Pals: Drew gave us his 'secret' gun
Couple say police missed weapon during search
Friends of Drew Peterson say he gave them a secret folding gun that he said the Illinois State Police missed when they searched his home three days after his wife was reported missing.
Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, has denied there was such a gun. Brodsky mocked Ric Mims, a former friend of Peterson's, in March on CNN's "Nancy Grace" show after Mims said that Peterson showed him the gun, saying, "Hey [the police] didn't find this one." Mims said Peterson was "chuckling" when he showed him the gun.
(AP file)
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, of Bolingbrook, say that Peterson signed the folding gun -- a North American Arms .22-caliber revolver -- over to Paula Stark the day after the State Police pulled Peterson's firearm owner's identification card in February.
"It was the same gun Ric Mims identified," Stark said.
Stark has 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, 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. Less than a month later, State Police took the gun when they came to their home to seize Stark's Ruger .357 Magnum revolver after her FOID card was suspended because it listed an inaccurate date of birth and outdated address. The State Police also found the .22, which folds into its own handle, and pegged it as Peterson's, Wawczak said.
It was "basically just a way for the State Police to break our balls because we're friends with Drew," Wawczak said.
Peterson said he had done nothing wrong, as he simply "signed [the gun] over to them after they took my gun card away."
The State Police have named Peterson a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, and have classified the case a "potential homicide."
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