There are cases where the justice system fails because people are stupid.
There are cases where it fails because people are lazy.
And then there are cases where it works exactly the way it is designed to work: like a marble-columned protection racket for people with badges, titles, pension plans, and the institutional survival instincts of cornered rats.
The Peterson case belongs in that third category.
The Los Angeles Innocence Project’s 2024 habeas corpus materials do not describe a few cops fumbling around a difficult investigation. They describe a criminal justice machine doing what it so often does when reality threatens the official story: bury the evidence, flatten the witnesses, polish the lie, and call the result a conviction.
This was not a search for the truth.
It was a search for a usable defendant.
Once Scott Peterson became that defendant, the machinery locked into place. From that point forward, evidence was no longer sorted into categories of true or false, relevant or irrelevant, probative or weak. It was sorted into two simpler buckets:
Evidence that helped convict Scott Peterson.
Evidence that had to disappear.
And disappear it did.
A prison-call tip that allegedly implicated the Medina burglars in Laci Peterson’s disappearance?
Gone.
A tape that Lieutenant Xavier Aponte said he was almost certain he made?
Gone.
A notebook identifying which Modesto detective handled the call?
Gone.
A burglary timeline placing known burglars across from Laci Peterson’s home on the morning she disappeared? Magically relocated to December 26, where it could do less damage.
A burned van containing a mattress that tested presumptive positive for human blood was found near a residence connected to a burglar’s family? Treated like some regrettable roadside clutter.
A teacher’s report that a four-year-old child made a cutting motion across his body while talking about Laci and “the baby cut out”? Filed in the great American drawer marked Things We Prefer Not to Think About.
This was not incompetence.
Incompetence is when someone drops a Redbull on a file.
This was evidence management in the service of a conviction.
The officers involved did not merely botch the case. They helped protect the real perpetrators after the murders of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Connor.
That makes these men accessories after the fact.
Not symbolically.
Not rhetorically.
Legally. Morally. Historically.
The Official Story Needed a Villain, Not the Truth
American law enforcement loves a clean story:
A dead woman.
A suspicious husband.
A public hungry for a monster.
A prosecutor ready for television.
A police department eager to close the circle before the circle gets complicated.
Scott Peterson became the story because Scott Peterson was useful. He was easy to sell. He fit the template. Husband. Affair. Lies. Boat. Bay. Motive delivered in prime-time packaging.
The problem was that the case had another story running through it like a crack in the foundationThe Medina burglary.
The Medina home sat across the street from Laci Peterson’s house. Steven Todd and Glenn Pierce admitted to burglarizing it. The official version placed that burglary on December 26, 2002, two days after Laci disappeared.
That date is not a minor detail. It is the whole trick.
December 26 turns the burglary into background noise.
December 24 turns it into a possible motive for murder.
And the sworn evidence described in the habeas materials points directly to December 24.
Susan Medina stated that when she left home on December 24, outgoing manila envelopes were sticking out of her mailbox. When she returned on December 26, the envelopes were gone. The burglars reportedly said they saw that mail.
This is not difficult.
If the mail was gone by December 26, the burglars could not have seen it on December 26.
If they saw it, they saw it earlier.
If they saw it earlier, the burglary happened earlier.
And if the burglary happened on December 24, then it happened the morning Laci Peterson vanished.
That means Laci may have witnessed it.
That means the burglars had a motive to silence her.
That means the official case against Scott Peterson was suddenly not so clean.
So the system did what systems do when facts misbehave.
It moved the facts.
December 26: The Date That Did Too Much Work
The December 26 burglary date is one of those official facts that arrives wearing a cheap suit and expecting respect.
It does not deserve any.
That date performed a vital institutional service. It protected the prosecution’s theory. It protected the police from having to admit that known criminals were operating across the street from Laci Peterson’s home on the morning she disappeared. It protected Steven Todd and Glenn Pierce from being treated as serious homicide suspects. It protected the conviction before the conviction even existed.
A suspicious fact became an inconvenient fact.
An inconvenient fact became a minimized fact.
A minimized fact became a forgotten fact.
That is how the justice system launders reality.
Steven Todd later reportedly admitted he was so high on meth and cocaine during the December 24–26 period that he did not clearly remember what happened. In any honest inquiry, that would make his date claims radioactive.
But the police did not need Todd to be reliable.
They needed him to be useful.
