Darien Hopeful's Wife Contradicts His Story: Police Interview

DARIEN, IL — Darien City Council candidate John Laratta maintains he did not fire a gun the night that Darien police arrested him.

But Darien Patch has obtained the audio of the police's interview with Laratta's wife, Terry Laratta, who indicates her husband fired shots late the night of Dec. 29, 2019. They were at their town home in the 8000 block of Barrymore Drive.

In a nine-minute interview with police the next morning, Terry Laratta said she was in her loft speaking on the phone with her niece from California when she heard a gunshot.

"I went, 'What the hell?', and John was downstairs in the living room and he — bang, bang — two shots out the patio door. And I said, 'Why the hell did you do that?' 'I don't know. I don't know why I did that.'"

The niece asked Terry Laratta why he fired the shots. The niece advised her aunt to leave the house for her safety, which Terry Laratta did.

In questioning by police, Terry Laratta said when she heard the shots, her husband was a step or two inside the patio door.

Office Tony Hruby asked her, "Did you see the firearm in his hand?"

She responded, "I really didn't. I didn't see it, but he had to have had a firearm in his hand when you (heard) bang, bang."

She also told police her husband had drinks that night — before and after he got home. When asked whether he had had too much to drink that night, she said alcohol hits her husband, now 76, harder because he is older.

"He might have had a little bit more than he should have," Terry Laratta said.

She said the two had a discussion earlier that she was going to Florida a few days earlier than him. She said he was upset about that, saying he would rather they go together. They typically spend January to May in the Sunshine State, she said.

Terry Laratta also said she remembered telling her husband after he fired the shots, "You realize we have a cop next door."

That off-duty cop next door was one of two neighbors who called police about the gunshots, according to the police report. The niece also called, police said.

When Hruby asked Terry Laratta whether she would feel safe when her husband returned home, she said, "I don't know how he's going to act when he gets home. His guns are all gone."

Police said they counted 34 guns, including one with a bump stock, all of which were seized. The state has since revoked John Laratta's firearm owner's identification and concealed carry cards, according to the police report.

In the interview, Terry Laratta said her son also worried how John Laratta was going to react.

"He said, 'Mom, maybe you should leave the house,'" Terry Laratta said. But she told the police, "I'm like the only one he's got... What am I supposed to do? Get up and leave after 53 years and leave him by himself?"

Hruby also asked about John Laratta's military service.

Terry Laratta said her husband served in the Army's 82nd Airborne as a medic in Vietnam. In the war, he suffered major back and knee injuries and was given his late rites, she said.

"He almost didn't get home," she said.

The investigation into the suspected shooting took place for more than a year, with the police saying they waited much of that time for a lab analysis on gun residue.

Last week, Police Chief Greg Thomas announced that the police had ended the investigation. While Thomas said he believed probable cause existed for John Laratta's arrest, the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office decided against filing charges in the case.

Last summer, John Laratta filed a complaint with the police department, alleging officers injured him during his arrest and failed to provide a lawyer when he requested one. In December, Thomas determined the allegations were unfounded.

Darien Patch has left a number of email messages with John Laratta, but he has declined to respond. Instead, he has repeatedly posted comments in response to Patch stories about his arrest, criticizing both Patch and the police. In those comments, he said he did not fire shots in or around his house on Dec. 29, 2019.

Patch also left messages for Terry Laratta through John Laratta's email. Patch could find no other contact information for his wife. Because she is his wife, Terry Laratta could invoke spousal privilege, meaning she could not be compelled to testify against him in court.

John Laratta is running against Ward 5 Alderwoman Mary Sullivan in the April 6 election. He is a former member of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission and a former international business consultant for the U.S. Postal Service.

Around the time he filed his candidacy in December, Laratta posted comments on Patch about how police treated him during his arrest. These posts prompted Patch to file public records requests.