The Laci Case Gets Weird

Amber Frey, the "other woman" in Scott Peterson's life, re-emerged Monday looking (and acting) eerily like Paula Jones.

(CBS) Just when it seemed that the Scott Peterson capital murder case finally had settled into a rhythm of sense and stability it exploded into chaos and absurdity. What had been an increasingly orderly procession toward pretrial proceedings devolved instead over the weekend and Monday into a uniquely Californian freak show.

It is as if the Gods of High-Profile Trials have spoken thus: "Laci Peterson's tragic story not interesting enough anymore for you? Fine. We'll throw into the already horrific storyline the specter of Charles Manson and Paula Jones. And we'll add another 'celebrity lawyer' to the mix because, goodness knows, this story doesn't already have enough of them, either involved in the case itself or yakking about it endlessly and often without shame on the cable news shows.

"And, finally, while we are at it," the Gods have added, "we'll add in that most mesmerizing component of all — the heretofore inconceivable concept that there are and ought to be real doubts about whether Scott Peterson actually killed his wife." While it took God six days to make the world, it has taken these lesser deities roughly half that time to remake the Peterson case into the undisputed champion of tabloid trials; this year's granddaddy of them all. Sorry, Robert Blake, but Scott Peterson and his ex-girlfriend are going to get your close-up.

One week ago, by contrast, there was reason to believe that order had been restored to a case that began with a flurry of post-arrest bedlam. Scott Peterson hired a seasoned defense attorney, Mark Geragos, who promptly used his well-practiced media skills to communicate a version of events about his client that countered the official line offered by the police and prosecutors. Now potential jurors weren't just hearing from, say, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who unconscionably said on the day of Peterson's arrest that the case against him was a "slam dunk." Now, the jury pool also was hearing (from someone they are used to hearing from on television) that Scott didn't kill Laci after all.

Not only that, but Geragos got Peterson out of his red jail uniform and back into civilian clothes for the many public pre-trial hearings that are to come; a simple but important step toward reasserting Scott Peterson's presumption of innocence. And most importantly, perhaps, Geragos (with the help of reasonable prosecutors) got certain key evidentiary warrants sealed at a time when their public disclosure might have in turn sealed a perception of Peterson's guilt in the minds of many potential jurors. None of Geragos' moves mean that Peterson is innocent or that he will be acquitted of the serious charges against him. But all of them mean that there will be a smart and vigorous defense in a case that desperately needs one.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR AMBER FREY: It's my opinion that what she has to say in testimony will be very important to the case.

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight: Scott Peterson's other woman, Amber Frey, hires an attorney. And that attorney, Gloria Allred, is here to discuss her new client's impact on the case. Meanwhile, the search for clues to Laci Peterson's murder continued today in San Francisco Bay amidst word of leaks from the sealed autopsy on Laci Peterson's body and reports of a possible Satanic cult connection. We'll go over it all with Ted Rowlands of KTVU, who's covered the story from the beginning, Court TV's Nancy Grace, a former prosecutor, defense attorney Chris Pixley, Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom, attorney from San Francisco, and defense attorney Nancy Luque. They're all next on LARRY KING LIVE.

Guess what? We're all in Washington tonight, save for Gloria Allred, who's in Los Angeles, and Ted Rowlands, who's in Richmond, California.

Let's start with Gloria. We've heard you over the past few hours describe why your client needs an attorney. Now, you have no standing in the court. The prosecutor will question her. The defense attorney will question her. There will be objections to questioning. The judge will allow what goes in and what doesn't go in. Why does she need a lawyer?

ALLRED: Well, she needs a lawyer, Larry, for two reasons. One, she is also a victim, and victims are entitled to lawyers. She's a victim of Scott Peterson's deception. In addition, she is a witness. And her testimony, we think, is going to be important. And I -- I think that...

ALLRED: ... it's likely that there will be attacks on her reputation, on her credibility, by those who have other agendas in the press, in anticipation of her testimony. And her reputation is very important to her, and I intend to do everything possible to protect it.

KING: But what can a lawyer do to prevent an attack? If someone's going to attack her tomorrow or someone's going to attack her in a courtroom, what can a lawyer do, other than after the fact?

ALLRED: Well, I mean, there's no way we can prevent an attack, but certainly, we can respond and make sure that the truth is out there on the public record. And that's what I intend to do. I intend to protect my client.

NANCY LUQUE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think it was a good thing for her to do, once she put herself in the public domain and made herself a public figure and made herself somebody everybody's talking about. But you're right, Larry, I mean, there's nothing she can do sitting in the courtroom. And presumably, we'll get to the truth of what this woman has to say in a courtroom and only in a courtroom.

