AURORA, Ill. — Drew Peterson’s attorneys asked for more time Monday as they interview witnesses and plan further arguments after the former cop petitioned to vacate the jury’s verdict more than nine years after he was found guilty of killing his ex-wife.
During a brief hearing in Will County court, Assistant Will County Public Defender Jason Strzelecki said he will file amendments to the six-page handwritten motion Peterson filed in October asking for a new trial, but they first need to review more material. He said he needed more time to interview several new and former witnesses, and some live out of state, he said.
“We will be adding several claims,” Strzelecki said.
Strzelecki asked for a 90-day extension to allow for the interviewing of the witnesses, and Will County Judge Edward Burmilla agreed. The case is due in court again May 18 and Peterson, who is serving his time at an Indiana prison, will not be present.
In 2012, Peterson was sentenced to 38 years in prison for the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Her death was reexamined after Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, went missing in 2007. The former Bolingbrook police sergeant has been identified as a suspect, but never charged, in Stacy’s disappearance, which remains an open investigation.
Peterson argued his lead attorney Joel Brodsky, did not provide effective counsel and that other attorneys who represented him were threatened with removal from the case by Brodsky if they disagreed with him.
Peterson also argues that two of the state’s key witnesses, Neil Schori and Harry Smith, should not have been allowed to testify about what Stacy Peterson told them regarding Savio’s death or her own concerns about her husband. Peterson argues conversations with Schori, a pastor, and Smith, an attorney, should have been privileged. However, both were allowed to testify under the state’s hearsay law.
In a handwritten letter to Burmilla on Dec. 1, 2021, Peterson asked for a public defender to represent him.
“Thank you for going forward with my post-conviction petition,” Peterson wrote. “It’s hard enough to deal with a case while free. Dealing with a case while incarcerated is almost impossible. I find myself indigent and I’m requesting from the court, a court-appointed lawyer. I’m financially unable to retain counsel on my own.”
Peterson was also sentenced to 40 years in prison after he was convicted in 2016 for trying to hire someone to kill Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow.
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(The Aurora Beacon-News is a publication of Tribune Publishing.)
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