| LACI & CONNER MAY JUSTICE PREVAIL |
 |
| HOW SCOTT SEDUCED ME Aug 11, 2004 - By HOWARD BREUER - New York Post Scott Peterson's sultry, nervous ex-lover could barely look at him yesterday as she testified how the slick married man seduced her on their first date with champagne, slow dancing and a karaoke serenade. Shapely blond massage therapist Amber Frey admitted she was so enthralled by the charming Peterson that they wound up having steamy sex back in his hotel room just hours later. |
| "He reassured me that it was appropriate [to have sex] in light of the evening's events," said the 29-year-old single mom, sporting a diamond cross necklace and dressed in a demure beige sweater, black suit and stylish 3-inch heels. Frey revealed that while the lusty pair had protected sex the first time, after a few dates, they were enjoying unprotected sex. The couple's romantic marathon first date occurred Nov. 20, 2002 — just over a month before Peterson's eight-months-pregnant wife, Laci, vanished from her and Peterson's Modesto home around Christmas Eve. Peterson — a 31-year-old struggling fertilizer salesman — was charged with murdering Laci and her unborn son the next spring, after their bodies washed up on the California shore. Cops believe he murdered her in their home and then carted her corpse out to sea on his new boat and dumped it. Frey has been considered the prosecution's star witness, bolstering the contention that Scott killed his wife so he could be with her. The defense has tried to portray Peterson and Frey's relationship as fledgling, far from one that would have driven the defendant to deadly obsession. But Frey yesterday testified that as a very pregnant Laci Peterson struggled to food-shop for her and Scott and keep up the house in the weeks before her death, Scott would be hand- delivering dozens of roses to Frey and showering presents on her 2-year-old daughter. One night, Peterson donned a fancy tuxedo and Frey a splashy, strapless red dress as they stepped out for a Christmas party. That same night, Laci was attending another party by herself. Frey glanced at Scott only twice from the stand — once when the prosecution asked her to point to the defendant and a second time as she recalled the intimate details of their first date. Scott first took her to an intimate dinner at a fancy sushi bar, where he paid extra for a private room, she said. He then asked her to come back to his room at the Radisson Hotel so he could change. He wasn't wearing a wedding ring, Frey said. Once in the room, he suddenly produced a bottle of champagne and box of strawberries from his leather bag. "He put one strawberry in each of our glasses," Frey said. "I remember eating one. They were a little bit sour." The pair then went to a karaoke bar, where they slow-danced, nuzzled affectionately and then shared a single, passionate kiss. They returned to his hotel room a short time later and made love, Frey said. Afterward, Scott only gave her his cell-phone number, not his home phone number. As she spoke, Peterson dully stared at her. Their eyes met once, and Frey quickly looked away again. 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 presented the girl with 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," Frey said. The next day, Frey said 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. She said Peterson had all kinds of excuses as to why he wouldn't be available for the coming holidays. For Thanksgiving, he told her he had plans to go fishing in Alaska with his father, brother and uncle. For Christmas, the family had plans to go to Kennebunkport. And on New Year's Eve, he said he would be in Paris. That day, as he headed for a candlelight vigil for his missing wife, he called Frey to tell how much he was enjoying his trip to Europe. Peterson was elaborate in his planning. Police say Peterson gave Frey a European phone number that forwarded to Peterson's phone number. As prosecutors played some of the taped phone conversations between the lovebirds — during which Scott sounded giddy as he spoke with Amber — Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, wept openly in the front row of the courtroom. At one point, the pair discussed having children, Frey said—and Scott told her he didn't want biological kids. "He suggested having a vasectomy, vs. me having the burden of taking birth-control pills," Frey said. "I felt that that was a very permanent birth-control method and for him to be that young and make a decision like that was disturbing to me." She also recalled how they discussed the terms of the relationship. Peterson said he was monogamous but suggested they introduce each other as "lovers." Amber countered that she'd rather refer to him as her boyfriend. "He said that would be appropriate," she said. Prosecution witnesses and Frey's family members have said that Peterson told Frey all the right lies to make her fall in love with him, and that the hundreds of calls he made after Laci's death prove he craved her enough to kill to be with her. But in early December, his sick charade almost came to an abrupt end, when Frey's friend learned that Peterson had a wife. A few days later, on Dec. 9, Scott bought a fishing boat and tearfully told Frey that he was a recent widower. "He said she was not with him and it was entirely too painful for him to talk about," Frey said. "I asked him, was it a long time frame, basically. And he said these were the first holidays that he'd be spending without her," Frey told the jury. Although the prosecutor asked his questions calmly and with few interruptions, Frey was nervous and flustered, and repeatedly asked the prosecutor to repeat questions. Later in the day, Frey described Christmastime photos of the flashy couple that were projected onto a screen: Scott in a Santa hat. Peterson playing with Frey's cellular phone. Scott tightening his tie in Frey's house. Scott and Frey in the front seat of the pickup truck that Peterson allegedly used to dispose of Laci's body. She read a card she sent him: "To my love, I'll be keeping you close to my heart. With my love, Amber." Before Frey was swept into court under police guard, her face covered by her black handbag, her lawyer said she expected her client to be on the stand "a considerable amount of time." Over the next several days, Frey will reveal "the depth of that relationship, how it developed over time . . . and how Scott Peterson wormed his way into her heart," said her lawyer, Gloria Allred. "She is very brave and she is very courageous to be here today," Allred said. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT AMBER TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST WIRETAPS AUTOPSY SEARCH THIS SITE |
 |
 |