West Suburban Bureau

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Drew Peterson's former friend Len Wawczak was charged with battery Friday following an altercation with Peterson outside a local barbershop.

Wawczak was arrested for misdemeanor battery after allegedly pushing Peterson outside a barbershop close to Peterson's west suburban home around 2 p.m. Friday.

The Joliet Herald News reports at least eight squad cars responded to the confrontation.

Wawczak had also just learned that Peterson reportedly told a reporter that he and Wawczak's wife, Paula Stark, had sex, according to the Herald News.

The whole thing started around lunchtime Friday when Stark said she received a phone call from her 20-year-old son. He said he was at a barber shop when Drew Peterson came in and allegedly started eyeballing him.

The 20-year-old said he was surprised to see Peterson there, and after a few looks which made him feel uneasy, he called his parents.

"I said just stay inside where there is people," Stark said. "You guys are in a business, I don't think he'll do nothing."

Wawczak overheard the conversation, and asked Stark about it. He immediately decided to go over to the barber shop to confront Peterson.

Wawczak bonded out of jail later Friday afternoon.

"That was worth a hundred bucks, just to show Drew that he's a b----," Wawczak told reporters.

Bolingbrook police charged him with battery.

"Drew came into the place where he was at to get his hair cut, because the other establishment, I don't know if they sent him out because they didn't want his business, or whatever," Wawczak said. "Drew went in there to get his hair cut and then gave my son a couple dirty looks. You know, my son's 20 years old, going to college. He's smart enough to know when somebody's trying to intimidate him. So I went out there."

Witness Johnny Jenkins saw Wawczak approach Peterson outside the barbershop.

"When he went to his car, the dude confronted him, pretty much yelling at him. They had a yelling match. He shoved him a few times," Jenkins said. "Drew pretty much didn't look worried. He didn't push back or anything like that. He just had his hands behind his back, actually."

Stark said she was the one who called police while her husband was on his way to the barbershop. She said she feared the situation could quickly have gotten out of control.

She says after her son called home complaining that Peterson was eyeballing him, her main concern was his safety. That's why, she says, she ordered him to stay inside the business until police arrived.

"My thought to my son is don't go out in the parking lot because Drew knows what he's done already, and in my eyes with us coming out with this story, he might walk out to the parking lot and try and shoot my son or something and say this is the way I'm going to get them back and do his cop by suicide, which he's told us before he's going to do," Stark said. "I don't know the mindset of a murderer."

Stark says Peterson has claimed he would go out by suicide-by-cop so that his children would be paid insurance money.

Bolingbrook police Chief Ray McGury said the whole thing amounted to a simple battery.

"Wawczak has been arrested for battering Mr. Peterson in front of the barbershop here in town," McGury said. "[He] allegedly pushed him in the back."

McGury said the incident was caught on video by a witness.

"We have independent witnesses there that corroborate Mr. Peterson's story that he was battered and we have a statement from Mr. Wawczak that implicated himself in the battery," McGury said.

"I approached Drew and I did push him a couple of times, and you know what I'll do more than that the next time he messes with someone in my family," Wawczak said.

Wawczak said the charge amounts to a traffic ticket, and he said he doesn't expect to see Peterson in court to testify against him.

"My first court date is… September 10th," he said. "Drew's not even going to be around to appear on his behalf. He's going away before then."

Wawczak said his blow-up was not prompted by reports Peterson told a reporter he had slept with Wawczak's wife.

Wawczak however admits, in the heat of the moment, he decided to address that as well.

"I told him look me straight in the eye and tell me that you slept with Paula, and I'll give you what you're asking for. I'll knock your punk a—out," Wawczak said.

But he said Friday's altercation wasn't about that.

"This was about my son today," Wawczak said, "him intimidating my son. And it was, like I said, it was the best hundred bucks I spent and I'd do it again."

Stark said she never had a relationship with Peterson, and he is a liar.

Peterson was not charged with any crime.

Peterson's attorney Joel Brodsky said Peterson will not be discussing the matter.

Wawczak claims he and Stark, both longtime friends of Peterson's, wore hidden microphones to record dozens of their conversations with him amid investigations into the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, and the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

When Wawczak wasn't wearing a wire to tape his former pal for the police, he was often on his computer setting a different kind of trap. It involved lust and a made-up girl named Ashley.

"He became real fond of Ashley, and Ashley would be me," Wawczak said. "I am the real Ashley. I'm the one who did the blog. I'm the one who romanced Drew. I'm the one that typed to him in that pink font, and I'm the one that said that he said he wanted to take a bite out of my cute little a**. It was me."

Wawczak says as "Ashley," he and Peterson had an online relationship for more than two months.

"I started talking to him in March," Wawczak said. "I don't know, according to Drew, in his own words, he fell in love with me within the first day."

Wawczak says he and his wife decided to cooperate with police because they became suspicious of their former friend about two weeks after Stacy disappeared. He said going undercover was difficult, and at times, he and his wife would leave the Peterson home only to find the car covered in spit.

Peterson's attorney said Wawczak and Stark 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."

Peterson said he had never heard about the recordings from police or other authorities; only through the media. His attorney, Joel Brodsky, reiterated a claim that Stark and Wawczak had financial motives.

"These people have dire financial problems. They've been evicted from their home. Paula has filed bankruptcy five times in the last nine years; Lenny filed bankruptcy twice in 2004," Brodsky said. "I can imagine a book, My Nine Months with Drew Peterson. They could try to sell their story; they could try to sell something to the National Enquirer."

Peterson claimed that Stark had been out to profit from him financially in the past.

"I signed a hat for her; I brought her a hat back when I made a trip to New York," Peterson said. "I sign it, the next thing you know it's on eBay with a bid for $10,000."

Wawczak and Stark have said they believed Peterson was responsible for Stacy's disappearance, and that they fear for their lives, which Peterson called "comical."

"I can't see Lenny being afraid of anybody; I find him one of the most obnoxious people on the planet," Peterson said, "and definitely not with Paula."

CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli and Mai Martinez contributed to this report.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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