CHIEF: PROSECUTE DREW PETERSON

WITH THE POLICE AND FIRE BOARD REFUSING TO HEAR THE RESULTS OF AN INTERNAL AFFAIRS PROBE, BOLINGBROOK'S TOP COP SAYS HE WILL TAKE HIS CASE TO STATE'S ATTORNEY JAMES GLASGOW.

BOLINGBROOK -- Police Chief Ray McGury can't fire Drew Peterson, so now he's trying to get him arrested.

The village's fire and police commission refused on Tuesday to hear McGury present the results of an internal investigation of Peterson, a former sergeant under suspicion for the disappearance of his fourth wife and the object of public scrutiny for the mysterious bathtub drowning of wife No. 3.

"I wanted him fired," the chief said.

So McGury plans to take his case to Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, and if he has his way, it will happen today.

The police department launched the internal affairs investigation of Peterson sometime after the fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, was reported missing, and before he was suspended without pay Nov. 9, said Lt. Ken Teppel.

It was Peterson's second suspension in less than three months. The first was for "exercising a serious lack of judgment regarding a police pursuit that should never have occurred," McGury said.

Information developed by state police during the investigation of Stacy's disappearance was handed off to the Bolingbrook department, prompting the internal affairs probe, Teppel said. But the internal investigation was unrelated to the search for Stacy, which state detectives have now classified as a "potential homicide" case.

"This is more severe internal violations of general orders," McGury said of Peterson's alleged misdeeds. He said they were committed over the past 12 months, and he plans to try to persuade Glasgow to file criminal charges over the undisclosed transgressions.

Drew Peterson dodged his termination by resigning from the force Nov. 12, the day before he was to appear before internal affairs investigators, Teppel said. Someone "purporting to be his brother" tendered the resignation letter, McGury said.

The police pension board last week awarded Drew Peterson a monthly stipend of $6,067.71, effectively allowing his retirement despite McGury's refusal to accept his resignation. The 29-year veteran of the department will receive three quarters of his salary for the rest of his life.

Peterson answered his door of his Pheasant Chase Court home late Tuesday. He blamed his predicament on others and referred further questions to his attorney.

Besides the internal investigation yielding information on allegedly unseemly on-the-job behavior, state police have named Drew Peterson a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, a case they are calling a "potential homicide." Also, state police are investigating the March 2004 death of the previous wife, Kathleen Savio.

Savio's body was exhumed from its grave and a pair of autopsies -- one private and one state -sanctioned -- were performed. The forensic pathologist conducting the private autopsy, Michael Baden, concluded Savio was the victim of a homicide.

And on top of this, McGury expressed his disgust with his former sergeant's behavior in the wake of his wife's disappearance.

"I certainly was taken aback by his being masked and having a baseball cap on," McGury said, referring to a stroll Peterson took before assembled media while wearing an American flag bandanna over his face, an NYPD cap low over his eyes and dark sunglasses.

"I certainly was disappointed in the way he acted," the chief said, later adding, "In my mind, he has brought shame on the department."

Peterson's antics also have brought death threats to the chief.

"The overall inference, I think, is, 'You're all a bunch of corrupt cops,'" McGury said.

"My resignation's been called for. A petition has been circulated for me to step down," he said. "I'm not going to do that."

The investigation of Stacy's Peterson's disappearance and suspected demise, as well as the death of Savio continued Tuesday with no further information proffered by state police. A grand jury reportedly will reconvene today with one of Peterson's neighbors, Steve Carcerano, expected to testify.

Carcerano has claimed he was the first to find Savio's body after a locksmith gained entry to the locked home in 2004.

While McGury said the undisclosed internal violations would not "tip this over to an indictment in either Stacy Peterson or Kathleen Savio," Teppel said he did not know enough about the state police investigation to comment on whether Peterson's behavior could have impeded the current cases.

In the event Peterson's alleged transgressions have tainted unrelated cases, McGury said he would apprise Glasgow.

óúIf there's certain cases that now come up that are now more suspicious," he said, óúhe's certainly got my full cooperation."

Contact Joe Hosey at (815) 729-6054 or jhosey@scn1.com