Crime & Safety

Drew Peterson Lawyers: Drew's Not a 'Danger to Anyone'

Court papers seeking Peterson's release from jail insist it's safe for him to be out and about.

Retired grandfather Drew Peterson was a mere 100 miles from the Mexican border yet didn't make a run for it even though he figured he was going to be arrested for his wife's murder.

That is just one of the reasons Peterson should be released from the Will County jail, according to court papers his attorneys filed Monday in hopes of getting him sprung from the the clink.

Along with not fleeing the country when he was in Los Angeles, the motion for Peterson's release maintains that "there is nothing to suggest that Drew Peterson would be a danger to anyone if released."

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Police and prosecutors apparently feel otherwise — at least as far as the safety of anyone who was married to the accused wife-killer and serial marrier.

Peterson, 57, has been jailed for more than two years as he awaits trial on charges he murdered his third wife, Kathleen Savio. The state police also believe Peterson may have had a hand in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, but have yet to charge him with harming her.

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The murder trial has been held up for nearly a year as the appellate court mulls a prosecution appeal of what hearsay evidence can be used against Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police officer who pulled the plug on his law enforcement career rather than face an internal inquiry regarding Stacy's disappearance in late 2007.

In the motion for Peterson's release, his attorneys informed the appellate judges that they don't "wish to hurry the court in making its decision" but that Peterson should be a free man while they are figuring out what to do.

The motion also mentions that Peterson was a military police officer in the Army and that he "provided security for President Gerald Ford" 35 years ago.

Peterson is being held at the Will County jail on a $20 million bond.

"The state's attorney believes that this is an appropriate bond," said Charles Pelkie, the spokesman for the Will County State's Attorney's Office.

As far as Peterson not posing a threat to anyone of he makes it out of jail, Pelkie pointed to the testimony of dozens of witnesses during a month-long pretrial hearing in early 2010.

During that hearing, witnesses accused Peterson of, among other things, domestic battery and exploring the possibility of hiring a hit man to do away with Savio.

"We've objected to his release in the past based upon evidence and testimony presented at the pretrial hearing and based upon the judge's ruling following the pretrial hearing," Pelkie said.


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