State, Peterson team fight over judge
JOLIET — Prosecutors bounced the judge from Drew Peterson's murder case, but lawyers for the alleged wife-killer are fighting to get him back on the bench.
At Peterson's arraignment Monday, State's Attorney James Glasgow accused Judge Richard Schoenstedt of "prejudice against the state" and moved to have him taken off the case.
(Liz Wilkinson Allen/Staff Photographer)
(Liz Wilkinson Allen/Staff Photographer)
• Special section: The Peterson Case
"I think at this point I should step down and have another judge sit in my stead," Schoenstedt said as he made way for Judge Gerald Kinney to preside over Peterson's initial appearance with counsel.
Kinney was in no hurry to get things under way, saying, "I haven't done much of anything in this matter."
And nothing much will get done until Thursday at the earliest, when Kinney will possibly hold a hearing to determine whether Glasgow can get Schoenstedt off the case.
Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, says he can't.
"It's nothing but gamesmanship," Brodsky said of Glasgow's motion for a new judge. "I think it shows the state does not want to try this case on its merits."
Brodsky called the prosecution's motion "extremely rare" and said it demonstrates the "weakness" of the state's case.
Peterson allegedly drowned his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in March 2004. Savio turned up dead in a dry bathtub, but the state police found nothing untoward about her demise until Peterson's next wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished in October 2007.
The state police believe Stacy may also have been killed and list Peterson as their sole suspect in her "potential homicide," but have yet to arrest him in connection with her disappearance.
The state police did take Peterson into custody on weapons charges in May 2008, alleging that the barrel of an assault rifle he claimed to use in the line of duty was less than the state-mandated length.
Schoenstedt was the judge in the weapons case. He dismissed the charges after prosecutors refused to surrender internal communications from the state's attorney's office and turn them over to Peterson's defense team.
Charles B. Pelkie, the spokesman for the state's attorney's office, declined to comment on Glasgow's reasons for knocking Schoentstedt off the case.
Brodsky had planned on trying to get Peterson's $20 million bond reduced, but never got a chance once Glasgow acted to have the judges switched.
Possibly aware that he would be returning to jail, Peterson put on a much different face from his last court appearance, the day after his May 7 arrest.
On his way into the courthouse that day, Peterson clowned for the cameras and hollered jokes at reporters. But Monday, Peterson remained silent, and even left it to Brodsky to reply "not guilty" when asked how he pleaded.
Still, the new Drew let his serious side slip long enough to "taunt" the relatives of his murdered wife, at least according to Savio's nephew, Michael Lisak.
"He was waving at my mom, just continuously looking at my family, the Savio family, almost in a mocking way," Lisak said.
Brodsky, who during the hearing was granted daily, face-to-face visits with Peterson in the jail, claimed to be unaware of this.
"In court, he was appropriate," said Brodsky, who was joined by attorneys Reem Odeh of Chicago and Andrew Abood, of East Lansing, Mich., in appearing for Peterson Monday. Brodsky promised a fourth lawyer, John Paul Carroll of Naperville, also would be coming aboard to defend Peterson.
Savio's half-brother, Nick Savio, was glad Peterson remained behind bars.
"He should sit in jail, as far as I'm concerned," said Nick Savio, who slammed the state police for not arresting Peterson until five years, and an ill-fated second marriage for Peterson, after his aunt died.
"I believe the state police stood together," he said. "I believe it was a cover-up. Drew knew a lot of people. He had a lot of money."
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