Authorities used "vindictive and selective" prosecution in their gun case against former Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson, his legal team argued in Will County Court today.
Peterson, 54, faces felony gun charges for allegedly possessing a modified assault rifle with a barrel of less than 16 inches in violation of state law. Authorities seized the rifle, along with other weapons, after search warrants were executed last November as part of the investigation into the Oct. 28, 2007 disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy.
But Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, questioned the timeline of how the gun case unfolded. In February, police revoked Peterson's firearm owner identification card after a judge ruled that his firearms should be returned to Peterson granted that he had a valid FOID card.
And then in May, authorities arrested Peterson for owning the rifle on the eve of learning from the judge whether the guns could be turned over to his son, Stephen, an Oak Brook police officer.
Brodsky is requesting that prosecutors turn over documents leading up to the charges against his client.
"This timeline proves with more than sufficient evidence that the reason to do this is to punish Mr. Drew Peterson for exercising his Constitutional rights," Brodsky said.
Peterson, who maintains his wife ran off, has said that he used the rifle as a SWAT team member for the Bolingbrook police department.
Will County Assistant State's Atty. Dede Osterberger argued against giving the defense "privileged information."
"We strongly argue against this case, judge, because we think that the defense is engaging in a fishing expedition," she said.
Judge Richard Schoenstedt, who was battling a cold and losing his voice, said he would defer his ruling until the next scheduled hearing on Nov. 20.
No comments:
Post a Comment