Drew Peterson Angry Over Son's Firing
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS/WBBM) -- Murder suspect Drew Peterson is speaking out, sort of, about the firing of his oldest son from the Oak Brook Police Department.
Peterson remains in jail awaiting trial in the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. But his comments were e-mailed by his attorney, Joel Brodsky, to The Joliet Herald-News.
LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya reports
Podcast
Peterson says he is angry that the Oak Brook Board of Fire and Police Commissioners fired his son, Stephen Peterson, last weekend.
"I am very angry that the police and fire board of Oak Brook are in the police chief's pocket and that they can't make a fair decision on their own," he said.
He also questions the fairness of the commissioners.
"When I gave Steve my guns there was no investigation to impede," Peterson said. "They were my favorite guns, and I was going to give them to Steve when I retired anyway. I only gave him three of the dozen or so guns I owned, and I kept most of my guns in my house and the police confiscated them all, so how could giving him those three guns impede anything?"
The board ruled that Stephen Peterson had failed to disclose that his father had given him three guns and nearly $240,000 just three days after the disappearance of Drew Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, in October 2007.
"Officer Peterson's continuing claim that the weapons and money were irrelevant to the investigation by the Illinois State Police were self-serving, disingenuous, and not credible, and demonstrate that Officer Peterson lacks the fundamental ability to make sound judgments," said commission Chairman Frederick Cappetta, in announcing the decision over the weekend.
The commission found Stephen Peterson not guilty of two other accusations. One related to his temporary possession of a sawed-off AR-15 assault rifle that his father used in connection with his duties as a Bolingbrook Police SWAT team member. The other accused Peterson of failing to keep the internal investigation into his possession of the guns confidential.
Drew Peterson is himself a former Bolingbrook police sergeant. He resigned after investigation began into Stacy Peterson's disappearance.
Peterson is not charged in Stacy's disappearance, but prosecutors have alleged that he killed third wife Savio in order to prevent her from testifying against him in court.
Her body was found in a dry bathtub on March 1, 2004.
Savio's death was originally ruled an accidental drowning, but her body was exhumed after Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared on Oct. 29, 2007. A new autopsy reclassified Savio's death as a homicide.
Stacy Peterson has long been presumed dead, but her body has never been found.
Peterson had been set to go to trial last summer, but the trial was halted the day before jury selection was to begin. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow filed an appeal against county Judge Stephen B. White's ruling regarding which statements will be allowed into evidence under the hearsay exception.
Judge White retired in October. When the case finally goes to trial, another judge will preside.
The Joliet Herald-News contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire
