Officer Accused of Murder : CHP Ends Peyer Inquiry; Findings Withheld

The California Highway Patrol has completed its investigation of Officer Craig Peyer, charged with murdering college student Cara Knott, but senior CHP officers declined Friday to announce their findings until after the preliminary hearing for Peyer.

CHP Deputy Commissioner Maury Hannigan said the CHP is ready to serve Peyer with its findings, as required by law, but is prevented from doing so pursuant to an order from Municipal Judge Frederic L. Link, who will preside over Peyer’s preliminary hearing, beginning April 27. Hannigan said Link issued his order last week.

According to Hannigan, Link ordered the CHP not to serve Peyer with its findings “because the judge didn’t want us to take any action that would jeopardize the prosecution or defense.” Link was concerned about safeguarding Peyer’s rights because once he is served with the report, the investigation and its findings become public, Hannigan said.

Decision on Firing Due

Hannigan declined to reveal the investigation’s conclusion, or the administrative action recommended against Peyer, 36. However, Ben Killingsworth, chief of the CHP’s border division, said after Peyer’s arrest on Jan. 15 that a decision whether to fire Peyer would be made when the internal investigation was completed.

Peyer remains on administrative leave with pay, drawing his $33,000-a-year salary. CHP officials suspended him without pay for 15 days after his arrest but were required by law to put him back on the payroll because he had not been fired while on suspension.

Hannigan said the internal investigation took longer than normal because of the criminal charges pending against Peyer. CHP officials said the investigation was restricted by Link’s order prohibiting the prosecution and defense from making evidence in the case public, or sharing it with CHP investigators.

“We have completed our field investigation, but before we can proceed, the package (investigative findings) has to be served to (Peyer). We are ready to serve, but Judge Link requested that we not serve the individual until after the preliminary hearing,” Hannigan said.

This means that even if CHP officials have concluded that Peyer should be fired, it will not be done until after the preliminary hearing is concluded, and he will continue to receive a salary until then.

Peyer Gets a Rebuttal

Under state law, Peyer will have five days to rebut the CHP’s findings once he is served with results of the internal investigation. But CHP officials still could not fire Peyer until they “weigh the rebuttal by the employee,” Hannigan said. He did not know how long it would take CHP officials to study Peyer’s response.

CHP Commissioner J.E. Smith, in a March 17 letter to Assemblyman Larry Sterling (R-La Mesa), said that requiring the department to notify Peyer and giving him five days to respond to an “adverse action” made it impossible to conduct an internal investigation and take administrative measures against him during the 15 days he was suspended without pay.

Hannigan declined to discuss the details of the department’s investigation. He said that CHP investigators “didn’t necessarily address” Knott’s murder and any recommendation made about Peyer’s status with the CHP “will not necessarily be on the allegation of homicide.”

Other Women Complained

Hannigan said that if a decision is made to fire Peyer, it could result from “other actions” that Peyer has taken. He declined to elaborate, but after Peyer’s arrest several women told San Diego police investigators that Peyer had stopped them under unusual circumstances.

In each case, the women said, they were pulled over near the same Interstate 15 off-ramp bridge where Knott, a 20-year-old San Diego State University student, was strangled. None was harmed or threatened by Peyer, they said, but all described his behavior as unusual.

In addition, Jean-Pierre Gulli, 17, said that Peyer stopped him on a deserted stretch of highway the same night that Knott was killed, and changed the time of the ticket to show that it had been written about the time of the killing.

Peyer, a 13-year CHP veteran, was charged with killing Knott after pulling her over the night of Dec. 27 near the isolated Mercy Road off-ramp on Interstate 15. Knott’s body was thrown from a 75-foot-high bridge into a dry creek bed, where it was found the next morning.

Peyer is free on $1-million bail.