RE: Drew Peterson, "He’s going to Kill Me, I just know it!"

Drew Peterso   Photo by Paul Huebl

Joliet, IL—The murder trial of Drew Peterson is not about physical evidence but a relationship gone bad, through the subjective mouths of people that hate the accused.

Was Kathleen Savio a victim of an accident or murder?  That is the first question that needs to be answered and we can only take a wild guess as to the answer.  We really don’t know because nobody saw what happened and there is no reliable way to reconstruct whatever happened in that bathtub.  Grandstanding experts are not clairvoyant and neither is prosecutor James Glasgow.

If we want to insist it was in fact a murder than we have to determine who was responsible.  There are really two potential suspects we know about.  Drew Peterson who conveniently was in a divorce/property contest with Savio seems logical.  What about Savio’s new boy toy?   We know Savio and her new lover had an argument at the time of her death. We also know she did not want to let him sleep over that fateful night. 

As much as anyone that hates Drew Peterson must admit is that the cause of death is pure speculation.  If indeed it was a murder speculation comes into play once again.  This is compounded by the undisputed fact that Peterson did not have the key to the house involved in this inquiry.

As for the morbid statements of fear, despair and horror some people attribute to Savio I’ve heard them well over a thousand times.   You see as a private investigator I served perhaps three or four thousand court Orders of Protection.  I’ve heard the petitioners first hand making allegations of every kind.

Most are not old enough to remember what it was like for divorce litigants before the “no fault” days of matrimonial law.  Up until the 1970’s every divorce petition contained wild accusations of assault with deadly weapons.  These had to be verified under oath!   Without such a statement no divorce was granted.  Any divorce lawyer from that sad time can verify this.

To get an Order of Protection today the petitioner must swear under oath that they were threatened, assaulted or had their property damaged by their former spouse or live in companion.  The allegations fly like huge flocks or migratory birds escaping the cold.

Many allegations connected with the petitions are made only to curry favor with property, child custody and financial support issues.  Often the allegations were designed to insure that the petitioner obtains or maintains exclusive use of the residence involved.   The sad truth is a substantial percentage of these petitions are based on simple perjury. 

Revenge by jilted spouses and lovers is also a serious factor in those kinds of legal proceedings.  Again the accusations fly.

Many divorce litigants want to involve their close friends and relatives as witnesses to reinforce their tales or woe in court.  They dramatize everything that can to that end.

I don’t want to suggest that the petitioners are always lying.  Over the years I have had one client murdered by her husband and another shot while working in a Scottsdale dental office as an assistant.  Many times there are valid claims made.  

That statistic comes out to two in several thousand cases.  Allegations made during divorce cases are just not very compelling or credible.  I’m glad to report that thousands of women who personally told me they would be killed are still alive today. 

I don’t want to not suggest that spouses don’t make threats of violence because they do.  The good news here is that only a tiny percentage of these threats ever amount to more than hurtful words.

The hearsay testimony being offered the Drew Peterson case has no real value to determine what may have happened to Kathleen Savio.   Remember Savio has never been placed under oath before her alleged statements were made.  Unfortunately taking an oath does little to prevent people from telling tales.

The guilt or innocence of Drew Peterson should be based on reliable physical evidence or eyewitness testimony.  In the State of Illinois vs. Drew Peterson there is neither.   

Drew Peterson’s Prosecutors Claim Their Cops are Incompetent, but were they really?

Drew Peterson   Photo by Paul Huebl

Joliet, IL—Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow has painted himself in a legal corner.  He’s trapped in a no win case where his theory is the cops investigating the case were incompetent.  Glasgow is now trying to sell a jury his theory that some more of his cops say the first crew mistook a murder for an accident.   The physical evidence has not changed.  There is still no significant evidence that indicates Kathleen Savio was even murdered or who may have killed her. 

We all know that bathtubs are deadly because healthy people do slip and fall in them.  I think we’ve all had a close call or two.  The problem here is Savio had a head wound and those all bleed profusely.  There was no blood shed outside of the tub.  There were no signs of a struggle.  The wound could have been easily been caused by contact while falling with any hard surface.  

