| Judge weighs whether jurors should see Peterson's TV interviews July 14, 2004 A judge heard Scott Peterson tearfully declare himself innocent of his pregnant wife's murder Wednesday when he reviewed the tape of a television interview prosecutors plan to play for jurors in the fertilizer salesman's double murder trial. Judge Alfred Delucchi screened two interviews which aired last year on ABC's "Good Morning, America" and "Prime Time Live" to decide whether edited versions are admissible as evidence. Jurors were not present for the playing of the interviews, nor for several other legal arguments Wednesday morning. Testimony in the case is set to continue in the afternoon when Modesto police detective Henry "Dodge" Hendee returns to the stand. In the "Good Morning, America" interview, conducted three months before Peterson's arrest, anchorwoman Diane Sawyer questions him about the disappearance of his wife, Laci, and his affair with massage therapist Amber Frey. "Did you murder your wife?" Sawyer asked. "No, no. I didn't," Peterson said. He squeezed his eyes shut and continued, "I had nothing to do with her disappearance." In the interview, portions of which were aired on "Prime Time Live" after Peterson's arrest, he claimed his wife knew about his affair and had made her peace with it. He also said that although he respected Frey's strong "character," he did not love her. Perhaps most important to prosecutors, the tape catches the defendant in at least two lies. When Sawyer asks Peterson whether he informed police of his affair with Frey, he said he did so "immediately" when questioned on Dec. 24, 2002, the night he reported the 27-year-old mother-to-be missing. Detectives have testified that Peterson told them there were no "third parties" in the marriage and only conceded the affair when Frey began cooperating with authorities. In the "Prime Time Live" interview, Sawyer said Peterson retracted his statement sometime after the taping of the program. Additionally, he told Sawyer that he had never cheated on his wife before meeting Frey. Her mother, Sharon Rocha, testified that he was unfaithful once before. As the tape played on a large projection screen in the darkened courtroom, Peterson, 31, stared up at his image from the defense table. When he began sobbing on the video while recalling his "glorious" marriage, his father, Lee, in the front row covered his eyes with his hand. The interview occurred three months before Laci Peterson's remains washed up on the shore of San Francisco Bay. At one point, Peterson refers to his wife in the past tense. "She was amazing, is amazing," he said in the interview. Delucchi said that on Thursday afternoon, he would screen versions of the interviews in which Sawyer's editorial comments are removed. He is also expected to rule on several other media-related issues during a July 29 hearing, including whether the defense should get access to outtakes from the ABC interviews and several other interviews Peterson did. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT AMBER TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST MAGAZINES EVIDENCE-NEWS WIRETAPS |
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