West Suburban Bureau

Impact Of Wiretaps On Drew Peterson's Wives' Cases

CHICAGO (CBS) ― After Drew Peterson's former friends came forward with damaging statements he allegedly made while they secretly recorded conversations, the question remains as to what effect, if any, the tapes will have on the criminal justice process for Peterson.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports Peterson has very publicly told anyone who'd listen he had nothing to do with the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson. But his comments during unguarded moments with Paula Stark and her husband, they claim, paint a different picture.

"We got him," Len Wawczak, Stark's husband, was quoted as saying in the Sun-Time Wednesday. "He's done, he's going away."

But former 1st Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins not only questions why government witnesses spoke with reporters, but also what they said.

"If I'm the prosecutor, and they did wear wires, I'm livid today," Collins, now of Perkins and Coie, said. "I would have a cooperating witness come back to me and the thing that they think is the smoking gun isn't the smoking gun.

So far, the search for Stacy Peterson or evidence of foul play has come up empty. Authorities would have loved to find a smoking gun somewhere in those seven months of secret recordings.

But CBS 2 legal analyst Irv Miller said, "If there was anything credible that was on these tapes that incriminated him in either case, the current wife or ex-wife, he would have been in handcuffs today, when that story broke, if not before."

But one comment shared by the couple with reporters, that Peterson "...wasn't worried about finding Stacy Peterson's remains down the road because he figured by that time, he would have been tried and acquitted," piques Collins' interest.

"Assuming that harm has come to her, which he has always said she ran away with someone else, so why would they find a body? So that's incriminating in nature and I would use that if I was a prosecutor.

Miller calls the witnesses going public before trial "a prosecutor's worst nightmare." It's also a felony to reveal wiretap evidence, though it's unlikely they'll be charged.

But the evidence they gathered could now be viewed as tainted and their motives for cooperating, questioned.

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