We have an angry and now dead woman Glasgow labeled as a victim who was fighting over marital assets in her divorce.   Savio hired a locksmith to change the locks on that home she had exclusive control over.   That made it nearly impossible for Drew Peterson to slip in and do any harm to Savio.  

We also have a group of relatives of Savio that have sued Peterson in hope of gaining control over his property and other assets.  They have made themselves witnesses to alleged hearsay statements.  If they can frame Peterson and get him convicted, they win the gold!

Then there is Fox News, Geraldo Rivera and a well paid, grandstanding forensic pathologist, Michael Badden.  Years later, Badden performs a third autopsy on Savio's decayed remains and now guesses her death to be a murder.   There are numerous holes in Badden’s finding but he got tons of free publicity.

The exact cause and manner of Savio’s death is at best still undetermined.  It does look like an accident in every respect. 

What we don’t have is a single shred of physical evidence, a witness to the event under review or a confession from the suspect.

We have an audience of true crime story harpies that scream that Peterson’s 30 years in law enforcement made him an expert at getting away with murder.  These folks need to get a life. 

Peterson had a habit of dumping wives once they got, fat, old or crabby.  He replaced the old ones with very young women.  Some say he looked for his new wives at local high school proms. That behavior is offensive to a large segment of the population and Peterson may well deserve scorn for that failing.

Prosecutors routinely put their strongest witnesses on first and then hope their secondary witnesses can fill whatever gaps are left.  We’ve had five days of the state’s case and we’re still patiently waiting for anything at all compelling. 

The state has made two deliberate attempts to cause a Mistrial because it’s obvious that they know they can’t make even a weak showing.   They want to blame their failure on the judge rather than to accept responsibility.

We are still in America where we have fought war after war to preserve our Bill of Rights.  We cannot let Glasgow and an army of true crime harpies frame anyone for murder.   Peterson has been locked up without a trial for nearly four years.  It’s time to let him go since there is no real evidence.   

If we can destroy Drew Peterson with a bogus prosecution than any one of us can be next.     

Why the Drew Peterson Mistrial Motion Denial is a Win for the Defense

Drew Peterson       Photo by Paul Huebl

Joliet, IL—Judge Edward Burmila angrily chastised the prosecution for their “low blow” making it clear that their conduct was deliberate and designed to deny the retired Bolingbrook IL police sergeant a fair trial.  

The judge denied the defense request for a Mistrial and now double jeopardy is firmly attached if for no other reason on the judge’s comments to the jury alone.

Burmila tried to resolve the issue with an inappropriate compromise solution to strike the entire testimony of a witness.  The Peterson defense team turned that down simply because this was an all or noting proposition. 

Burmila apparently struck a portion of the testimony from the record but that action was a woefully inadequate remedy for this intentional prosecutorial misconduct.   

The Peterson trial is in such a shambles now, that no appeals court could ever affirm Judge Burmila’s denial of the mistrial.   I doubt that they’d ever allow for another trial under the circumstances. 

It’s so obvious to the legal community that the state instigated a mistrial because they are unable to proceed.  For Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, it is the easiest and cheapest way to fold his cards and somehow save face. 

In two days there were two egregious violations by the prosecution that were unforgivable.   Will County prosecutors have forever tainted the jury. 

I know that prosecutors are dealing with witnesses that have blabbed numerous conflicting and ever more embellished versions of their stories to anyone who would listen.   It will take a bus to transport potential impeachment witnesses in to testify once the defense begins. The prosecution witnesses have enjoyed their attachment to this celebrity driven case to the chagrin of prosecutors that now must try and rehabilitate them. It will prove impossible.

Too many of the state’s witnesses are unreliable, drug dependent convicted criminals but it’s likely that this critical information will be withheld from the jury. 

Additionally several of the state’s witnesses will gain financially only if Peterson is convicted.  We all know how money corrupts.   Might some of the near-do-well, heavily tattooed and pierced relatives of Kathleen Savio  be on the road to perjure their way to wealth? 

Stay tuned because there are more fireworks to come!