Updated: 9:20 a.m. Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | Posted: 1:08 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, 2003
MODESTO, Calif. —
Scott Peterson: The Interviews Scott Peterson: The Interviews Rowlands One-On-One With Scott Peterson (Part 1) Rowlands One-On-One With Scott Peterson (Part 2) Timeline: Laci Peterson Case
"There is no ambiguity in this. I have never in my life spoken to Scott Peterson," Klaas said. "Where he comes off thinking he can make a statement like that in the public forum and get away with it, I don't know...It's not the first time."
Klaas was reacting to Peterson's answer to a question from Rowlands about his actions. The KTVU reporter told Peterson that both Klaas and John Walsh had question his actions so far in the case.
Peterson responded: "I have had conversations with both those gentlemen. It is entirely too selfish of me to defend myself against these accusations...All the media time should be spent on finding Laci."
Klaas went further when asked about Peterson's account of his affair with Amber Frey.
"Listen, first there was no affair," Klaas said. "Then Amber came forward and said there was an affair. He had admitted there was an affair (when confronted by Laci's brother Brent Rocha)...Then he claimed he told Laci and she was okay with it...And now he says on the day Laci disappeared he called Amber and told her...But the first time anyone knew of it was when Amber went to the police."
"Obviously, this guy is stacking lie upon lie upon lie. He's indicting himself. It's like watching a train wreck."
Klaas' reaction was like that of many to a series of interviews Peterson has held over the last 72 hours.
While there have been a few emotional moments in those interviews, most of the time Peterson has spoken in a low monotonal voice. His words have been carefully chosen. The message was clear -- Peterson wanted the world to know he had nothing to do with the disappearance of his wife, Laci Peterson, who vanished on Christmas Eve.
"I had nothing to do with Laci's disappearance," he told Rowlands.
For a complete report on the interview, click on the link at the left.
Peterson Stunning Developments Stunning Developments Of Jan. 24 Amber Frey Comes Forward Rocha Family Press Conference
Wednesday's round of media interviews followed a Monday blockbuster in which Peterson talked for the first time at length about the case on 'Good Morning America.'
During that interview, Peterson said he told his wife and Modesto Police that he was having an affair. But he said it didn't rupture his marriage to Laci.
But Laci's friends told KTVU Tuesday night that they found that hard to believe.
"I can't say how she would have reacted," said Stacey Western. "I do know she wouldn't have been at peace with it. It would have been an issue. As close of friends as we have, she would have told one of us."
Peterson, 30, breaking a long silence and reversing weeks of denying an affair, told Good Morning America that the relationship with Fresno-area massage therapist Amber Frey "inappropriate."
But, he added that the affair "wasn't anything that would break us apart."
He said Laci Peterson, 27 and seven months pregnant at the time she disappered, was unhappy. "But it was not something we weren't dealing with."
Peterson said there was not a lot of anger, no physical altercations and that his wife made peace with the affair.
"No one knows our relationship but us," he told ABC's Diane Sawyer.
Laci Peterson's family issued a statement through the Carole Sund-Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, saying, "We are not going to make any comments on his appearance. We would just like him to continue to speak with the police."
Peterson told Sawyer he didn't kill his wife and added there is no proof she is dead. The possibility runs through his mind, he said, but, "It's not one we're ready to accept."
The couple were expecting a baby boy they had named Conner, on Feb. 10.
Peterson also told Sawyer he still saw Frey, of Madera Ranchos, Calif., after he told his wife about her.
Frey made a dramatic tearful appearance Friday in Modesto on the one-month anniversary of Laci Peterson's disappearance, admitting a "romantic relationship" with Scott Peterson and apologizing "for the pain this has caused" Laci Peterson's family.
A shaken emotional Frey, a single mother with a 23-month-old child, said Peterson told her he was unmarried when they met Nov. 20. She said she called Modesto Police Dec. 30 when she discovered he was Laci Peterson's husband.
Peterson told Sawyer he didn't love Frey, but, "I'd have to say that I respect her" for making the public appearance.
He told he notified police of his relationship with Frey immediately last Christmas Eve, and that Frey was the only person with whom he had an extramarital relationship.
"It was inappropriate and I owe a tremendous apology to everyone," Peterson said. "It should have been brought forth by me, immediately..."
Modesto Police spokesman Doug Ridenour said Tuesday that police investigators have seen the interview, but declined to comment on any details of the interview, including Peterson's claim of telling police about the affair immediately.