Former Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson stood in court Tuesday morning and told a Broward judge that he is ready for trial.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Wednesday morning in a case that is being closely watched as the second and possibly last trial connected with the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Peterson, 60, is charged with multiple counts of child neglect by a caregiver, perjury, and culpable negligence. The child neglect charges are felonies that could land Peterson in prison for the rest of his life.
To the families of those who died and were wounded at Stoneman Douglas, Peterson is the one man who could have run into the freshman building and stopped the carnage before gunman Nikolas Cruz reached the third floor, where six were killed and four were wounded.
The neglect charges stem from the murders of Cara Loughran, Joaquin Oliver, Jaime Guttenberg and Peter Wang, along with the woundings of Anthony Borges, Kyle Laman and Marian Kabachenko. The negligence charges come from the deaths of teacher Scott Biegel and 18-year-old student Meadow Pollack, along with the wounding of teacher Stacey Lippel.
Peterson contends that he did not enter the 1200 building and confront Cruz because he did not know where the shots were coming from. Prosecutors say he knew, or should have, and neglected his duty and training.
Jurors will also need to decide whether Peterson, as a school resource officer patrolling the Stoneman Douglas campus, qualifies as a “caregiver” under the law. The law has yet to be applied to a law enforcement officer.
Circuit Judge Martin Fein said Tuesday he’ll decide before next week whether to allow jurors to tour the Stoneman Douglas campus, including where Peterson stood while the shooting was going on and, possibly, the inside of the building where 17 students and teachers died.
The gunman is serving 17 life sentences after pleading guilty to the murders and attempted murders.
The trial is expected to begin as early as next week.