Legal Briefs

Unexpected Discovery and Disclosure in the Stidham Murder

LUV YA; NOW, WHAT ABOUT THE BOOK?

Kristin Leigh Pedersen, love interest of Dr. Bradley Alan Schwartz, misses her man and expresses her yearnings to eat peach sorbet with him and "pluck some of" his "fat chin hairs" in letters signed off with hearts.

Pedersen, a 33-year-old mother of three, doesn't much care for the murder suspect's ex-fiancée, Lourdes Lopez, whom she called a "dipshit" in a Dec. 3, 2004 letter. Pedersen had plenty on her mind as she wrote a Nov. 30 letter to Schwartz, including Lopez, a book deal, Richard Parrish (the Tucson lawyer and author) and Schwartz's court-appointed lawyer, Brick Storts.

Pedersen's letters were disclosed as part of the material seized during a March 10 search of Schwartz's cell at the Pima County Jail. That search was based on the odd-ball, guilt-shifting relations Schwartz allegedly cultivated with the cons, grifters and losers looking to sing in advance of their sentences. Read on, and you'll have little wonder why Storts, in a May 17 motion, is asking Judge Nanette Warner to seal the Pedersen letters:

I officially want to have your head examined. Why did you ever in a million years have an attraction to Lourdes? I feel like your instincts should have kicked in and warned you that she was not sincere. By the time you get this letter we will have discussed her Channel 9 interview. I cannot believe she is an educated professional woman. All I can think of are the 2 times she called me! The first, to warn and threaten me. The 2nd she thought I was someone else. She took me back to being a high schooler, "Bradley and I are engaged." Then I realized who it was. I felt like saying, "Oh really dumbass. That was my parents' truck he used to move out of your house you stupid twit. And this is Kristin, not Karina." I should have said it.

I need to ask you some questions about book rights. I need to talk to a writer, someone who can write a biography about you and a publisher and get it locked in so no one else will. I think everyone's attitude is "Brad's story is going to be in my book" (including your ex-girlie Lourdes). No Way! Same with the attorney Richard Parrish. He wants to write about the experience of being your lawyer.

I really like Brick Storts, Brad. He is so cool.

I love you B.A.S.

Kristin