Peterson held on $20 mil bond in connection with wife's death

Former Bolingbrook cop Drew Peterson is more than a national punch line for late-night comedians or a frequent guest on radio and television chat shows, according to Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow and the Illinois State Police.

He's a killer, they say.

They announced Thursday that a special Will County grand jury issued a two-count first-degree murder indictment against Peterson in the bathtub drowning death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, five years ago.

Glasgow said a grand jury will continue probing the disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy. She's been missing since 2007.

Authorities said Savio was found dead in her bathtub on March 1, 2004, but it wasn't ruled a homicide at the time. But the grand jury indictment alleges Peterson, "without lawful justification and with the intent to kill" Savio, caused her to inhale fluid, causing her death on or about Feb. 29, 2004.

State police Capt. Carl Dobrich said officers arrested Peterson near his Bolingbrook home late Thursday afternoon after pulling him over on a traffic stop. He said authorities had been monitoring the area all day Thursday and that Peterson didn't resist arrest.

"I guess I should have returned those library books," a handcuffed Peterson said as state police led him into headquarters after his Thursday arrest, according to The (Joliet) Herald-News.

Savio's family has long voiced suspicions of Peterson, saying she feared Peterson and told relatives if she died it wouldn't be an accident. Their fears resurfaced after the October 2007 disappearance of Stacy Peterson, then 23.

Drew Peterson has not been charged in the Stacy Peterson case, which has been called a possible homicide, and has repeatedly said he thinks she ran off with another man.

One of Peterson's attorneys, Andrew Abood, said the indictment in the Savio case was not a complete surprise.

"There was tremendous pressure for the government to do something in this case," he said Thursday evening. But Abood said one of Peterson's sons with Savio has "provided a lock-tight alibi" for his father.

Peterson likely will be arraigned on the murder charge today in the Will County courthouse in Joliet. He was being held in lieu of $20 million bond at the Will County adult detention facility.

Glasgow said the high bond set by Will County Judge Daniel Rozak indicates the seriousness of the case against Peterson, who must post 10 percent, or $2 million, to be freed from jail before trial.

"It's not a laughing matter as has been made in this case," Glasgow said.

Another Peterson attorney, Joel Brodsky, told CNN's Larry King that he would seek a more "reasonable" bond.

Glasgow reopened an investigation into Savio's death in November 2007. Her body was exhumed, and the case was reclassified from an accidental death to a homicide before it went to a grand jury. Dobrich said the probe yielded 330 leads and about 8,200 pages of documents.

"The journey has been far and wide," Dobrich said. "It has been exhausting."

Glasgow said authorities were limited about what they could say about the indictment against Peterson. When asked if Peterson is the lone suspect in Savio's death, Glasgow said, "He's a named defendant and he's the defendant we're going to proceed to trial against."

Under a new law, prosecutors intend to use statements made by Savio before her death at Peterson's trial. Glasgow said the prosecution team must show a judge the statements by the deceased are viable and relevant to the case.

Glasgow said he'll be the lead prosecutor on the case.

"We're putting together a team that I believe can't be beat," he said.

Brodsky told King he believes the case has always been about circumstantial evidence and that he will bring a pathologist to trial who will say Savio died from an accidental drowning.

"I think the jury's going to see that, in fact, this always has been an accidental death and still is an accidental death," Brodsky said.

In an appearance on CBS' "The Early Show" last month, 16-year-old Thomas Peterson appeared alongside his father and defended him.

"I highly do not believe that my dad had murdered my mom. Because, first off, he wasn't there; he was with us during that period of time," Thomas Peterson said at the time.

Savio's 73-year-old father, however, said Thursday that an arrest was long overdue.

"I always wondered," about her death, said Henry Savio, who joined another of his daughters in filing a wrongful-death lawsuit against Drew Peterson last month. "I was never pleased with the (coroner's finding) from the beginning."

Drew Peterson has seemed to relish being under the media microscope since Stacy Peterson's disappearance, appearing in a People magazine feature and on multiple national talk shows - most recently to tout his new engagement to a 24-year-old woman.

Publicist Glenn Selig said this week that Peterson was interested in a job offer from the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, a Nevada brothel that is the setting for the HBO reality show "Cathouse." An HBO spokeswoman said the network would sooner cancel the show than allow Peterson to appear on it.

• Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.

Charge: Son backs up Peterson's alibi

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