August 10
CALIFORNIA:
Star witness Frey testifies of affair with Scott Peterson
Scott Peterson's one-time lover testified Tuesday that her 1st blind date
with him culminated in a hotel room tryst, revealing the 1st details of an
affair the government says led Peterson to murder his pregnant wife.
Amber Frey, the government's star witness, held a black bag in front of
her face to block cameras as she was driven to the courthouse, and then
spoke so softly on the witness stand that the judge had to ask her to get
closer to the microphone.
With short, clipped answers to questions from prosecutor Dave Harris, Frey
said she didn't know Peterson was married that night, Nov. 20, 2002, a
little more than a month before Laci Peterson vanished.
She said they danced in a karaoke bar before going to a nearby hotel. She
said he went to some lengths to court her, pouring champagne and putting a
strawberry in her glass.
They had sex later that night, she said. The next morning, he left her his
cell phone number, not his home number.
Prosecutors have spent much of their case trying to establish that
Peterson's affair with the massage therapist, and hopes for financial
gain, were his motives for killing his pregnant wife.
Frey's lawyer, Gloria Allred, said Frey will probably be on the stand for
"a considerable amount of time."
Defense lawyers do not deny the affair or even that Peterson was a "cad."
But they say Peterson's decision to cheat on his wife did not make him a
murderer. Defense attorneys also have contended it would be ridiculous to
think Peterson would kill his wife to be with a woman he had known a
little more than a month.
But Frey's testimony suggested that she and Peterson quickly got serious.
On their second date, he carried her 22-month-old daughter while they went
hiking, and later that day he gave the girl a children's book. Then, he
cooked seafood lasagna with wine before he and Frey had sex again.
"He made the comment that there would be many more corks ... many more
bottles to share," testified Frey.
The next day, Dec. 3 - she gave Peterson a car seat and the key to her
house, and asked him to pick up her daughter at day care.
"He said he would be honored," recalled Frey, who returned home to find
him warming up the previous night's dinner. Then all three went out to buy
a Christmas tree and, after decorating it, Frey and Peterson had sex for a
third time.
Peterson's defense has questioned Frey's motives and the timing of her
communications with police, but Allred said outside court that Peterson
"wormed his way into her life" and then repeatedly lied to her before and
after his wife disappeared.
"She is a victim of Scott Peterson's deception," Allred said outside the
courthouse, adding that after Frey learned that Laci was missing she
immediately informed law enforcement.
Before Frey began her testimony, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi briefly took the
lawyers into his chambers, but no details were released about the
closed-door session. Last week, the judge delayed the trial so both sides
could investigate recently discovered evidence.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos called that evidence "potentially
exculpatory." Prosecutors have not commented on the evidence, citing the
judge's gag order.
Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his wife in their Modesto home on or
around Dec. 24, 2002, then drove to San Francisco Bay and dumped her
weighted body from a small boat he had purchased just weeks earlier. The
decomposed remains of Laci Peterson and the couple's fetus washed ashore
in April 2003, not far from where Peterson said he launched a solo fishing
trip the day she vanished.
(source: Associated Press)
