Peterson's ex-girlfriend may take stand
Frey could testify in preliminary hearing, her attorney says
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Amber Frey, left, and Scott Peterson
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Despite days of testimony on evidence, there are few answers thus far in the Scott Peterson murder case. CNN's David Mattingly reports (November 13)
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MODESTO, California (CNN) – The attorney for the former girlfriend of a California man accused of killing his wife and their unborn son said Friday that her client may take the stand even though she has not been called by the prosecution.
Gloria Allred, who represents Amber Frey, said Friday that defense attorney Mark Geragos has not decided whether to call her client as a witness at the preliminary hearing for Scott Peterson.
"Mr. Geragos has indicated to me that no final decision has been made" about whether to subpoena Frey, Allred told reporters outside the Stanislaus County Courthouse. "It doesn't appear that he is going to be making a decision on that prior to Monday, at least that's what's been indicated."
But even if the defense attorney opts to call Frey to testify in the preliminary hearing, that would not necessarily mean she would do so, Allred said.
"My expectation would be that the district attorney would object to such a subpoena, argue against it, that, in fact, the defense's burden would have to be to prove that her testimony is necessary in order for them to put on an affirmative defense."
Still, she said, if the court requires her client to testify, "she will do it, as any good citizen would."
Allred also told reporters that papers that the defense served Thursday were a request for telephone records from Frey.
"It's rather a bit mysterious as to why they would even do this," Allred said. "It's my understanding that they have already been provided with those records."
She called the request "much ado about nothing."
Peterson is charged in the deaths of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, whose bodies washed ashore in April from San Francisco Bay. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Frey has said she did not know Peterson was married when they began their relationship.
Allred vowed that Frey's story would come out.
"She's going to tell the truth," Allred said. Referring to Peterson and his defense team, she said, "They're going to have to face that day. And if they want to bring it on sooner than later, then that will be their decision, and that of the court, to decide whether it's appropriate at the preliminary hearing."
Inside the courtroom in Modesto, California, on Friday, a lab expert with the state's Department of Justice said hair fragments from a pair of pliers found inside the boat owned by Scott Peterson "could have been donated from the same person" whose hair strands were found on Laci Peterson's hairbrush.
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Defense attorney Mark Geragos cross-examines a witness during Thursday's hearing.
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Rod Oswalt said he reached that conclusion after comparing the hair samples, which he described as frayed. Asked if manipulation by the pliers could have caused them to fray, he said, "That is entirely possible."
But Geragos pointed out in cross examination that another expert had written in a report that there was no indication the pliers had been used recently.
Also Friday, the 10th day of the hearing, a Modesto police detective disclosed, under cross-examination from Geragos, that police had interviewed witnesses who reported seeing suspicious men in a park near the Peterson home on the day Laci Peterson disappeared.
Detective Philip Owen, continuing testimony he began Thursday, told Geragos that he interviewed three witnesses about what they had seen in Loma Linda Park on December 24, the day Scott Peterson said he last saw his wife alive.
An entrance to the park is a half-block from where the couple lived in Modesto.
Two people whom Owen identified as "John and Carmen Sousa" told the detective December 27 that they had seen two "suspicious" men at 7:30 a.m. on December 24, he said. Owen said the couple described the men as white, of medium height and build. One of the men popped out of bushes and was mumbling to himself, Owen said he was told.
The couple, who said they were regular walkers in the park, said they had never seen the pair before, Owen added.
Owen said that also on December 27, he interviewed a female worker at a hospital that abuts the park. The woman had told police she was outside smoking at 9:45 a.m. on December 24 when she saw two men and what appeared to be a pregnant woman walking along a jogging trail.
The woman was leading a golden retriever -- the same kind of dog that the Petersons owned -- which was barking, Owen said he was told.
At one point, one of the men told the woman to quiet the dog and used an expletive, Owen recounted.
A neighbor of the Petersons testified Thursday that she found the dog outside the Peterson home at 10:18 a.m. -- with its leash still attached -- and returned it to the couple's fenced-in backyard.
The woman said she used a time-stamped receipt from a nearby store she had just left to calculate the precise time of day.
Owen also told Geragos that he tested red paint found on a buoy in the bay where the bodies were found and compared it with red paint taken from the outside of Scott Peterson's boat. Owen, asked by Geragos during cross-examination whether the paint samples matched, would not respond.
CNN correspondent Rusty Dornin and producers Chuck Afflerbach and Bonnie Gannon contributed to this story.