NANCY GRACE, COURT TV: Well, Larry, we have seen Amber Frey come under a lot of attacks since she came forward, even to the extent of certain people suggesting she's responsible for Laci's kidnapping and murder. It's way off the charts! So I definitely think that Gloria Allred, who's handled a lot of high-profile cases, can help in this matter. However, you're right, Gloria will not have standing in that criminal court of law come murder trial time. And Amber Frey will have to take the slings and arrows of the defense, and they will come on cross-exam.

CHRIS PIXLEY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, again, you know, the real question is what good comes of having an attorney representing you when you're a witness in a case like this, Larry? I don't really know right now if -- that there's really any reason. We have not heard from this defense team that they are focusing on Amber Frey. Amber was cleared by the police very early on in the case. So it's almost begging the press to come kind of sniffing at your door for more evidence about Amber by hiring an attorney.

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"Accidental falls in the house are the leading cause of death, other than motor vehicle accidents in he United States.

(CBS) While the story of Scott and Laci Peterson continues to get national attention, a trial has started in another, unrelated Peterson case with some eerie similarities.

Once again, a seemingly perfect marriage is under a microscope, and prosecutors say things may not be as perfect as they appeared, reports The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith.

By most accounts, Mike and Kathleen Peterson made an ideal pair. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran, novelist and columnist for the local paper. She was a career woman who served on the city's arts council. Their friend, Nick Galifianakis, called them "sweethearts."

"I thought that they were an extraordinary couple, a loving couple," said Galifianakis. "They had all the appearances and trappings of happiness. Totally compatible with one another."

Their family was a close-knit blend of children from former marriages and two orphaned girls that Mike had helped to raise. They all lived in an 11,000-square foot house in Durhamso picture-perfect that it was used as the set in a movie.

But on Dec. 9, 2001, that seemingly ideal life came to a sudden end. According to Mike Peterson, he and Kathleen were at the house the night before, drinking champagne and celebrating a possible movie deal for one of his books. Mike said Kathleen went to bed at 2 a.m., and when he followed, about a half hour later, he made a devastating discovery.

He said his wife had fallen down the stairs. When police arrived at the scene, they found Kathleen dead at the foot of the stairs, lying in a pool of blood.

"When I called 911, I thought she'd fallen down the stairs," said Mike Peterson. "As far as I know, that's what happened."

But an autopsy showed Kathleen had died of blunt force trauma to the head. In other words, she had been beaten to death. Less then two weeks later, Mike Peterson turned himself in to police, proclaiming his innocence.

"Kathleen was my life," he said. "I've whispered her name in my heart a thousand times. She is there. And I can't stop crying. I would never have done anything to hurt her."

He was indicted on first-degree murder. His family, including Kathleen's daughter, Caitlin Atwater, stood beside him.

"As far as I'm concerned, my mother would just be absolutely appalled and this is the last thing she would have wanted to ever, ever happen to her husband," said Atwater.

Tom Gasparoli has followed the trial as a columnist for The Herald-Sun and says the apparent history of a warm, loving and caring relationship is definitely going to work in Mike Peterson's favor in a circumstantial case.

"Is there a motive? I think the prosecution is going to come up with one," said Gasparoli. "I don't think they have to, but without one, the jury's scratching their heads a little bit and going, 'Why?'"

Investigators in the Laci Peterson case returned to San Francisco Bay on Monday to look for additional evidence.

Using side-scanning sonar, investigators searched the bay in the area where Peterson's body and that of her unborn son were discovered in April. Whenever sonar returns indicated the possibility of evidence, divers from one of seven boats were sent down to examine the findings.

Among the items divers were reportedly told to look for were anchors or devices that could have been used to weigh down Peterson's body. It is not known what, if anything, was found.

The search came on the heels of the completion of the autopsy of the two bodies. The results of autopsies were immediately sealed by Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami. However, sources say Peterson's autopsy failed to reveal the cause of her death.

Peterson's husband, Scott, was arrested and charged with two counts of murder shortly after the bodies were discovered.

According to ABC News, sources close to Scott Peterson say his lawyers will question how Peterson, working alone, could have transported his wife's body and items to weigh her down.

Defense attorneys are also pursuing a theory that Laci Peterson could have been killed by a Satanic cult, which they say police investigated. Prosecutors, however, have dismissed that theory.

