| AMBER'S FORMER LOVES Key people in Amber Frey's life have had to decide what, if anything, to tell an obsessed media with an appetite for anyone connected to the Laci Peterson murder case. Joshua Hart, a former boyfriend, said he has no hard feelings even though court records indicate a troubled end to their relationship. A blunt man who once showed off his buff physique as a stripper, Hart met Frey in 1998 at George Brown's Fitness club. Hart and Frey eventually moved in together. He was married at the time and his wife, Michelle, said she was six or seven months pregnant. Michelle Hart told her story to the National Enquirer, and the tabloid ran its article under the headline: "His mistress stole ANOTHER mom-to-be's hubby!" Michelle Hart met with Frey, and the two women talked. Michelle Hart made negative comments about her husband, and Frey reportedly agreed. Michelle Hart told The Fresno Bee that Frey secretly tape-recorded their conversation and then played the tape for Joshua Hart, which he confirmed. "It was part of her plot to keep him," Michelle Hart said. "Josh told me (about the tape) on the phone, and he replayed it." The Harts had other problems. In a letter in court files, he wrote to his wife: "I've tried my best, but I'm not what you need. I'm going to Vegas to strip (pray for me)." Hart, 28, said he did not work in Las Vegas after all. Today he works in the motorsports industry in Southern California. Hart and Frey dated for six months and lived together for four months in 1998, according to a police report connected with the couple's breakup. Frey claimed that Hart grabbed her by the face, while Hart said Frey got upset and slapped him because he was going out with friends. He said he never assaulted her. Nevertheless, he pleaded no contest to a battery charge -- saying he did so to avoid the risk of going to trial, being found guilty by a jury filled with battered women and getting a prison sentence. Instead, he attended a batterers treatment program for one year. Hart said Frey leveled the "hideous" charges against him because he chose to return to his wife and newborn son. The Harts reconciled for a few months and then split up for good, divorcing in January 2000. ****************** Dean Hoffinger, a Fresno events promoter who met Frey in the mid-1990s and claims to have been her boyfriend, said: "Let's not make her into this girl who wanted to be an angel. She would do -- we did crazy things. Everyone has different sides." Gloria Allred said Frey would make no comment on Hoffinger's statement. Hoffinger said he and Frey dated for three months in 1999 after being friends for several years. Through her father, Amber said Hoffinger was not a boyfriend. Hoffinger disputed this, and three of his friends say they did date. Hoffinger had only good things to say about Frey. Romance ruined their friendship, Hoffinger said, though they are now speaking again. His words paint Frey as an adventuresome woman who rode his personal watercraft at Millerton Lake -- sometimes sitting backward behind him, sometimes sitting on his handlebars. He said she has eclectic tastes and interests. She fancied mellow reggae music but also the pulsing dance house sound. She sketched landscapes in pencil and decorated a small, upstairs apartment in the Tower District with her drawings. She shopped at thrift stores and favored hats and sunglasses that set her apart. "People didn't understand her," Hoffinger said. "She was different, but different in a good way. She was more cultured. It was like she didn't belong in this town. She was more an earthy, hippie type." In what he called conventional, staid Fresno, she liked ethnic restaurants and had no problem popping into a Fresno nightclub that was popular among gays. In quieter moments, she could cry easily over hurt feelings. Some found her too quiet, not realizing that she was self-conscious about the braces she wore in her early 20s. Others judged the way she dressed, Hoffinger said: "She didn't fit the pattern of Fresno. People never understood her, and she just felt alone." The 38-year-old Hoffinger, who bleaches his hair a white blond and is fond of puka shell necklaces and Hawaiian prints, said he puts on events where Fresno's young professionals can meet and socialize. One of those events was a Christmas formal, Dec. 14 at World Sports Cafe in northeast Fresno. Peterson and Frey attended, a month after meeting. After their relationship ended, Frey became involved with a man who fathered their now 2-year- old daughter. His name is not listed on the child's birth certificate. Frey has never been married. ********************** HOME INDEX EVIDENCE-NEWS LACI SCOTT AMBER INDEX |
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