Appellate Court Gives D-Pete Legal Win

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 27, 2011 2:14PM

An Illinois Appellate Court yesterday ruled against Will County prosecutors in their attempts to use hearsay evidence against Drew Peterson in their case against him.

Attorneys for the former Bolingbrook policeman with the mustache that won't quit called for prosecutors to drop charges against D-Pete in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, now that the Appellate Court ruled that they can't use eight statements supposedly linking Peterson to Savio's murder. Peterson's attorney Joel Brodsky said after the ruling, “If there’s insufficient evidence to prosecute, they ought to do the right thing and drop the case."

The controversial hearsay law was passed by the State Legislature in 2008. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said of the law at the time, "This is a bill that will help prosecutors across the state to utilize the statements made by murder victims . . . that previously would have died with them." Although all signs seemed to point that the bill was passed with Peterson in mind, Glasgow at the time refused to confirm that he would use the law to enter hearsay evidence in his case against Peterson. Both a Will County judge and the 3rd District Appellate Court in Ottawa held hearings on allowing hearsay evidence in the upcoming trial. Both times, the decisions were favorable to Peterson's case.

After yesterday's ruling, Glasgow said he was considering appealing the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court. If that does happen, Glasgow could find himself in the unenviable position of arguing against the law he helped to write, since Will County Judge Stephen White originally ruled against him in 2010, citing the hearsay law.