SUSPECT DEMANDS DAY IN COURT KIN: MAN NOT GUILTY IN FAKE BOMB SPREE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Former postal worker Jeffrey Dale Peitz's wife and daughter said he is not guilty of planting fake bombs at a Lancaster post office.

Peitz's wife and daughter and a handful of friends came to court Wednesday for his preliminary hearing, which was postponed a day because of a lack of an available courtroom, and because the defendant wants his case heard before a judge instead of a commissioner.

``All the allegations, they are not true. The person that they are saying who supposedly did this is not my dad,'' Michelle Peitz said outside court. ``Whoever is saying it is my dad is obviously lying.''

``We love him and believe in him,'' said Peitz's wife, Eve.

Michelle Peitz said her father's three grandchildren miss him. ``They are wondering where he is. They see his car and ask, where's Papa?''

Peitz, 47, of Quartz Hill, has pleaded not guilty to six counts of sending a false bomb. Since his April 29 arrest, he has been jailed in lieu of $5 million bail. Authorities have declined to state what led them to arrest Peitz.

Peitz would not agree Wednesday to letting a commissioner rather than a judge decide whether prosecutors' evidence is sufficient to warrant a trial. By law, the preliminary hearing must be held no later than today.

``He doesn't want to stipulate to a commissioner,'' said Richard Plotin, Peitz's attorney. ``He just feels he's been wrongfully charged. He's not waiving any time (which, under law, requires the preliminary hearing be held today). They have to put forward a judge and try this in a timely manner.''

On Wednesday, a Superior Court commissioner was sitting in for the vacationing judge who presides over felony preliminary hearings. Another judge will be brought in to hear the case today, officials said.

Plotin said the prosecution's case is ``totally circumstantial, highly speculative and woefully weak. I'm surprised it got filed.''

Officials say Peitz is responsible for placing six fake bombs - small boxes filled with carved-up colored soap, detergent and Styrofoam to look like explosive material - at the Lancaster post office on 20th Street West near Avenue K between Dec. 29, 2000, and Feb. 12, 2003.

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, and soon God's wrath will be upon you'' were written in black marker on the package.

Other packages were either deposited in mail-drop slots, near the slots or in the post office lobby, officials said.

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 on April 29.

Investigators would not say what they had removed from the home or exactly what they were looking for.

Peitz was not home but was located a short time later, and after a brief interview, he was arrested, officials said.

This is Peitz's second brush with serious criminal charges. In 1994, he 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.

Prosecutors said Peitz killed her for insurance money and because he was having an affair with a co-worker. The man Peitz blamed for the killing was in Michigan when it happened, they said.

But there were weaknesses in the prosecution's case. A gunpowder residue test performed on Peitz turned out negative, shell casings did not match the brand of ammunition Peitz stocked at the house, and the murder weapon was never found.

Three trials ended in mistrials when the juries could not reach unanimous verdicts. A majority of jurors in each trial favored convicting Peitz. 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 murder is still being investigated by the Sheriff's Department's homicide bureau, prosecutors said.