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Drew Peterson's Friends Claim They Wore Wire

Peterson's Attorney Dismisses Claims As False, Says Friends Want Money

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. (CBS) ― Friends of former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson have claimed they wore hidden microphones to record dozens of their conversions with him amid investigations into the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, and the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Paula Stark and her husband, Len Wawczak have been friends with Peterson for more than 12 years. A few weeks ago, they told Stacy Peterson's best friend Sharon Bychowski that they'd been wearing a wire for Illinois State Police for months and have helped police get enough evidence to arrest Peterson for Stacy's disappearance.

"I know that they said that they were working on this for quite some time, so I'm sure that there are many, many, many hours," Bychowski said, adding that Stark and Wawczak showed her the recording devices.

But Peterson's attorney said Stark and Wawczak are lying to extort money and Peterson himself didn't seem fazed by the claims.

On Wednesday, Peterson said, "I'm sure that everything that was played will clear me, so I think this is great."

Later Wednesday, as Peterson left his house, he was flip with a CBS 2 reporter who asked him if he had anything to say about the latest developments in the case. His response? "You're hot."

Stark and her husband weren't talking on camera Wednesday, but stark did sit down with CBS 2 News last week. She told CBS 2 about a gun that she claimed Drew Peterson told her to hide.

On Wednesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that in one of the conversations Stark and Wawczak allegedly recorded, Peterson said of Savio: "I should have had the b**** cremated. 

"If I said anything close to that, it was taken out of context," Peterson said.

Stark and Wawczak also claimed the tapes have Peterson mocking investigators looking into Savio's death and Stacy Peterson's disappearance, calling them "a bunch of idiots."

Stacy Peterson hasn't been seen since Oct. 28, 2007. In light of her disappearance, police also reopened an investigation into Savio's death. She was found dead in a dry bathtub in March 2004. Her death was originally ruled accidental, but was reclassified as a homicide following an exhumation.

Peterson has not been charged with any crime related to either case.

They also claimed Peterson told them police would not find Stacy Peterson's remains, and claimed he said if police did find her body, he would be off the hook because he would already have been tried and acquitted, the Sun-Times reported.

Furthermore, Stark told the Sun-Times that Drew Peterson asked her to model bikinis and fur coats Stacy left behind, and asked her to run off with him, the newspaper reported.

Wawczak said Peterson asked him to set fire to a memorial for Stacy Peterson a neighbor had put together, and vandalize a boat being used to search for her, the Sun-Times reported.

Now Peterson could end up being burned if recorded statements like that exist and are played in court.

Stark didn't talk about working for the state police last week, but it was clear that her undercover work had changed her view of Peterson.

Asked if her faith in Drew's honesty about what happened to Stacy Peterson and Kathleen Savio has been tested, Stark said, "Honestly, I wouldn't want to comment on that, not right now. … I don't know."

Stark's neighbor, Linda Miller, said she was shocked to find out Stark knew Drew Peterson. But she said she doesn't doubt Stark's claims.

"Someone needed to step in and do something, and I'm glad it was them," Miller said, "and I hope the information that they got will convict Drew Peterson."

But Brodsky said Stark and Wawczak concocted their story for financial gain. He said they have fallen on hard times economically and claimed they were at risk of losing their home.

"They made this sensational story in order to try to profit from it like other people have profited from selling their stories regarding Drew," Brodsky said, "and being that they're in this situation that's probably their motivation for making this sensational story up."

Peterson said the couple had asked him for money and became angry when he would not lend it to them.

"They were asking for thousands," he said.

He said they already have tried to cash in, claiming that he signed a hat given to him by one of the many television programs he's appeared on and gave it to Stark and, "The next thing I know it's on eBay..."

In May, WBBM Newsradio 780 reported that a Today show cap signed by Peterson was on the auction site.

Brodsky acknowledged that Peterson gave the couple a revolver after the state police pulled his gun owner's permit, just as he gave other guns to other people on Brodsky's advice because without a permit, it would have been illegal to possess the guns. Peterson never tried to conceal from authorities that he'd done so, Brodsky said.

Brodsky added that if the couple secretly recorded the tapes, he hopes they will be made public, because they will help prove that Drew Peterson is innocent. He also claimed that if Stark and Wawczak were really informants for state police, they would be arrested for obstruction of justice for releasing the information to the media.

The Will County State's Attorney's office would neither confirm nor deny Stark and Wawczak's claims that they wore a wire to record Drew Peterson.

CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli and Joanie Lum, the Associated Press and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

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