Defense Attorney David Rudolf on “The Staircase” (Interview Outtakes)

What follows are additional quotes from my interview with defense attorney David Rudolf for an article on RollingStone.com about the true crime docuseries ‘The Staircase’ and the case against his client, Michael Peterson.

On Judge Orlando Hudson’s comments in the final episode of “The Staircase” that “there were things that I would have changed” about his various evidentiary decisions in 2003:

My reaction was “it’s about time.” I told you 16 years ago, but you wouldn’t listen. But listen, Judge Hudson is basically a fair judge and his approach to the trial back in back in 2003 was “I’m going to let everything come in.” I mean, he didn’t stop us from putting any evidence in, you know? So his basic approach back then was, “I’m going to let everything come in and we’ll let the jury sort it out.” Even on the search warrant — I mean, it was so obviously deficient. But yet he let that stuff in. You know, he let in this motive evidence about the [“Soldier Top Brad”] e-mail, even though the forensic people said that she hadn’t in fact accessed that e-mail that evening. He let in the motive evidence about the finances, even though they had something like two million dollars in deferred comp that they could have taken at any time. So, you know, that was his basic approach and I understood that. I didn’t think he was being prejudicial — well, I mean, it’s obvious it was prejudicial, but I didn’t think he was being biased against the defense. I think he was just biased in favor of allowing all the evidence in. And I think with another 15 years of being on the bench and understanding better how false convictions occur, I think he was much more sensitive to the dangers of letting all the evidence in. And I think that’s to his credit. Now, having said it’s to his credit, how does that make me feel? It makes me feel like, you know, if you had recognized this 16 years earlier we wouldn’t all be sitting here right now.

On his decision to grant Jean-Xavier de Lestrade such unprecedented access to his client and the defense’s trial preparations while the case was ongoing:

Number one, the agreement was that if the trial didn’t go well, then there would be an appeal, and the series would not have shown, or at least I would have been given an opportunity to preview it and make sure there was nothing in the series that was going to prejudice an appeal. So, I wasn’t worried about the appeal process per se. Having said that, I was uncomfortable with the idea just because of what we generally do which is very private and confidential. Frankly, part of what I was concerned about was the prosecution subpoenaing tapes. So we had an agreement with the filmmakers that they would be filming these things for our benefit initially — — so, in essence, they would be covered by our attorney client privilege until I waived it, and they would also be protected obviously by their own First Amendment privileges. That, I felt, gave me sufficient comfort to allow this. …

Now, could I have vetoed it? Sure I could. But there was a part of me that felt like letting people see how a criminal defense attorney actually prepares for a trial would have a real benefit for the criminal justice system because too often in movies and TV shows there’s this image of the criminal defense lawyer as a sort of sleazy character who, you know, fabricates evidence or destroys evidence or makes things up or twists things beyond recognition. That’s just not the reality. There’s also this sense that somehow what happens at the trial is really 90 percent of a defense lawyer’s job. And that’s false. So I thought there was a real educational benefit, in a broad sense, to allowing this. And so as long as I was comfortable that none of this would get out before the case was finally resolved, or at least none of it would get out without me being comfortable that what was getting out would not be prejudicial to a retrial, I was comfortable.

On Michael Peterson’s admission in the final episode of “The Staircase” that he never discussed his bisexuality with Kathleen:

I can’t remember him ever saying, “I told her.” I think what he always said was “she knew,” but I just always assumed that she knew just sort of the way wives and husbands sort of know things — not that he sat there and said, “Kathleen, there’s something I need to tell you before we get married — I’m bisexual” and blah blah blah. So, you know, to me it wasn’t that dramatic because I never thought, and he never told me, that he had a specific discussion with her about that. …

So, you know, what he said in that episode, it just didn’t shock me or surprise me because I never thought that he had had a specific discussion with Kathleen about it. …

I’ll just say that never once in all the years I’ve represented Michael did I ever find out that something he told me was flat out not true. So, you know, that’s sort of unusual by itself.

Please check out my full article on RollingStone.com!