Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Drew Peterson Lawyers Seek to Dismiss Gun Charges

A Will County judge heard arguments Monday on whether to dismiss all felony gun charges against former Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson, who is suspected in the Oct. 28 disappearance of his wife, Stacy.

A grand jury last week indicted Peterson on two counts of unlawful use of a weapon for allegedly owning an assault rifle that was nearly 5 inches shorter than allowed by state law. The rifle was seized by authorities last fall as search warrants were executed in the Stacy Peterson case.

Drew Peterson's attorneys, Joel Brodsky and Andrew Abood, argued that under the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004, Peterson was authorized to carry and possess the weapon despite a state law that says an assault rifle must be 16 inches long. The federal law permits law-enforcement officers and retired law-enforcement officers in good standing to carry a concealed firearm in any jurisdiction in the U.S., regardless of most state or local laws.

His attorneys said Peterson used the semiautomatic assault rifle while he was a police officer, which makes him an exception under state and federal laws.

Drew Peterson news "Mr. Peterson was qualified to use this gun by his own [department]," Abood said. "This is a very unique area of the law."

But Assistant State's Atty. John Connor countered that Peterson was not charged with carrying a concealed weapon, but with possession of an illegal weapon, which he argued was not protected by the federal act. He pointed to literature from the National Rifle Association as an example of responsible gun owners knowing the difference between "carrying" and "possessing" weapons, and chastised that police officers, of all people, should know the difference.

"The people's position is this: The weapon as currently confiscated is illegal," Connor said.

Judge Richard Schoenstedt said he expected to make his ruling July 30.

After the court hearing, Brodsky produced documents for reporters that he said came from the Bolingbrook Police Department proving that it knew Peterson had the gun.

A Bolingbrook police spokesman, Lt. Ken Teppel, acknowledged there was a department document saying Peterson had a personal assault rifle as a secondary weapon. While Peterson had qualified to shoot the gun in 2005 or 2006 at a training session, he had never received permission from the police chief to carry it on duty, Teppel said. He also questioned whether the weapon had been modified at the time of the training.

At the news conference, Brodsky said the length of the barrel at the training session was irrelevant.

Peterson, 54, was arrested in April shortly before he was to regain possession of his weapons from state police, who had seized them as part of their investigation into his missing wife, Stacy, who was 23 when she disappeared. A week after Peterson's arrest, Schoenstedt ordered state police to return eight of Peterson's weapons to his son Stephen, an Oak Brook police officer. Peterson's firearm owner's identification card has been revoked.

The gun at the center of Peterson's felony case has remained in police custody.

Authorities also are conducting a murder investigation into the 2004 drowning of Peterson's previous wife, Kathleen Savio. Peterson has not been charged in either case involving his spouses and maintains he has done nothing wrong.

After the court hearing, Peterson said he was feeling "comfortable with everything that took place today."

When asked if he feels as though he's a target of state police, Peterson told reporters, "You think? Oh, yeah."

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