A preliminary hearing for Scott Peterson is scheduled for May 27. During those proceedings, the prosecution will have to lay out its evidence that Peterson should be tried for the murders of his wife and unborn son.

Divers search for Laci Peterson evidence<< Modesto police divers resume search for evidence in Laci Peterson murder case

RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) - Police divers resumed a search in San Francisco Bay for evidence in the slaying of Laci Peterson, the 27-year-old woman whose remains washed ashore near here along with those of her unborn son.

The search could continue through the weekend, Modesto police Capt. Greg Savelli said Friday.

The remains were discovered by passers-by April 15. Published reports indicated at the time that not all of Peterson's remains were found, and that they may have been wrapped in plastic and weighted down by heavy material.

Divers first began searching the bay in January, and searched again in March in hopes of finding the body.

The remains washed ashore about three miles from where Peterson's husband, Scott, said he went fishing Christmas Eve. -------------

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For 16 years, actress Nida Blanca starred in one of the most popular television shows in the Philippines, becoming so beloved in the island nation of 80 million people that fans called her "Tia Nida" -- Aunt Nida.

Her killing on Nov. 7, 2001, in an upscale neighborhood of Manila launched a national drama big enough that the nation's ousted president, Joseph Estrada, was released from the military hospital where he was held for plundering the Filipino treasury to attend her wake.

Now, Blanca's husband, 63-year-old American Roger Lawrence Strunk, faces a murder indictment issued by the Philippine government in February. He is scheduled to appear in U.S District Court in Sacramento Wednesday for a bail hearing to determine if he'll remain jailed while Filipino officials try to return him to Manila.

U.S. marshals arrested Strunk May 13 at a house he shared with his mother and two sisters in Tracy, a city of 70,000 people 50 miles east of San Francisco. Filipino officials call Strunk the leading suspect in the murder mystery that has riveted the Philippines for 19 months.

The case sparked a media frenzy in the Philippines and consumed many of the 2 million Filipino-Americans living in the United States, about half in California. More than a century of Filipino immigration and historical ties between the two nations has made Filipino-Americans the nation's second-largest Asian ethnic group, according to the 2000 census.

Blanca appeared in 163 comedy, drama, horror and action films and in more than a dozen television shows, including the popular comedy series, "John and Marsha", which ran for 16 years in which she played a devoted wife from a wealthy family married to a poor man.

Her fame has turned the case "hysterical" in the Philippines, said Jeffrey Kravitz, Strunk's Sacramento lawyer. "That's why we don't want him extradited."

In the Philippines, the mystery surrounding the death of the 65-year-old Blanca is "10 times larger than the Laci Peterson case," Kravitz said. Peterson's Christmas Eve disappearance in California, followed by the discovery of her body and Good Friday arrest of her husband, Scott, has dominated the U.S. media through much of 2003. ..................

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THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Want to switch our focus now. Laci Peterson case. Investigators today went back to San Francisco Bay looking for clues in that case. How is the search today?

Our Rusty Dornin is live in Richmond, California, watching this story from the very beginning, live again with us tonight.

Well, divers spent about seven hours in the water today before pulling up their air hoses and going back to the docks. Now that's been about the average that they're spending out there.

We didn't see from shore them bring anything aboard the boats today. Yesterday we saw them pull what looked like some kind of black cloth. We understand it was a sail. They do have to bring up anything they find, just so that the divers aren't pulling those things out again. Got to get rid of those things in the search area.

But from what we understand, as you can see, it's a little bit windy behind me here, and one of the sonar experts we talked to said, you know, every day has been the same. He goes out in the morning, it's beautiful, it's very glassy, they're getting great images off the bottom. Then by the afternoon, and when the waves are two or three feet high, that really smears the images and they're not able to get a good computer image. They end up having to come back to the dock and then try again the next day.

Now they have seen -- what they're looking for, really, is anything that looks like it does not belong in the bay, anything odd shaped. Says he's seen -- you know, they saw a couple of things they sent down divers for, they turned out to be tree stumps, things like concrete blocks that were not of something they were looking for.

So -- Gene Ralston (ph) out of Idaho says that the same problem has come up every day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Early in the morning, we can make some pretty good, pretty decent images, when the water's calm, and we don't have a lot of velocity. But when the waves get two to three feet high, sends pretty good rollers, that starts messing up our images and smearing them pretty badly.

DORNIN: Says it's difficult, because often they go to places where they know that there's been a drowning or an accident, and they know perhaps the point of entry.

