Hearsay ruling a blow to Peterson defense
A state appellate court on Thursday gave the go-ahead for prosecutors to allow additional hearsay evidence at the trial of a former Bolingbrook police sergeant accused of killing his third wife.
The Third District Appellate Court’s ruling hands a legal defeat to defense attorneys for Drew Peterson. The earlier rulings to exclude many secondhand statements had raised fresh questions about the viability of trying Peterson on charges he killed Kathleen Savio in 2004.
“It’s very good news. We anticipate a trial later this spring or early in the summer,” said Charles Pelkie, a spokesman for Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow.
One of Peterson’s attorneys, Steven A. Greenberg, said the defense could appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court but is leaning against doing so before trial.
“We could appeal after the trial, if we lose,” he said. “So why not just go to trial and see if they can prove it. I don’t think they can.”
The decision not to appeal could also mean the trail, repeatedly delayed as the hearsay issue played out in the courts, could finally get a fixed starting date.
The legal saga surrounding the burly, mustachioed ex-cop has attracted national attention, even inspiring a TV movie now in production starring Rob Lowe as Peterson.
Peterson, 57, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2004 drowning death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, and is a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson. Drew Peterson has denied involvement in either death.
Peterson has been jailed since his May 2009 arrest on charges of killing Savio. He was charged only after Stacy Peterson disappeared and Savio’s body was exhumed.
Greenberg said he wished the court would have sided with defense attorneys, but he also struck a confident note, saying he believed they would prevail in the end.
“We’re obviously disappointed that they will be able to present unreliable evidence to try and convict somebody, but we are not afraid of (prosecutors’) case,” he said. “We will be ready for trial.”
The ruling, he said, indicated that the lower court erred in excluding statements on the grounds that they were unreliable — something that should be left up to jurors to assess.
Attorneys have declined to offer details about the hearsay statements, citing a gag order.
But a person familiar with the case previously told The Associated Press the statements included one from Stacy Peterson’s pastor, who said she told him she’d given Peterson a false alibi the weekend of Savio’s death. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because judge’s orders have been sealed.
Savio’s body was found in a dry bathtub, her hair soaked in blood from a head wound, just before the couple’s divorce settlement was finalized. Her death originally was ruled an accidental drowning but authorities later said it was a homicide staged to look like an accident.
Savio’s family has long voiced suspicions, saying she feared Peterson and told relatives if she died it would not be an accident. Their fears resurfaced after the October 2007 disappearance of Stacy Peterson, then 23, which set off a massive search and led prosecutors to re-examine Savio’s death.
Authorities have said they believe Stacy Peterson is dead, but Drew Peterson has never been charged in that case.