Wrong Man Paid Scott Peterson's Ex-Girlfriend Child Support

Sept. 22, 2005 — -- A DNA test has shown that a man who was paying child support to Scott Peterson's former mistress Amber Frey is not her child's biological father.

Anthony Flores, 29, has been paying $175 a month child support for almost four years, but a DNA test found that there was 99.9 percent chance that another man fathered Frey's 4-year-old daughter. A Madera County, Calif., Court judge ruled Monday that child services should drop efforts to continue collecting child support payments from Flores as DNA tests found that the probable father of Frey's daughter was Modesto, Calif., restaurant owner Christopher Funch.

At a press conference after the ruling, Flores said he was satisfied with the ruling but felt deceived by Frey. He said he had been thrust into the public eye because of Frey's references to him in her book, "Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution of Scott Peterson."

"I feel foolish and I feel betrayed," Flores said. "I otherwise feel I was being cheated on. She was very convincing when she told me I was the only person who could be the father.

"It puts me in a position where there's a lot of questions now I'd like to have answered," Flores continued. "I want an apology."

Former Frey Attorney: Former Biological Father to Blame, Too

Amber Frey and Christopher Funch have not commented publicly on the ruling. Attorney Gloria Allred, who represented Frey during the Peterson investigation and trial but was not involved in the child support case, defended Frey.

"Amber in good faith always believed that Mr. Flores was her child's father," she told The Modesto Bee.

"Only after the results of a recent DNA test taken by the true biological father did Amber realize that Mr. Flores was not the father of her child," Allred said. "To the best of Amber's knowledge, Mr. Flores did not [take a test] and ... he needs to take responsibility for his failure to do so."

Frey and authorities said she was involved in a romantic fling with Peterson when his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. Frey has claimed she did not know initially that Peterson was married.

Peterson, 32, was convicted of first-degree murder and Laci's death and second-degree murder in the death of the unborn baby, whom the couple planned to name Connor. He is now sitting on death row as attorneys appeal his death sentence .

Frey, a massage therapist from Fresno, was a star prosecution witness during Peterson's trial. Her testimony and wiretapped phone conversations with Peterson proved key to his conviction, as jurors learned the fertilizer salesman told her he wanted them to be together and constructed elaborate lies to keep his marriage secret. During one phone conversation -- which took place as investigators and volunteers were searching for Laci -- Peterson told Frey he was in Paris on a business trip.