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LOS ANGELES -- Amber Frey said Monday she is prepared to testify when Scott Peterson goes to trial on charges of murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son. Frey, 28, also said she has been hounded by news media and tabloids offering her money for her story ever since she came forward about her relationship with Scott Peterson about a month after Laci Peterson was reported missing.

As a result, the Fresno massage therapist said, she hired celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred to fend off the offers, which she does not intend to accept, and to represent her as a witness.

Allred represented the family of Nicole Brown Simpson during the O.J. Simpson criminal case.

"In addition to being a witness, Amber is also a victim of Scott's deception," Allred said at a news conference. "Victims are entitled to attorneys, as are witnesses."

Frey has said she did not know Peterson was married when she met him in November.

"She has been offered money for interviews and she has refused and will continue to refuse those offers," Allred said. "We are committed to protecting the integrity of the prosecution, and we will not allow her testimony to be contaminated by offers of money for her story."

Investigators arrested Scott Peterson last month after the bodies of his wife and their son, Conner, were found on the Richmond shoreline of San Francisco Bay, a few miles from where he said he was fishing when Laci Peterson disappeared from their Modesto home in December.

Frey spoke clearly at the news conference but appeared nervous. She declined to answer questions and said she would refer all inquiries to Allred.

"I don't think it's appropriate to talk about what might be contained in my testimony prior to my being called to the witness stand," she said.

"Every time she thinks of them she can barely hold back the tears because she is really very upset about their loss," Allred said.

"The NE said the kitchen floor is tiled."

It very well could be they are vinyl tiles, but I am almost positive they are not ceramic tiles.

If the NE only saw a picture like we are seeing they could easily mistake the square pattern as being tile instead of a solid sheet of vinyl.

Even if the floor is all from sheet vinyl, usually there'll be one "crack" where they had to cut and couldn't just roll out enough to cover the entire floor at once!

Plus, nowadays a lot of vinyl floors do not have a totally flat surface. The surface is irregular, to give more of a look of tiles. I'll bet things can get caught in those small irregularities.

Breathless Rita on O'Reilly saying what the phone taps between Scott Peterson and Amber show.

According to Rita they did tape Scott saying he was single and then at a later time he had "lost" his wife. Amber took this to mean she was dead.

Segment just ended.

I've got a suggestion; why don't all you people who feel so good about trashing Amber put YOUR pictures and YOUR life stories up on this thread and we'll see what we can dig up about you.

Or we'll just plain make judgments about you with absolutely nothing to back it up.

Rita Cosby on O'Reilly; her prosecution sources saying Amber will have central role in trial; they believe she is the major part of Scott's motive. RC did mention Peterson's did have financial problems. RC made mention of the phone call Scott made to Amber late Dec or early Jan, in which he stated he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

It's hard to get into the meat of the case when there are people jumping in, critiquing and parsing every word of every post--and spending more time talking themselves than about the case.

Or posting silly, irrelevant graphics.

I've got a suggestion; why don't all you people who feel so good about trashing Amber put YOUR pictures and YOUR life stories up on this thread and we'll see what we can dig up about you.

Or we'll just plain make judgments about you with absolutely nothing to back it up.

I like this suggestion and it is very fair.

I can't wait to hear all the stories of how these perfect people got to be whatever age and never did a single immoral thing and open their lives up for the fine-toothed comb.

Aside from the supposed "bad behavior" of Amber, she appears to have as little to do with the death of Laci as anyone here does.

So........let's hear it.

It's hard to get into the meat of the case when there are people jumping in, critiquing and parsing every word of every post

Accuracy. That's what we're aiming for. This is FR, not a chat room.

Maybe you need to spend more time looking at the direct statements of people who are involved in this case. Amber's father is involved b/c he has been a sort of spokesman for her, has taken calls for her, has been keeping her child for her due to her problems related to this case, and has helped in the search for Laci.

Jeez, what a couple of days, huh Devil, Yeti?
I've see more posts here trashing other posters, name calling, than have actually discussed the case!
This is precisely why I did not register during the Westerfield and Smart threads like I wnated to.
I have never seen so much hostility than I have seen here the last 2 days. Until now I have enjoyed everyone's input and opinions, even when I don't agree.
But the posters that have sat here all day and insulted the "regulars" here frankly have made me sick to my stomach.
It's hurtful to watch. And yes we are regulars, newbie's or not. I registered BECAUSE of this case, because it has touched my heart. And I am a monthely donor because I have found FR a great place for me to get news and public opinions from pretty much all over the world.
Now I will just go back to lurk for a while because this has become something close to evil. JMO

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