{"id":607,"date":"2018-12-09T16:22:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-09T16:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=607"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:12","slug":"owls-wooden-reindeer-and-the-staircase-murder-inside-larry-pollards-quest-to-clear-michael-peterson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2018\/12\/09\/owls-wooden-reindeer-and-the-staircase-murder-inside-larry-pollards-quest-to-clear-michael-peterson\/","title":{"rendered":"Owls, wooden reindeer and the ‘Staircase’ murder: Inside Larry Pollard\u2019s quest to clear Michael Peterson"},"content":{"rendered":"
Inside the gates of the Durham estate where Kathleen Peterson lived with her husband Michael are a pair of Christmas decorations that could have led to her death: two white wooden reindeer with red ribbon around their necks. <\/span><\/p>\n The reindeer are part of attorney Larry Pollard\u2019s theory that an owl attacked Kathleen. <\/span><\/p>\n The reindeer may have been stored in a nearby barn where the owls grew up, Pollard said, so the owls could have become imprinted and associated the reindeer with their mothers.<\/span> An owl may have seen Kathleen as a threat to its mother\u2014and pounced on her with its talons to protect its mother. Kathleen then could have run inside to the safety of her home before she fell down a staircase and died.<\/span><\/p>\n Pollard and his wife own the reindeer now. They bought them\u00a0when Peterson had to auction off his belongings to pay legal fees.<\/span><\/p>\n In a trial that put Durham on the Court TV map just a few years before the Duke lacrosse case, Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife after the prosecution argued he beat her. Interest in the case and the owl theory has picked up after \u201cThe Staircase,\u201d a 13-episode documentary on the case, was released on Netflix last summer. <\/span><\/p>\n Peterson served time in prison from 2003 until 2011, when a judge <\/span>ruled<\/span><\/a> that jurors were misled about blood evidence by one of the prosecution\u2019s key witnesses. Peterson was granted a new trial but decided to <\/span>plead<\/span><\/a> guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2017 to avoid more prison time. The 75-year-old has continued to <\/span>maintain<\/span><\/a> his innocence.<\/span><\/p>\n Pollard, who still lives next door,<\/span> says he has served as an attorney for Peterson on the case, submitting motions, although none have succeeded.<\/span><\/p>\n The owl theory has become Pollard\u2019s obsession. Pollard said he has helped out Peterson without taking a penny. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt says in the Bible to love your neighbor as yourself. If your neighbor needs help, help him.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOwls are mystical\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n In his office with red and grey carpet and ceiling-high mirrors in the lobby, Pollard displays his degrees, owl books, stuffed owls, mannequin heads, life-sized marlins\u2014and one cartoon that suggests he has a sense of humor about some of the criticism about the theory. <\/span><\/p>\n It shows Pollard standing at a podium with a flying pig next to him. <\/span><\/p>\n “If we learn it wasn’t an owl that killed Mrs. Peterson,\u201d a portly caricature of him says, \u201cwe have an alternate explanation!”<\/span><\/p>\n Pollard, 70, has lived on the same street in Durham for his whole life. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his law degree from Wake Forest and has practiced law for more than 40 years, he says. <\/span><\/p>\n He attended the Northwestern School of Prosecuting Attorneys and became an Associate Attorney General in the Department of Justice assigned to the special prosecution division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s office, where he took part in trials and appellate cases. <\/span><\/p>\n He was Peterson\u2019s neighbor for nearly 10 years, and while they were not close friends by any stretch, Pollard said Peterson was congenial and active. The last time he saw Kathleen alive, in late November 2001, she was walking off from Pollard\u2019s house hand-in-hand with Peterson. Kathleen died Dec. 9, 2001. <\/span><\/p>\n Pollard first floated the owl theory when he saw Kathleen\u2019s wounds on television during trial coverage\u2014he thought they looked like talon marks<\/span>. <\/b>Owls were fresh on his brain: just over a month before, an ornithologist had brought birds of prey\u2014including owls\u2014to a family reunion to entertain the kids. While the ornithologist presented, other adults stood around socializing. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was sitting there watching and drinking my lemonade,\u201d Pollard said. <\/span><\/p>\n He called up the ornithologist, who noted that owls have been known to attack humans. From there, he has talked to countless experts on birds and been an avid consumer of owl information, although his theory has not helped Peterson in appeals. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople say that owls are mystical,\u201d Pollard said. \u2018When you hear them from the right, it means good things will happen. If you hear them from the left, bad things will happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A look at the Peterson property\u2014\u201dWonderland\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n On a brisk fall day, Pollard, donned a dapper hat, a suit jacket, a vest and tie, and took me to the gates of \u201cWonderland\u201d\u2014the old Peterson home\u2014to detail his theory. <\/span><\/p>\n