PEITZ LINKED TO BOMBS? PENS, TAPE ARE CALLED EVIDENCE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Soap bars, felt-tip pens and clear plastic packing tape are the evidence linking a former postal worker to fake bombs left at a Lancaster post office, an investigator testified Thursday.

U.S. Postal service investigator Douglas Bingham testified that a search at Jeffrey Peitz's home turned up 20 bars of soap, 20 marking pens and six rolls of packing tape similar to materials used in packages left with threatening messages at the main Lancaster post office between 2000 and 2003.

The search also found men's athletic shoes similar to ones worn by the man photographed by a surveillance camera while leaving the last of the packages last February, Bingham said.

Peitz's preliminary hearing started Thursday afternoon in Lancaster Superior Court and is expected to continue today before Judge Lisa Chung, who must rule whether prosecutors' evidence is enough to warrant a trial.

Defense attorney Richard Plotin before the hearing described the prosecution's case as weak, saying it was built totally on circumstantial evidence. Peitz's wife and daughter, who were in the courtroom with friends, said he did not plant the packages.

Peitz, 47, of Quartz Hill has pleaded not guilty to six counts of sending a false bomb. He also is charged with making a criminal threat against a postal supervisor mentioned in a message inside a package and with possession of a firearm by a person on probation.

Peitz had been convicted in February 2001 in a federal court of obstruction of mail and placed on probation, officials said.

Since his April 29 arrest, he has been jailed in lieu of $5 million bail.

Officials say Peitz is responsible for placing packages filled with carved-up colored soap and detergent and containing threats against postal workers and President George W. Bush at the Lancaster post office on 20th Street West between Dec. 29, 2000, and Feb. 12, 2003.

The first package, filled with laundry detergent, was addressed to ``the next president of the United States,'' and contained a message to ``tell him to clean up his damn act.''

The next package, delivered on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and Columbine shootings, warned: ``I told the president to clean up his act, now I'm telling you to do the same,'' mentioning a postal supervisor by name.

In November 2001, a fake bomb was accompanied with hand-drawn depictions of the World Trade Center being destroyed. The words ``Roses are red, violets are blue, soon God's wrath will be upon you'' were written in black marker on the package.

A package left in December 2002 contained a shotgun shell on which was written in marker: ``George W. Bush you are marked.'' It also contained a message reading: ``When I told you to tell the next president to clean up his act, you failed. Now it's my turn. Roses are red, violets are blue, now my wrath is upon you.''

The February package's message said, ``Soon the mighty Jihad will reign fire on this place of government. Hundreds will die. Bush will then see the big mistake he is making in my country Iraq. Keep out America.''

Postal inspectors, Secret Service agents, sheriff's explosive experts and sheriff's deputies searched Peitz's home in the 42400 block of 55th Street West under a sealed federal search warrant April 29. Peitz was not home but was located a short time later, and after a brief interview, he was arrested, officials said.

In 1994, Peitz was charged with murdering his then-wife, who was shot to death, but was never convicted. Each of his three trials ended in deadlocked juries.

In August 1994, Terri Lynn Peitz was killed while watching television in their Palmdale home. Peitz said he was upstairs folding laundry when an intruder shot her, then ran out the front door. He blamed the killing on the couple's Neighborhood Watch activities.

Three trials ended in mistrials when the juries could not reach unanimous verdicts. The vote was 9-3 for conviction in the first trial, and 8-4 in the second and third. Peitz spent nearly a year in jail before being released after the third mistrial.

The slaying is still being investigated by the Sheriff's Department's homicide bureau, prosecutors said.