Dismissal hearing continues for Peterson's son

Oak Brook police officer Stephen Peterson says he has a close relationship with his father, murder suspect Drew Peterson, whose four children he is raising while the elder Peterson awaits trial.

But Stephen Peterson, 31, swore Tuesday he would turn his father in if he ever had any evidence Drew Peterson was involved in “criminal activity.”

Yet when his father asked him to stash three guns for him shortly after Drew Peterson's wife, Stacy, 23, went missing, Stephen Peterson did not consider this “relevant” information he needed to tell his superiors, he testified Tuesday before Oak Brook's Board of Fire and Police Commissioners.

Peterson testified for 90 minutes before the board, which will decide whether to fire the six-year veteran. The dismissal hearing is scheduled to continue Dec. 9.

Peterson, who has been on leave from his $67,422-a-year position since August, has admitted to keeping his father's guns for several days in 2007. The three guns included an assault rifle with a prohibited shortened barrel, which Stephen Peterson said he looked at only briefly in its case before sticking it in a closet in his North Aurora home.

Drew Peterson brought the guns to his son's home Oct. 30, 2007, shortly after his fourth wife went missing. Stephen Peterson voluntarily turned the guns over to the Illinois State Police four days later.

Drew Peterson, a retired Bolingbrook police sergeant, has not been charged in her disappearance, but he is accused of first-degree murder in connection with the bathtub drowning of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Oak Brook Police Chief Thomas Sheahan is seeking to fire Stephen Peterson for not telling his superiors about the guns or the $236,000 in checks his father gave him, also on Oct. 30, after asking him to take care of the four younger children if something should happen him. The latter was not unusual behavior for his father, Peterson said.

“Every vacation he's left on, he's written out a will,” Stephen Peterson testified. “He's overly precautious on everything.”

Testimony focused Tuesday on the gun with the unlawfully short barrel and the extent of Stephen Peterson's cooperation with authorities.

“Did it occur to you that you had some obligation to notify the police?” asked Charles E. Hervas, attorney for the police chief.

Peterson said it didn't and added he wasn't in the habit of discussing his finances with his employer.

But Peterson willingly submitted to six interviews with the state police, answering the questions that were asked, he testified Tuesday. He also permitted cadaver dogs to search his North Aurora home twice.

His father brought the short-barreled assault rifle to his home in a zippered case. Peterson's police union attorney, Tamara Cummings, pointed out to commissioners that with an attached suppressor a device used to reduce the fire coming out of the rifle the rifle would measure the state-mandated 16 inches and someone taking only a cursory glance at it might not notice the difference.

Cummings called the charges against Stephen Peterson “baseless.” Peterson is caring for his father's four children ages 17, 16, 7 and 5 and also has a child of his own.

“This has turned Stephen's life upside down,” she said.

Peterson has been brought before the disciplinary board twice before, once for going to testify in his father's case in an Oak Brook squad car and for running unauthorized police data checks.

During the hearing, Hervas asked Peterson if he considered the disciplinary case brought against him a form of harassment.

“Absolutely,” he said.