it not be recorded. Lt. Aponte provided the following information.

Lt. Aponte has been employed by the State of California, Department of Corrections for 18 years. From April 26, 1999 until February 2003, he was assigned to the Investigations Unit at California Rehabilitation Center. On February 18, 2003 he had a job change to Watch Commander.

California Rehab Center records inmate telephone calls to outside parties via the Inmate Monitoring and Recording System abbreviated IMARS. Inmates are allowed to place one (1) collect call per day for 15 minutes to outside parties. When the call is placed and connected a recording comes on at the beginning advising the party called that call is an inmate at a California Correctional Facility and that the call is monitored (recorded). The IMARS tapes used to be recycled within 30-60 days when the system was originally installed because the tapes were expensive and the budget limited. With an expanded budget, more tapes were purchased so that recordings could be kept one (1) year. Sometime after January 2003, the IMARS was changed to a new system whereby it became easier to retrieve recorded messages over a longer period of time. The old system was basically just a recording system and if the tape was recycled or lost then the recorded conversation was permanently lost. On the new system, it is possible to retrieve the recorded conversation from a company back East.

Lt. Aponte first became aware of Shawn Tenbrink talking about Laci Peterson within a couple weeks of her missing. Shawn was talking about Laci missing while he was out in his housing unit. A housing staff person left a message on Lt. Aponte’s voice mail and he immediately called the Modesto Police Department Hotline. He called a second time within the same week because he did not receive a call back from his first telephone call. Lt. Aponte said it was at least a week before anyone got back to him. Lt. Aponte said a detective called him back and arrangements were made for the detective to interview Shawn Tenbrink. Lt. Aponte believes that it was after he spoke to the detective that he listened to the recorded conversation between Shawn Tenbrink and his brother Adam Tenbrink. To the best of his recollection, Adam Tenbrink talked to Shawn Tenbrink about Laci Peterson missing and mentioned that that Laci happened to walk up while Steven Todd was doing the burglary and Todd made some kind of threat to Laci.

Lt. Aponte did not recall the name of the detective, however when asked about the names Craig Grogan, Al Brocchini, Mark Smith and Owens, Lt. Aponte said Grogan sounded familiar. Lt. Aponte said he recalls the names (black out… looks like two names) and Steve Todd from the recorded telephone conversation. The telephone call lasted about 3-4 minutes.

The detective from MPD came down to California Rehabilitation Center and interviewed (blacked out) within the first couple of weeks from his first call to the MPD hotline. Lt. Aponte did not recall the date of the interview. When Shawn Tenbrink walked into Lt. Aponte’s office for the interview he appeared scared. In retrospect, Lt. Aponte does not know if it was the environment Shawn was in that made him afraid or something else. By environment, Lt. Aponte was referring to Shawn being interviewed by the police in his office. Lt. Aponte specifically recalls Shawn denying having a conversation with his brother Adam and denying knowing Steve Todd. The detectives asked if there was anyway in which Shawn Tenbrink’s activities could be monitored. Lt. Aponte said they monitored his phone calls and mail more closely.

Lt. Aponte said that to his recollection the MPD detective listened to the recorded telephone conversation. Lt. Aponte is 99% positive he made a separate recording onto a cassette tape of the telephone conversation between Shawn and Adam. He did this thinking it would be important at some date. Lt. Aponte does not recall if the detective took a copy of the tape or at a later date received a copy of the taped telephone conversation. Lt. Aponte said that at the time this occurred, the investigations unit was in the old Administration Building. After Lt. Aponte left the Investigative Unit, the Administration Building was moved from a 10,000 square foot area to occupy a 3000 square foot area. In the process it has been difficult at times to locate things. Lt. Aponte said he kept a spiral notebook of calls he received which would have indicated the call from the detective, however he does not know what happened to it in the move.

Immediately following the interview with the MPD detective, Shawn went back to his housing unti and called his mother’s place to get in touch with Adam. His brother wasn’t home so Shawn talked to his mother. Lt. Aponte’s recollection of the recorded telephone call was that Shawn told his mother to tell Adam that the police just interviewed him and he was to keep his mouth shut because he doesn’t know who he is dealing with. Lt. Aponte said based on Shawn’s conversation with his mother it did not seem that Steve Todd, Shawn and Adam were friends. The telephone call lasted about 3-4 minutes about the same amount of time as when Shawn called Adam. Lt. Aponte said Shawn had little or no respect for his mother based on listening to the recorded telephone conversation.

Lt. Aponte stated this was the first time he came across Shawn Tenbrink and said Shawn kept to himself. Shawn did not appear to be a problem at Norco. Lt. Aponte said Shawn Tenbrink’s central file possibly could be accessed through CDC Legal Affairs.