MODESTO, Calif. (AP) -- Less than a week after a judge decided to move the Scott Peterson murder trial out of Stanislaus County, prosecutors want him to reconsider the decision.

Prosecutors said the judge unknowingly relied on fake data in a survey of potential jurors that was conducted by college students, some of whom have since admitted they cheated and made up results.

Judge Al Girolami cited the survey in his previous decision to move the case because he said Peterson -- accused in the killings of his wife, Laci, and unborn son -- would have a difficult time getting a fair trial in his dead wife's hometown.

In the Jan. 8 ruling, the judge said his main concern was that there was too much news coverage of the case in the county of fewer than 500,000 people. He also said area residents had become too attached to the case -- turning out in the thousands to search for Laci Peterson, mourn at her memorial service and give blood in her name.

Scott Peterson, 31, has pleaded innocent to two counts of murder for allegedly killing Laci just before Christmas 2002 and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. In April, the remains of her body and the fetus she was carrying washed ashore in the bay two miles from where Scott Peterson said he was fishing when she vanished.

The hearing Tuesday was originally scheduled to select one of four counties to hold the trial, but prosecutors filed court papers late Friday asking Girolami to reconsider any move.

The disputed survey was conducted by students at California State University. Nine students at the university have since told The Modesto Bee they made up results for the phone poll or broke the rules for conducting the survey by interviewing friends.

Prosecutor David Harris asked the judge to keep the case in Modesto or consider moving it 80 miles north to Sacramento, the state capital, if the county has an available courtroom and staff for the anticipated five-month trial.

Girolami eliminated Sacramento as a possibility during his earlier ruling, but Harris said he should reconsider that decision based on new evidence of the apparently fraudulent survey.