His December 26 date helped keep the burglary away from Laci’s disappearance. It kept Todd and Pierce in the petty-criminal file instead of the homicide-suspect file. It made the case simpler.
And American prosecutors love nothing more than simplicity, especially when the alternative is admitting the first version was wrong.
The Aponte Tip Was the Bomb They Had to Defuse
Lieutenant Xavier Aponte’s account is the kind of thing that should have stopped the Peterson prosecution cold.
According to the habeas materials, Aponte learned of a prison conversation involving Shawn Tenbrink and Adam Tenbrink. The substance was explosive: Steven Todd allegedly admitted that Laci Peterson saw the Medina burglary and that the burglars could not afford to get caught.
In ordinary English, that means Laci saw something and had to be silenced.
In homicide-investigation English, that means stop everything and investigate the hell out of this.
In Modesto Police Department English, apparently, it meant lose the tape, conceal the detective, and proceed as though the universe had not just dropped an alternative-suspect theory into their lap.
Aponte reportedly called the MPD tip line more than once. Eventually, an unnamed detective interviewed Shawn Tenbrink by phone. That detective has still not been publicly dragged into daylight, which is remarkable, because this person sits near the center of the entire scandal.
After that call, the unnamed detective allegedly told Aponte to “monitor Tenbrink more closely.”
Then, according to the materials, Tenbrink called his mother and warned that Adam needed to keep quiet because he did not know who he was dealing with.
Read that sequence again.
A prison call points toward the burglars.
A Modesto detective gets involved.
The detective tells Aponte to monitor Tenbrink.
Tenbrink immediately warns his family to shut up.
That is not a harmless procedural hiccup.
That is the sound of the investigation being compromised.
That is the sound of suspects being alerted.
That is the sound of a case being steered away from the people who may have known exactly what happened to Laci Peterson.
If that sequence is accurate, the unnamed detective did not simply mishandle evidence. He helped shield killers from apprehension.
That is accessory-after-the-fact conduct.
The Missing Tape Is the Case Screaming Through a Wall
Aponte stated he was “99% positive” he made a separate cassette recording of the incriminating call.
That tape has never been produced.
How convenient.
The tape that could have blown open the case disappears. The notebook that could have identified the detective disappears. The follow-up documentation disappears. The defense is left chasing shadows while the state stands there with its hands in its pockets, humming the national anthem of official denial.
This is the oldest song in American criminal justice.
Evidence helpful to the prosecution gets preserved like holy scripture.
Evidence helpful to the defense evaporates like morning fog.
And then the courts, with a straight face, ask whether the missing evidence would really have mattered.
Would it have mattered?
A recorded prison call allegedly linking known burglars to Laci Peterson’s disappearance?
A call suggesting she saw the burglary?
A call suggesting she had to be “shut up”?
Yes. It would have mattered.
It would have mattered to the jury.
It would have mattered to the defense.
It would have mattered to Laci and Connor.
It would have mattered to anyone not professionally invested in pretending it did not matter.
The missing tape is not a footnote.
It is a confession written in negative space.
The Burned Van: A Bloody Mattress and a Police Department Looking Away
Then there is the burned van.
On December 25, 2002, the morning after Laci disappeared, an orange 1989 Chevrolet van was found burning in an alley less than a mile from the Peterson home.
Inside was a mattress.
The mattress reportedly tested presumptive positive for human blood.
The van was found near a residence connected to Steven Todd’s sister-in-law.
This is the sort of fact that should make investigators kick down doors, subpoena everyone, test everything, and sleep in the evidence room until the lab results come back.
Pregnant woman missing.
Known burglary across the street.
Alternative suspects.
Burned van.
Possible human blood.
Mattress.
Family connection to one of the burglars.
That is not a loose end.
That is a flare fired into the sky.
But according to the habeas materials, the van was never treated with the seriousness it demanded. Former Modesto Fire Department investigator Bryan Spitulski reportedly remained troubled by the lack of investigation into the blood evidence.
He should be troubled.
Everyone should be troubled.
Because a system that can organize itself around Scott Peterson’s boat, Scott Peterson’s movements, Scott Peterson’s affair, and Scott Peterson’s every suspicious expression, but somehow cannot bring itself to fully investigate a burned van with a possibly bloody mattress connected to the burglary universe, is not searching for the truth.
It is curating evidence.
The Child’s Statement: Another Fact the Machine Could Not Digest
The filings also describe a teacher’s sworn declaration involving Steven Todd’s four-year-old son.
