Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Karen Servas: Serious Credibility problems

Anyone familiar with the Scott Peterson trial knows the importance Karen Servas played in defining a narrow window of time for any abduction to occur. 10:08 was the beginning of the window, as defined by the time that Scott checked his voice mail as he was leaving the house to go to the warehouse. 10:18, of course, is the closing of the window, as that is the time Servas said she found McKenzie.

We've already noted that accounts from other witnesses disputes the 10:18 time. But why should these other witnesses be preferred over Servas? Simple. Servas isn't credible.

This is just one example of how her story changed from telling to telling.

December 25, in her statement to Detective Jon Buehler, as reported in his testimony, the front gate was locked:

Servas told me she was the next door neighbor to Scott and Laci, and she had lived next door do them for a period of time. . . . She took the leash or the leashed dog back over to the Peterson house, tried to get it in the front courtyard area which has got a gate, on the east side of the property, found that to be locked.

In her testimony at the Preliminary hearing, she didn't even try to open the front gate:

Q. Which gate was locked? If you could just put an "L" for "locked" on there.
A. Now, whether or not it was locked, I don't know.
Q. But you tried it and --
A. But --
Q. -- you couldn't get in?
A. No. As I walked and got in front of this gate, I heard something in the backyard, so I did not actually go like this and try to open the gate. I figured to go in, to try the side. I normally would go in the side anyway. But it would have been this gate.

In her testimony at Trial, the gate was locked:

DISTASO: Okay. So you walk across your lawn here (pointing) and you tried the front gate, is that right?
SERVAS: Yes, I did.
DISTASO: And what happened?
SERVAS: Well, I felt a little panic because the gate was locked, but then I heard some raking in the backyard and so I figured I'd go try and see if the side gate was unlocked or open.

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