Peyer Fired by CHP; ‘Unjustified’ Slaying of Cara Knott Cited

California Highway Patrol Officer Craig Peyer was fired after a CHP internal investigation concluded that Peyer “did, without justification, kill Ms. Cara Knott” on Dec. 27, the CHP reported Friday.

Peyer, 37, was officially fired Thursday, but the action was announced Friday by CHP Border Division Chief Ben Killingsworth at a press conference in San Diego. In a nine-page report filed Friday with the state Personnel Board in Sacramento, CHP Commissioner J.E. Smith stated flatly that Peyer murdered Knott, 20, and accused him of “loathsome misconduct.”

San Diego police arrested Peyer on Jan. 15 and the CHP suspended him with pay. Until his firing, Peyer continued to draw a salary of $3,025 per month, Killingsworth said.

Thrown From Bridge

Knott, an honors student at San Diego State University, was strangled between 9 and 10 p.m. on the Old U.S. 395 bridge near Interstate 15 and the Mercy Road off-ramp. Her body, which was thrown from the bridge to a dry creek bed 65 feet below, was discovered the next morning.

Numerous witnesses, including several CHP officers, testified at an April preliminary hearing that they saw scratches and blood on Peyer’s face on the night that Knott was killed. The witnesses said they saw the scratches after the time that police said Knott died. Peyer, who is free on $1 million bail, is scheduled to go to trial in September.

Peyer told fellow officers that he suffered the scratches on his face when he slipped at the CHP office while filling his cruiser with gas at the end of his Dec. 27 shift.

However, Smith called Peyer’s explanation a lie.

“You, in fact, sustained those injuries near Mercy Road, east of Interstate 15, when you murdered Ms. Cara Knott,” stated the report, which was signed by Smith.

CHP Sgt. Gary Symonds testified at the preliminary hearing that the scratches on Peyer’s face were consistent with marks made by a chain link fence. However, Smith said in the report that Peyer “falsely reported” the injuries to Symonds.

The report, titled “Notice of Adverse Action,” is a standard document filed in Sacramento with the state Personnel Board whenever a state employee is dismissed. In the document, Knott’s murder is the first cause of action listed on page 2. The murder charge is abrupt and to the point:

“On or about Dec. 27, 1986, you did, without justification, kill Ms. Cara Knott . . . “

Also cited as charges that led to Peyer’s firing was that he stopped women motorists at night on numerous occasions and forced them to park on the Mercy Road off-ramp. The report states that, “on numerous occasions, you stopped female motorists and detained them for excessive amounts of time. During these contacts you were overly familiar and engaged them in improper personal discussions.”

Nineteen young women testified during the preliminary hearing that Peyer stopped them at night on Interstate 15 during 1986 and ordered them to drive down the isolated and dark Mercy Road off-ramp. The report lists 10 occasions when Peyer stopped the women between May 11 and Dec. 15, 1986.

The report chastises Peyer for stopping some of the women without probable cause, detaining them for up to 90 minutes, flirting with them and engaging them in long conversations about their personal lives. Peyer is also charged with violating CHP policy by giving one woman a nighttime tour of the area where Knott was killed on Dec. 11, 16 days before Knott’s death.

Another Incident

At the preliminary hearing, Adele Tollgaard testified about another incident in which Peyer stopped her on the night of Oct. 3, and forced her to park on the Mercy Road off-ramp. After checking her car, Peyer said an oil leak made it too dangerous to drive, Tollgaard said. Peyer then drove her to pick up her daughter at a baby sitter’s house and then drove the two of them to their Poway home, she said.

The report also lists eight additional reasons for Peyer’s firing, including dishonesty, willful disobedience and discourteous treatment of the public.

“Your loathsome misconduct as described in the foregoing allegations is contrary to the ethics subscribed to by peace officers of this state,” said the report. “ . . . Your willful and deliberate neglect of duty and dishonesty leave no other alternative but to dismiss you from your position of State Traffic Officer.”

On May 4, Peyer was ordered to stand trial by Municipal Court Judge Frederic L. Link, who said: “This court finds a strong suspicion that (Peyer) committed the crime.” Several prosecution experts linked Peyer to Knott’s death in their testimony at the preliminary hearing.

Blood stains found on Knott’s leather boot and sweat shirt matched Peyer’s blood type, said one expert. Another expert testified that a microscopic piece of gold thread that was found on Knott’s sweat shirt matched the thread on the CHP patch on Peyer’s jacket.

Six Days to Respond

Peyer was informed of the CHP’s decision to fire him on May 20 during a meeting in San Diego with CHP Capt. Lee Denno. He received a copy of the CHP charges against him and was given six days to respond to them. Chief Killingsworth declined to say if Peyer responded to the charges.

Peyer has 20 days to appeal the CHP’s dismissal order.

Killingsworth had scheduled a 3 p.m. press conference Friday to announce Peyer’s firing and the reasons behind it, including the charge that he murdered Knott. However, minutes before the press conference began, he was served with a temporary restraining order signed by Superior Court Judge Wayne Peterson.

The order, which was requested by Peyer’s attorneys, forbade Killingsworth from discussing “the official opinions or conclusions . . . which reflect any factual basis regarding the guilt or innocence” of Peyer.

Killingsworth told reporters that he had planned to tell them “a good deal more” until he got the court order. But he hinted that the order may have arrived too late.

“It may be too late to suppress this information (contained in the internal investigation report) anyway. The final (dismissal) notice was sent down here and served and then sent up and filed with the personal board and it is a public record,” said Killingsworth.

Peterson’s order did not apply to the Personnel Board in Sacramento, and The Times was able to obtain a copy of the internal investigation report. Peyer and his attorneys were unavailable for comment.

Peyer’s defense attorney, Robert Grimes, was unavailable for comment Friday. Prosecutor Joseph Van Orshoven was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Steve Casey, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Friday that his office also considered requesting a temporary restraining order concerning the release of the report. “It had been an open secret that CHP personnel action would be taken against Peyer since the preliminary hearing.”

Casey said the district attorney’s office has “a parallel concern with the amount and extent of the pretrial publicity. We want to try this case in town.”

He said the district attorney’s office “discussed it (the joint request) with the defense attorneys . . . but we are confident that the CHP knows we are interested in this case and won’t do anything to jeopardize it being heard in San Diego.”

Times staff writer Kathie Bozanich contributed to this story.