According to the declaration, the child made a cutting motion across his chest and stomach while speaking about Laci Peterson and “the baby cut out.” The teacher reportedly feared retaliation from the Todd family and asked that her name be sealed.
Standing alone, a child’s statement is not proof.
But nothing here stands alone.
It stands next to the Medina burglary.
It stands next to the disputed date.
It stands next to the Aponte prison call.
It stands next to the missing tape.
It stands next to Tenbrink’s warning call.
It stands next to the burned van.
It stands next to the bloody mattress.
It stands next to witnesses who reportedly saw Laci walking her dog after Scott Peterson had already left.
The system did not lack leads.
It lacked interest in leads that pointed the wrong way.
Craig Grogan and the Problem of the Lead Detective
Detective Craig Grogan was the lead investigator. That means the case’s direction, priorities, omissions, and blind spots all run through him.
The habeas materials also allege that Grogan was involved in a romantic extramarital relationship with prosecutor Birgit Fladager during the trial period, and that this was “common knowledge” among employees of the Modesto Police Department and the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office.
If true, this was not gossip.
This was a structural conflict inside a capital murder prosecution.
The lead detective and a prosecutor do not get to conduct a death-penalty-adjacent case under a cloud of undisclosed intimacy while the defense is left in the dark. That kind of relationship bears on bias, disclosure, coordination, credibility, and motive.
The defense had a right to know.
The jury had a right to know.
The public had a right to know.
But secrecy is the operating system of institutional misconduct. The people inside the courthouse always know. The people outside are told to shut up and respect the verdict.
That is how the game works.
The Unnamed Detective Is Not a Mystery Character. He Is a Suspect in the Cover-Up
The unnamed MPD detective tied to the Aponte tip needs to be named.
Not eventually.
Not after another committee.
Not after another round of institutional throat-clearing.
Now.
This officer allegedly received information connecting the Medina burglary to Laci Peterson’s disappearance. He allegedly interviewed Shawn Tenbrink. He allegedly told Aponte to monitor Tenbrink more closely. Afterward, Tenbrink allegedly warned his family that Adam had to keep quiet.
That detective is not some minor bureaucratic participant.
He is one of the central figures in the alleged obstruction.
His identity matters because accountability cannot proceed against a ghost. His reports matter. His call logs matter. His communications matter. His supervisors matter. His instructions matter. His silence matters.
No police officer should get anonymity after handling a lead that may have identified the killers in one of the most notorious murder cases in modern California history.
A badge is not a witness-protection program.
Accessories After the Fact, With Government Benefits
Let us put the legal theory in plain language.
An accessory after the fact is someone who, knowing a crime has been committed, assists the offender in avoiding arrest, trial, conviction, or punishment.
Now look at the alleged conduct.
A lead implicating the burglars disappears.
A tape disappears.
A detective remains unnamed.
A timeline is pushed away from December 24.
A burned van with possible human blood is not seriously pursued.
Witnesses pointing away from Scott Peterson are minimized.
Discovery is allegedly withheld or fragmented.
The official theory is protected.
The alternative suspects are spared.
If those facts are true, the officers involved did not merely fail to catch murderers. They assisted the murderers in avoiding consequences.
That is accessory-after-the-fact conduct.
The law does not require an accessory to hide the killer in a cabin or hand him a fake passport. Sometimes all it takes is losing the evidence, burying the lead, warning the wrong person, or building a paper wall between the killer and the courtroom.
A civilian who did that would be treated like part of the crime.
A cop who does it should be treated no differently.
In fact, he should be treated more harshly.
A civilian has only his own hands.
A corrupt cop has the state.
The Prosecutors Were Not Innocent Bystanders
The police did not pull this off in a vacuum.
Prosecutors are the genteel face of the machine. They wear better suits, speak in cleaner sentences, and commit their violence through filings instead of cuffs. But when they defend convictions built on missing evidence, hidden conflicts, distorted timelines, and suppressed leads, they are not ministers of justice.
They are maintenance workers for the lie.
The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office cannot be treated as a neutral institution here. It benefited from the narrowed story. It defended the conviction. It participated in the culture of denial. It stood behind the case while the facts underneath it rotted.
The prosecutor’s job is supposed to be justice.
In practice, too often, the job is winning and then defending the win until everyone who remembers the truth dies, retires, or gets exhausted.
That is not public service.
That is institutional racketeering with legal stationery.
