Ex-Cop Wife-Killer Drew Peterson Accused of Plotting to Murder Prosecutor

Former Bolingbrook, Ill., police sergeant Drew Peterson arriving May 8, 2009, at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., for his arraignment on charges of first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his third wife.
(Photo: M. Spencer Green, AP)

Serving 38 years for murdering his third wife and suspected in the disappearance of his fourth, former police sergeant Drew Peterson was charged Monday with trying to hire a hit man to kill the Illinois state attorney who prosecuted him.

The 61-year-old Peterson, who has been in the maximum-security Menard Correctional Center since his 2012 conviction, is accused of soliciting someone to murder Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow between September 2013 and December 2014, the Illinois attorney general and the Randolph County state’s attorney announced. He is charged with one count of solicitation of murder for hire and one count of solicitation of murder.

Peterson attorney Steve Greenberg told the Chicago Tribune Monday morning that neither he nor Peterson’s family had been informed of the charges, which he called “absurd.”

“Drew would have nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing that,” Greenberg said. “And prosecutors say he’s the most careful criminal ever, don’t they?”

Based mostly on circumstantial evidence, a jury convicted Peterson of drowning 40-year-old Kathleen Savio in 2004. Three years later authorities reopened the investigation of her death when Peterson’s 23-year-old fourth wife, Stacy, disappeared. Though police say he is the only suspect, he has not been charged.

Peterson, who was arrested in 2009, has maintained his innocence in both cases, and has appealed his conviction.

The Tribune notes that the Bolingbrook police pension board is considering whether to revoke Peterson’s annual $79,000 payout, which prosecutors claim he tried to keep from his wives.

SOURCE: USA Today – Michael Winter