| Frey's friends angle for spotlight
TV stations interview Fresno residents about Peterson's mistress August 14, 2004 Dean Hoffinger was waiting to talk Thursday on a national cable TV channel about his ex-girlfriend, Amber Frey, when his stomach started talking first. "I wish I hadn't had those onions," he said off-air at Fresno's KGPE, Channel 47, which provided a studio and a camera for the live interview on Court TV. "It's a little bit of nerves. It's a little bit of onions. " "Does anyone have a Rolaids?" No one did. But neither a minor case of heartburn nor some sweaty palms could keep Hoffinger, a Fresno events promoter, from his close-up on cable. He didn't have anything startling to say on Court TV. But that didn't make any difference in the week the Amber Frey juggernaut hit the Scott Peterson murder trial in Redwood City. Anyone with a pulse and a connection to Frey was ready for prime time. Frey's father, Ron, a Fresno general contractor, did some TV in Redwood City, retreated to Fresno and then went back to Redwood City. Also, Fresno chiropractor Gary Hamm jumped into the fray over Frey. As Hamm offered details about Frey and her new boyfriend, he wondered aloud why the media had not discovered him earlier. It was all Amber all week. She took the witness stand. Tapes of Peterson's phone conversations with her played in court. The TV talk shows went into overdrive. And Hoffinger was willing to dish to the talking heads even though he worries that TV makes him look fat and old. He is in his late 30s and is thin. Hoffinger is scheduled to appear on Fox News today and he taped an interview with "Inside Edition" this week that is supposed to air Monday. He did an earlier "Inside Edition" in July. All those shows focus on Frey, whose affair with Peterson began shortly before his wife, Laci, disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. He was arrested in April 2003 on charges of murdering his wife and their unborn son. Hoffinger met Frey in the mid-1990s, and he says they dated for three months in 1999. Through her father, Frey has said Hoffinger wasn't a boyfriend, which he and three of his friends dispute. Such details don't seem to matter these days. "Everybody wants me," he said Thursday before appearing on Court TV. "I'm constantly being called. From Catherine Crier on Court TV to Fox News to CNN to Larry King to Oprah, who is going to do a special after the trial is over." "You know, it's good for me because I'm a promoter." Hoffinger, who bleaches his hair a white blond and is fond of puka-shell necklaces, puts on events where he says Fresno's young professionals can meet and socialize. This October, he is bringing to Fresno a group of midgets from New York who dress up and imitate the rock band KISS. Hoffinger says some Fresnans recognize him from TV. "There's no such thing as bad publicity," Hoffinger said. Not for him. And not for Frey, either, he said. "I mean, when the trial is over, everyone is going to want her. Diane Sawyer. A book. A movie." It's the prospect of a book and a movie that had Hoffinger champing to get on Court TV Thursday. He said the cable channel mistakenly reported that Frey and Peterson mingled among hundreds of people in fancy clothes at Frey's Christmas party in December 2002. The party was at World Sports Cafe in Fresno and Hoffinger put it on. He wants the recognition when the book and movie come out. "My biggest concern was how they misconstrued it to say it was her formal Christmas party," he said before the Court TV interview. "All the pictures you see of them together, where they are in formal attire, is at my event. A Belaza Productions event. A B-e-l-a-z-a Productions event ..." Once he got on TV, Hoffinger made his point. He also wanted to defend Frey and said numerous times she is telling the truth. He talked about recently seeing Frey at a northeast Fresno restaurant. She was accompanied by her newborn son and a girlfriend. "She had a little kid there," Hoffinger told Court TV. "Justin Dean, whose middle name is Dean, which is my name. Dean. It's a coincidence. And we talked. And she's kind of stressed out. But she still looks good." As Frey ate dinner, Hoffinger said, two women came up and called her "a home wrecker" and something worse. "I can't say the word on TV," Hoffinger said. Many other details of Frey's private life spilled out this week when she testified. She talked of intimate evenings with Peterson. She spoke of them sharing strawberries and champagne. Frey's father listened and concluded Peterson was one smooth operator. "Cads are going to be writing down his lines to the T," Ron Frey said. "And the sales of champagne and strawberries will go up. Wow." Frey sat at home in Fresno with his mother Tuesday and together they heard details of Amber Frey's romantic life as they watched coverage of the trial. "It was not the best thing to watch with an 83-year-old woman -- the seduction of your daughter and her granddaughter," Frey said. Ron Frey's way with a phrase, and his 24/7 availability, has landed him on many TV shows in the last year. He got some camera time this week in Redwood City with a Northern California station and with Ted Rowlands of CNN. He knows his media stars. "Greta and me, we talk daily," he said of Greta Van Susteren of Fox News. "I tell Greta I'm abstaining. I don't want to be a distraction." Translation: Frey hightailed it back to Fresno on Monday before Amber Frey took the stand. "Amber needs to be focused and not worry what Dad is going to do," he explained. But then he went back to Redwood City on Wednesday night in case his daughter needed him. She didn't. He said he ended up having dinner Thursday night with Rita Cosby of Fox News. Just as willing to gab is Hamm, the Fresno chiropractor. "I was wondering when one of you guys was going to call," he said when reached this week. Hamm used to lease space in his building to another chiropractor, David Markovich. Markovich is the father of Frey's new baby, born in April. Hamm explained how they hooked up: Frey did massages for patients seeing both Hamm and Markovich. Frey told Hamm in the summer of 2002 that she thought Markovich was a good- looking and nice guy. Hamm relayed the compliment to Markovich, hoping to play matchmaker. Markovich, who had a girlfriend at the time, said he "couldn't go there," according to Hamm. "He was so classy about it." Frey then left to work elsewhere in Fresno. Frey became a public figure in January 2003, when she held a nationally televised press conference to acknowledge a romantic relationship with Peterson, who she thought was single. Early in 2003, she and Markovich started dating, Hamm said. The other girlfriend was by then an ex. "To be honest with you, I thought the timing was bad, but I'm happy for Dave and happy for Amber. I think they really care for each other," Hamm says. Bad timing? "She was going through this thing with Scott," Hamm said. "Poor Dave gets dragged through the wringer and looks like 'the other guy' a little bit. Actually, it's better than it looks. "To me, they're just two likable people who found each other." Hamm is ready to tell what he knows if other media start calling. He wants the Frey-Markovich story told in "the right light" at a time when the public and the media have gone crazy over the Peterson case. "America is so fascinated," he said. "The only reason I watch this crap is because Amber is my friend." There will come a time, however, when America no longer is so fascinated. Then the reporters will stop calling anyone who knows anything about Frey, no matter how trivial. "What did Andy Warhol once say?" said the ex-boyfriend Hoffinger. "Fifteen minutes of fame. This has gone longer than 15 minutes." RELATED STORY HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT AMBER TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST MAGAZINES |
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| LACI & CONNER "My heart goes out to the Family of Laci and Conner. I pray that justice will be served." Michelle Makowski ~ Michigan ~ Guestbook |
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