No More Respect for the Seal
There should be no presumption of good faith for the institutions involved.
Not for the Modesto Police Department.
Not for the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office.
Not for Detective Craig Grogan.
Not for the unnamed detective.
Not for any officer, prosecutor, supervisor, evidence custodian, or official who touched this case and helped keep the truth buried.
Institutions do not become trustworthy because they have seals.
Police departments do not become honest because they issue press statements.
Prosecutors do not become righteous because they say “the People” before doing something monstrous.
The state is not entitled to reverence. It is entitled to scrutiny.
And when the state hides evidence, protects a narrative, and sends a man to prison while possible killers walk free, scrutiny is too mild.
What is needed is prosecution.
The Federal Government Must Stop Pretending This Is a Local Problem
This cannot be left to the same local power structure that built and defended the case.
The Department of Justice and the FBI should treat the Peterson case as a federal civil-rights and obstruction matter, and as a potential accessory-after-the-fact investigation involving law enforcement officers.
The investigation should seize records, not request them politely.
It should subpoena communications, not accept summaries.
It should identify the unnamed detective.
It should reconstruct the Aponte call chain.
It should determine who knew about the tape, who handled it, who failed to preserve it, and who benefited when it disappeared.
It should investigate whether the December 26 burglary date was adopted because it was true or because it shielded Steven Todd and Glenn Pierce from the murder timeline.
It should examine the burned van, the mattress, the presumptive blood evidence, and the connection to Todd’s family.
It should obtain records concerning the alleged Grogan-Fladager relationship and any disclosure policies that were ignored.
It should account for missing Bates-numbered discovery.
It should put every relevant officer and prosecutor under oath.
And if the evidence supports it, it should indict.
Not recommend reforms.
Indict.
The Federal Crimes Are Not Hard to See
The legal theories are sitting in plain view.
18 U.S.C. § 242 — Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law
If officers willfully suppressed exculpatory evidence, manipulated the investigation, or deprived Scott Peterson of a fair trial, they violated constitutional rights under color of law.
18 U.S.C. § 371 — Conspiracy
If officers, prosecutors, or officials coordinated to conceal evidence, preserve a false timeline, or protect the conviction through deceit, conspiracy belongs on the table.
18 U.S.C. § 1519 — Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification of Records
If recordings, reports, logs, discovery pages, or evidence materials were destroyed, concealed, altered, or falsified, federal obstruction law is implicated.
18 U.S.C. § 1621 — Perjury
If sworn statements or testimony misrepresented the evidence, the burglary timeline, the Aponte tip, discovery compliance, or witness handling, perjury must be investigated.
Accessory After the Fact to Murder
If officers helped shield the actual perpetrators after the murders of Laci and Connor Peterson, then the proper label is accessory after the fact. The state does not get a special exemption from the criminal law because its obstruction came with a badge and a pension.
The Official Story Was a Product
The Peterson case was sold to the public.
It had a villain.
It had a motive.
It had a narrative arc.
It had cable-news simplicity.
It had prosecutors and police presenting themselves as guardians of a grieving public.
But beneath the marketed version was the unsold inventory: the Medina burglary, the December 24 evidence, the Aponte tip, the missing tape, the warning call, the burned van, the bloody mattress, the child’s statement, the anonymous return of stolen property, the missing discovery, and the alleged conflict between the lead detective and prosecutor.
Those facts were bad for the product.
So the product was protected.
This is how consent gets manufactured in the criminal courts. The public is shown one story, while the contradictory story is locked in an evidence room, misplaced in discovery, buried in a report, or dismissed as a rumor.
Then the public is told the matter has been adjudicated.
Then the state calls its own concealment finality.
The Final Indictment
Laci Peterson deserved the truth.
Connor Peterson deserved the truth.
Scott Peterson deserved a fair trial.
The public deserved an investigation that followed evidence instead of managing it.
Instead, according to the allegations in the habeas materials, the system delivered a state-sponsored narrative wrapped around a hollowed-out investigation.
Two murderers walked free.
A man spent decades in prison, including years under a death sentence.
Evidence vanished.
Witnesses were minimized.
A bloody mattress in a burned van was treated like a nuisance.
A prison-call lead was swallowed by the machine.
A detective remains unnamed.
A prosecution survived by turning away from the facts it could not afford to see.
The officers who protected the real perpetrators must be named for what the alleged facts make them: accessories after the fact to murder.
Not flawed investigators.
