Drew Peterson Attorneys Make Latest Argument For His Pre-Trial Release
CHICAGO (WBBM) – Attorneys for Drew Peterson are asking that the former Bolingbrook police sergeant be released from jail pending trial for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.
Peterson has been held in lieu of $20 million bond in the Savio case since May 2009.
The day before the trial was to begin, 11 months ago, prosecutors filed an appeal with the 3rd District Appellate Court over the evidence to be allowed at trial. That continues to delay it.
Defense attorney Joel Brodsky said he was ready for trial last July 8 and remains so, Newsradio 780's Bob Roberts reports.
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"There's no danger to anyone if he's released," Brodsky said. "There are other ways to do this, too. He could be put on home monitoring. They could put him on a curfew. They could put him under house arrest."
The motion notes that while he was still free to travel, but knew he was under suspicion in the Savio case, he traveled to California, Florida and New York but never attempted to leave the United States and always returned home to Bolingbrook, where he has lived in 1977.
Peterson is a lifelong Chicago-area resident, except for his years in the military. The motion also notes that Peterson's entire extended family lives in northeastern Illinois.
"He has no place to go," Brodsky said.
Brodsky called Peterson's continued incarceration pending trial "outrageous."
Peterson is in solitary confinement at the Will County Jail. Brodsky said Peterson has a physical regimen of 500 push-ups a day, watches television, reads "a lot" of magazines and speaks with attorneys several times a week. But he has little contact with others except for those who bring him food several times a day.
The motion will be filed with the Third District appellate court in Ottawa, Ill., on Monday. The state has a week to reply, in writing.
Brodsky is hoping for a ruling within two weeks.
Savio was found dead in the drained bathtub of her Bolingbrook home. Initially, the death was ruled an accidental drowning, but a second autopsy, performed in 2008, found that the death was a homicide.
Peterson has never been charged in connection with the October 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy. Members of Stacy Peterson's family have suspected the retired police officer from the beginning.
