LINCOLN — A judge was “clearly wrong” to dismiss felony charges against a Bee, Neb., man who agreed to show investigators where his infant daughter’s body was buried if the charges were dropped, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Lucas Peterson, as a result, will now face a trial on two felony charges in the death of 11-month-old Trista, whose battered body was found in a shallow grave in 2007.
The high court ruled that Peterson had breached the agreement with investigators by not proving that the death was accidental.
The case had spawned outrage in Seward County, west of Lincoln, over the supposed botched investigation and prosecution of a father many wanted charged with murder.
Friday’s ruling provided redemption for the Seward County sheriff and county attorney, who faced a recall attempt. The ruling also will let a court determine what role Peterson played in his daughter’s death.
“This is the first step toward justice for Trista,” said Attorney General John Bruning, whose office handled the Supreme Court appeal.
Creighton University law professor Mike Fenner said the case reinforces the view that such “cooperation agreements” with criminal defendants must be clear and specific. It also shows how seriously judges consider cases involving child victims, he said.
“It’s inescapable human nature that judges are going to make sure those rulings are right,” Fenner said.
Peterson’s case took several twists and turns over the years.
His daughter had been missing for several weeks. Peterson, while detained on other charges at the Seward County Jail, kept changing his story about her whereabouts.
At the urging of Seward County Attorney Wendy Elston, frustrated deputies told Peterson that felony charges would be dropped if he led them to the child’s body “as long as it was accidental.”
Peterson was later charged with felony child abuse resulting in the death of a child and unlawful burial — both felonies.
But Seward County District Judge Alan Gless ordered those charges dismissed, ruling that Peterson had lived up to his part of the deal.
Gless said the part of the deal about an “accidental” death was ambiguous. The judge also ruled that investigators had failed to inform Peterson of his constitutional rights to remain silent and have an attorney present and that they had pressured him into making an involuntary statement.
The judge’s order left Peterson facing only a misdemeanor charge, concealing the death of another person, in connection with his daughter’s disappearance. The state appealed.
The Supreme Court, in its ruling, disagreed that the “accidental” portion of the agreement was ambiguous.
“His obligations were twofold: to show authorities the location of Trista’s body and to prove that Trista’s death was accidental,” stated Judge John Wright, who wrote the court opinion.
The court ruled that Peterson, who did not testify at his trial, had presented no evidence that the death was accidental.
A pathologist testified at a pretrial hearing that Trista had sustained severe multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to her head, neck and trunk and that the injuries were intentionally inflicted, resulting in her death.
Some angry Seward County residents tried unsuccessfully in 2008 to mount a recall effort against Elston and County Sheriff Joe Yocum.
Butler County Attorney Julie Reiter attempted to try Peterson on the felony charge of concealing human remains because the body was found buried at an abandoned farmstead in that county.
But the State Court of Appeals ruled that the body and other evidence were obtained wrongly through the cooperation agreement in Seward County, and Peterson was released from jail in August 2009.
Before that, Peterson had been convicted of a series of unrelated misdemeanor crimes.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