Not overwhelmed civil servants.
Not men who made hard calls under pressure.
Accessories.
The prosecutors who defended this tainted case must be investigated.
The police department that buried or mishandled evidence must be investigated.
The district attorney’s office that benefited from the concealment must be investigated.
A federal grand jury must be convened.
Because when police use their authority to bury evidence, shield killers, and cage the wrong man, they are not enforcing the law.
They are committing crimes under its cover.
The Peterson case is not just a miscarriage of justice.
It is the justice system caught in the act: selling certainty, hiding doubt, protecting itself, and calling the whole rotten transaction law.
Endnotes
Endnote 1 – Recorded confession that Laci witnessed a burglary and that the burglars “had to shut her up.”
Sworn declarations and court filings in the Los Angeles Innocence Project’s 2024 habeas corpus motion state that a man who participated in the Medina burglary admitted that Laci Peterson caught them in the act while they were removing a safe and that they “couldn’t afford to get caught so they had to shut her up.” According to Lieutenant Xavier Aponte’s sworn statement, Adam Tenbrink told his brother Shawn that Steven Todd admitted Laci saw him burglarizing the Medina home on December 24, 2002. The prosecution dismissed these as “jailhouse rumors,” but the declarations remain in the court record.
Endnote 2 – Destruction of the tape recording
Lieutenant Aponte stated that he was “99% positive” he made a separate cassette tape recording of the incriminating phone conversation between Shawn and Adam Tenbrink. That tape has never been produced. The prison’s Inmate Monitoring and Recording System was replaced shortly after January 2003. Under the old system, if a tape was lost or recycled, the conversation was permanently lost. Aponte also lost his spiral notebook logging which Modesto police officer took which call. His memory of key details—such as the interviewing detective’s name—became “lost” as well.
Endnote 3 – Changing official records to move the burglary from December 24 to December 26
The two burglars pleaded guilty to robbing the Medina home on December 26, 2002. However, sworn testimony indicates the burglary actually occurred on December 24. Susan Medina declared under penalty of perjury that she left outgoing manila envelopes protruding from her mailbox on the morning of December 24, visible from the street, and that the burglars admitted seeing that mail. When she returned on December 26, those envelopes were gone. The burglars could not have seen mail that was no longer there on the 26th. Furthermore, multiple witnesses—including Diane Jackson and the wife of a former Modesto police detective—reported seeing suspicious men and a van outside the Medina home at approximately 11:00 a.m. on December 24. Lieutenant Aponte’s declaration further confirms that Adam Tenbrink told his brother the burglary occurred on December 24.
Endnote 4 – Van fire with human blood burning behind a burglar’s relative’s home
On the morning of December 25, 2002, an orange 1989 Chevrolet van was found fully engulfed in flames in an alley less than a mile from the Peterson home. Inside was a mattress that tested presumptive positive for human blood. The alley address corresponded to the home of Steven Todd’s sister-in-law. A former Modesto Fire Department investigator, Bryan Spitulski, stated that no one from the prosecution or defense ever sought his evaluation of the van, and he remains troubled by the lack of investigation into the blood evidence.
Endnote 5 – Four-year-old child describing a pregnant woman being cut open
Court documents include a sworn declaration by a teacher reporting that Steven Todd’s four-year-old son made a cutting motion across his chest and stomach while making a statement about Laci Peterson and “the baby cut out.” The teacher asked that her name be sealed, fearing violent retaliation from the Todd family, whom she described as “dangerous.”
Endnote 6 – Lieutenant Xavier Aponte’s warnings and the unnamed detective who tipped off the killers
Lieutenant Aponte called the Modesto Police Department tip line twice because no one returned his first call. He eventually spoke with an MPD detective whose name has never been disclosed to the defense. That detective interviewed inmate Shawn Tenbrink telephonically and then instructed Aponte to “monitor Tenbrink more closely.” Immediately after that instruction, Tenbrink called his mother and told her to warn his brother Adam: “He has to keep his mouth shut because he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.” The defense has never been provided with the recording of that call, the detective’s name, or any documentation of the followup investigation.
