Jul 16, 2008 12:57 pm US/Central
Friends Say They Kept Drew Peterson's 'Secret Gun'
Peterson's Attorney: There Is No Such Gun
BOLINGBROOK, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
Friends of Drew Peterson say they held on to the ex-cop's secret folding gun after Illinois State Police missed it during a search of his home three days after his wife vanished.
Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, has denied there was such a gun.
He mocked Ric Mims, a former friend of Peterson's, on CNN's "Nancy Grace" show after Mims said Peterson showed him the gun, saying, "Hey [the police] didn't find this one." Mims said Peterson was "chuckling."
On the show, Brodsky called the claim "simply another fabrication of slick Ric Mims."
"He's trying to sell another story to the National Enquirer now that he's run out of money," Brodsky added.
But other friends of Peterson, Len Wawczak and his wife, Paula Stark, say Peterson signed the folding gun over to Paula Stark the day after the State Police pulled Peterson's firearm owner's identification card.
Stark and Wawczak made the admission after being confronted with a State Police evidence receipt for a Ruger .357 Magnum revolver and a North American Arms .22-caliber revolver seized from their home March 19. Stark's name is on the receipt.
The couple said the .22 is the folding gun Mims spoke of on the "Nancy Grace" show.
Stark also produced a handwritten contract for the "Transpher [sic] of 1 North American Arms Corp. S.S. .22 cal revolver" from Drew Peterson to Paula Stark dated Feb. 28 -- shortly after the State Police revoked Peterson's FOID card and right after he returned from New York City, where he appeared on the "Today" show. Stark and Wawczak watched Peterson's children while he was in New York.
Wawczak said Peterson wrote out the transfer for Stark while sitting at the desk in his home office.
"It was written before me, her, Drew and Kris," Peterson's teenage son, Wawczak said.
Stark and Wawczak said they took the gun home but it was taken from them less than a month later, when state cops came to their home to seize Stark's Ruger after her FOID card was suspended because it listed an inaccurate date of birth and outdated address.
The State Police have named Peterson a suspect in the disappearance of his wife, Stacy, and have classified the case a "potential homicide."
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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