Peterson Could Have Police Pension Stripped

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 7, 2013 8:50PM

The Bolingbrook Police Pension Board has begun looking into whether they can revoke Drew Peterson’s pension by hiring an outside attorney to investigate whether it has the authority to do so following his September 2012 murder conviction of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

According to the Tribune, the five-member panel hired public pension expert Charles Atwell to review trial transcripts to see if Peterson’s conviction can somehow lead to forfeiture of his $79,000 annual pension. Peterson’s attorney, Steven Greenberg told the Sun-Times he’s aware of the investigation but believes it’s groundless, as his conviction is not tied to official police misconduct.

Peterson’s pension cannot be revoked without a public hearing where he could call witnesses, with board members acting as jurors as well as a judge. Under state law the pension board could strip Peterson of his pension if it determines he used his law enforcement powers or skills to kill Savio. Prosecutors argued during the trial one of the reasons Peterson murdered Savio was because he didn’t want her to receive his pension benefits.