Endnote 7 – Affair between Detective Craig Grogan and Prosecutor Birgit Fladager
The habeas corpus motion includes a sworn declaration stating that at the time of Peterson’s 2004–2005 trial, it was “common knowledge” among employees of the Modesto Police Department and the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s office that Detective Craig Grogan (lead investigator) and Deputy District Attorney Birgit Fladager (prosecutor) were involved in a romantic extramarital affair, witnessed by multiple people. The defense has requested all MPD and DA office policies governing disclosure of such conflicts. Public reporting shows Fladager and Grogan worked closely together at trial, with Fladager examining Grogan extensively on the stand. The LA Innocence Project formally requested employee policy manuals regarding conflicts of interest from both agencies.
Endnote 8 – Witnesses who placed the burglary and suspicious van on December 24
At least twelve eyewitnesses reported seeing Laci Peterson walking her dog in the neighborhood on the morning of December 24, 2002—after Scott Peterson said he had left for the day. Multiple neighbors, including Diane Jackson and the wife of a former MPD detective, reported seeing a suspicious van (described as older model, tan or light brown, no windows) and three men near the Medina home at approximately 11:00 a.m. on December 24.
Endnote 9 – Steven Todd’s drug use destroying his memory of dates
In a post-conviction interview, Steven Todd admitted that he was “so high on meth and cocaine for 3 days” during the period of December 24–26, 2002, that he did not “really remember anything” he did during that period. This admission calls into question his claimed recollection that the burglary occurred on December 26.
Endnote 10 – Susan Medina’s sworn declaration (mail, burglary timeline, ignored evidence)
Susan Medina signed a sworn declaration dated July 29, 2023, stating: her outgoing mail protruded from her mailbox on December 24 but was gone on December 26; a suspicious man on a bicycle made her feel “uncomfortable” and “out of place” as she left that morning; police refused to dust for fingerprints, telling her she watched “too much CSI”; approximately $30,000 in cash was never returned; police showed her jewelry that did not belong to her and that she did not recognize. She concluded: “I have always been bothered by the lack of investigation of the burglary of our home and the possible connection to Lacy’s disappearance and murder.” Her trial testimony confirmed much of this under oath.
Endnote 11 – The teacher’s declaration (four-year-old’s statement and fear of Todd family)
The declaration of a school teacher (name sealed), submitted under penalty of perjury, describes Steven Todd’s four-year-old son making a cutting motion across his chest and stomach while discussing Laci Peterson and “the baby cut out.” The teacher described the Todd family as “dangerous” and asked that her name not be disclosed in public filings due to fear of violent retaliation.
Endnote 12 – The anonymous return of stolen jewelry and a gun (January 3, 2003)
On January 2 or 3, 2003, an anonymous white male, described as late 20s to early 30s, approximately 5’8” and 150 pounds, walked into the Modesto Police Department lobby carrying a blue plastic shopping bag. He told the officer via the call box that he wanted to turn over stolen property. The bag contained jewelry and a gun from the Medina burglary. Surveillance footage from the MPD lobby from that night has never been fully investigated or provided to the defense.
Endnote 13 – Missing Bates pages and destroyed discovery
Multiple Bates numbering systems exist within the 43,000+ pages of discovery provided to Peterson’s defense. Over 500 pages are missing from the chronological numbering system used by the Modesto Police Department. Entire sections of discovery—including the Aponte tape, followup investigation reports, and the identity of the unnamed detective—have never been produced.
Endnote 14 – Prosecutor Fladager’s 2024 email claiming evidence was provided (continuing cover-up)
In a December 2024 letter responding to the LA Innocence Project’s discovery request, retired prosecutor Birgit Fladager accused the Innocence Project of “deliberately withholding information” about their efforts to exonerate Peterson, calling into question “the suggested intent” of their requests for evidence. She wrote: “The fact that you have chosen to withhold items you claim to possess that support some of your assertions is troubling.” The defense maintains that the items they seek have never been turned over—a claim the prosecution disputes. Peterson remains incarcerated, and the requested evidence has still not been produced.
Endnote 15 – No statute of limitations due to continuing violation
The deprivation of civil rights under 18 U.S.C. § 242 occurs “willfully” and “under color of law” and is a continuing violation as long as the wrongfully convicted person remains incarcerated. Peterson remains in custody. The cover-up is ongoing: as recently as 2024, prosecutors continue to deny the existence of evidence that the LA Innocence Project asserts was destroyed or withheld. Conspiracy charges under 18 U.S.C. § 371 run from the last overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. Moreover, under 18 U.S.C. § 3281, there is no statute of limitations for murder. If the officers can be shown to have been accessories after the fact to the murders of Laci and Connor Peterson, those charges carry no time bar.