Fake Rockefeller's ex-wife testifies

BOSTON, Massachusetts–The defense will get a chance on Tuesday to question the ex-wife of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller, now on trial for kidnapping the couple's daughter last year.

Sandra Boss swears in before taking the witness stand

Sandra Boss testified on the third day of the custodial kidnapping trial of Christian Gerhartsreiter, and jurors now have a complete picture of the events of July 27, 2008, when Gerhartsreiter succeeded in snatching his daughter in front of a social worker who was supervising the visit and a private investigator hired to tail father and daughter.

On Monday, Boss, who was married to Gerhartsreiter for 12 years and is the mother of their now eight-year-old daughter, Reigh, rarely looked at her ex-husband as she sat in the witness box, though he appeared to be watching her closely. And she never spoke his name; rather Boss referred to him a few times as her ex-husband but mainly as the “defendant.” For details about Boss’s testimony, see our story on CNN.com.

The most colorful witness of the day was Darryl Hopkins. Hopkins is the driver who hoped the man he knew as Clark Rockefeller would become a more regular customer. “Rockefeller” needed help in ridding himself of a “clingy relative.”

A financially-strapped Hopkins was enticed into participating in what he thought was a harmless scheme by the $3,000 offer that “Rockefeller” made for his assistance. That clingy relative was actually Howard Yaffe, the social worker who supervised the custodial visit on July 27, 2008.

The day before the kidnapping, Hopkins suggested ways to separate father and daughter from Yaffe by exiting a restaurant through a back door to the waiting Hopkins and his SUV. The final plan, carried out in the early afternoon of July 27, 2008, was for the father and daughter to jump into his SUV on a low-traffic street where the chances of being seen were slim. Hopkins believed he was driving the two to Rhode Island to dine with Senator Chaffee’s son but that “plan” was thwarted when Gerhartsreiter ordered him to stop and let them out while still in Boston. Hopkins did receive full payment of $3,000.

Hopkins peppered his testimony with a bit of unintentional humor. He demonstrated Gerhartsreiter’s clenched-jaw manner of speech which he likened to Thurston Howell III, the aristocratic character from Gilligan’s Island. Hopkins told jurors that two days before the abduction, he drove Gerhartsreiter to Manhattan for what he believed was a board meeting. The two stopped for a quick lunch on their way out of the city. Hopkins ordered a turkey club; Gerhartsreiter ordered “steak tartare,” said Hopkins waving limp wrists in the air.

Mason Peltz, a brief afternoon witness, met Gerhartsreiter only once at a Christmas dinner in 2007. He described the man, introduced as Clark Rockefeller, as distraught over recently losing custody of his daughter. Gerhartsreiter told Peltz that he had a child out of wedlock in England and was raising his daughter as a single parent. The mother of the child decided she wanted their daughter, obtained custody, and took her back to England. Gerhartsreiter felt he was unjustly treated by the court and that if he couldn’t resolve the matter, he’s “go back to England and bring the child back.” Peltz took Gerhartsreiter’s words to mean that he would kidnap her.

Stay tuned to In Session for complete coverage of this case.

–Beth Karas, In Session correspondent

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