Drew Peterson Stays Put

Drew Peterson's lawyers have failed to get him out of jail more times than the serial marrier has wives.

A fifth bid to get the accused wife-killer out of the Will County jail apparently fell on deaf ears at the Illinois Supreme Court late Monday.

Peterson has been locked since May 2009 on charges he murdered his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Peterson has been in legal limbo since prosecutors appealed a ruling on hearsay evidence the day before his trial was to start in July 2010.

Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow lost that appeal but then filed a motion for leave to appeal to the state Supreme Court in August. That petition remains pending.

Peterson is being held on a $20 million bond. His attorneys contend he should be free while waiting on a prosecution appeal.

One of Peterson's attorneys, Joseph "Shark" Lopez, said it is extremely difficult to win a defendant's release above the level of the trial court and that the state Supreme Court's decision was not a surprise.

"The attorneys expected it but the public didn't," Lopez.

Peterson's self-proclaimed "lead attorney," Joel Brodsky, who has been in Peterson's camp for each of the five failed attempts to get the disgraced former Bolingbrook cop out of jail, failed to return calls for comment.

Charles B. Pelkie, spokesman for the Will County State's Attorney's Office, declined to comment on the state Supreme Court decision.

Peterson's slain third wife was found drowned in a dry bathtub in March 2004. The state police investigated her death and determined she was the victim of a freak bathing accident.

The state police stuck to this story until Peterson's next wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished in October 2007. The state police then abruptly reversed course, deciding that Savio was the victim of a homicide and charging Peterson with murdering her.

Stacy Peterson remains missing. The state police consider her case a "potential homicide" and named Drew Peterson the sole suspect in their investigation.

Despite this proclamation, the state police have not gone so far as to charge Peterson with harming her.

Peterson has been held in virtual solitary confinement throughout his stay in the county jail. Despite this lengthy incarceration, Lopez said Peterson has fared well in captivity.

"You can't get an innocent man down," he said.