San Diego

A Superior Court judge Friday barred a nationally renowned forensic dentist from testifying in the retrial of former California Highway Patrol Officer Craig Peyer, who is charged with murdering college student Cara Knott.

With no explanation, Judge Richard Huffman announced that he was granting a request by defense attorney Robert Grimes to exclude testimony by Dr. Norman Sperber. It is unclear why prosecutors sought to call Sperber as a witness because Huffman closed a Thursday hearing on the matter to the press and public.

A similar bid by prosecutors to place Sperber on the stand in Peyer’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury in February, also was rejected by Huffman after a closed hearing.

Also Friday, Huffman heard arguments from Grimes and Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst on a motion by prosecutors to exclude a fiber expert who testified for the defense in the first trial. Prosecutors maintain that the expert, John A. Reffner of Connecticut, practices a technique that is not widely recognized as legitimate by the scientific community. That hearing will continue Monday, when jury selection in the retrial also will resume.

Peyer, 38, is charged with killing the 20-year-old Knott on Dec. 27, 1986. Prosecutors say Peyer pulled Knott over while on duty, strangled her and tossed her body from an abandoned highway bridge near the Mercy Road exit on Interstate 15.