Officials on Monday accused Drew Peterson of trying to hire a hit man to kill Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, the lead prosecutor in Peterson’s murder trial.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Randolph County State’s Attorney Jeremy Walker filed a two-count criminal information against 61-year-old Peterson, charging him with one count of solicitation of murder for hire and one count of solicitation of murder, both Class X felonies.
Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police officer, gained notoriety after his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007. He was convicted in 2012 of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, and sentenced to 38 years in prison.
"It is unfortunate that prosecutors sometimes must deal with allegations of this nature," Glasgow said in a statement. "However, in no way will a threat to my personal safety deter me from the important work I perform as the State’s Attorney on behalf of the citizens of Will County. "
Glasgow said after Peterson was sentenced in the Savio case that he planned to aggresively review the evidence in the Stacy Peterson disappearance and charge Drew Peterson if possible.
Stacy Peterson's sister, Cassandra Cales, said she finds the latest charges shocking because, as an ex-police officer, Peterson should have known he was under scrutiny in the penintentiary.
"For him to get caught, trying to hire somebody in prison to try to kill someone, is wild," she said. "I've always said he's a serial killer with a badge."
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Even now, Cales continues to conduct searches for her sister's body, the last on the anniversary of her disappearance last October.
"I don't know if he'll ever talk about where Stacy is," she said. "Every little thing he does, he still thinks he's above the law. It just shows how he was, and how he still is."
As far as the charges that Peterson wanted Glasgow killed, Cales suggested her former brother-in-law was directing his wrath in the wrong direction.
"He just thinks he's above the law and he can get away with anything," she said. "It's not Glasgow who put him there. He put himself there."
Officials allege the new incident occurred sometime between September 2013 and December 2014. In a late morning press conference, Madigan declined to go into detail about how Peterson planned to carry out the alleged crime, other than saying her office had been a part of the investigation "for several months." She said more details would be revealed at Peterson's March 3 court appearance in Randolph County.
Peterson is being represented in the latest charges by a public defender, Madigan said. If convicted, the solicitation for murder charge carries a 15 to 30 year sentence. The solicitation of murder for hire charge carries a possible 20 to 40 years, Madigan said.
Pam Bosco, the longtime spokesperson for Stacy Peterson's family, told NBC Chicago she's "thankful" for the latest charges.
"It will lead to where Stacy is," she said. "You can only lie and cheat and steal so much. ... Drew has always been above the law. I don’t really think he’ll ever learn.”
Drew Peterson is currently serving his time at the Menard Correctional Center in Randolph County in Southern Illinois. His projected parole date is May 7, 2047, when he'd be 93.
