Joliet, I L—Retired Bolingbrook police sergeant, Drew Peterson recently convicted of murder is now serving a 38 year sentence that seems to guarantee he dies in an Illinois prison.  The conviction was obtained through tainted hearsay evidence banned in America since the adoption of our Bill of Rights .  Americans have lost or seen liberty watered down, as right after right is destroyed with unlawful searches, arms prohibitions, Due Process and free speech abuses.   Hearsay evidence in court trials is something out of the Third Reich , not a free nation. Whatever you may think about Drew Peterson he would never have been convicted without the outrage of hearsay evidence being used against him.  Peterson was denied the Constitutional right to confront witnesses testifying against him.  If this happened to him it can happen to anyone.  Prosecutors can now convict anyone they choose for anything they want.  We fought wars to prevent what...

Lead lawyer, Joel Brodsky Chicago, IL —The Drew Peterson Inquisition was an un-American legal experience.   Trial by unprecedented hearsay testimony rather than evidence doomed Peterson to an adverse verdict.   This was to satisfy the lynch mob mentality that dictated the predetermined result.    There were no less that six lawyers defending Drew Peterson.  That was a recipe for dysfunction, anger and loathing.  I’ve seen it before even when the results were victorious such as in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.  When the stakes are high each lawyer has different ideas and sometimes the mixture of ideas become incredibly caustic.  As a criminal defense investigator and veteran of numerous murder trials I had my own ideas about Peterson’s defense direction.  I did not get to vote but sensed a disaster in the making, not from legal strategy but by the shocking perversion of the way this criminal trial was conducted. I kn...

Drew Peterson    Photo by Paul Huebl Joliet, IL —A jury convicted retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson of murder yesterday.   Peterson very publicly proclaimed his innocence and in the process became an absolute public pariah.   The media he used to assert his innocence redundantly exposed Peterson’s troubled marriages with much younger women.  The self-generated publicity backfired. Police and prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to take action against Peterson under existing law.   There was no way to proceed with a prosecution. Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow quickly lobbied a special legislative bill that would retroactively allow him to use normally outlawed hearsay testimony as evidence in court.  Additionally, it was a special law that was designed and promulgated just for the prosecution of him and was given the popular moniker of The Drew Peterson Law . The Constitution provides thre...

Drew Peterson     Photo by Paul Huebl Joliet, IL —I present to my readers the actual Drew Peterson trial transcript of trial testimony that's attached below. But first a few words. In the  trial of retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson the testimony of divorce lawyer Harry Smith tells a really sordid story through unprecedented hearsay that does not belong in any American courtroom.  Smith said that the young missing wife of Drew Peterson, Stacy Peterson called him for advice on divorcing Peterson and grabbing his assets.  She told Smith that she wanted to use information she claimed would implicate Peterson in Kathleen Savio’s death as leverage to get a large cash payout.  Stacy wanted to Blackmail her husband. Smith had no business even talking with Stacy at all since he had an obvious conflict of interest.  If Smith is telling the truth here, why did Smith not do his duty and call the cops?   He had no ...

Like vampires risen from the dead,  Len Wawczak and his wife, Paula Stark Bolingbrook, IL--Len Wawczak , 45, and his wife, Paula Stark , 40, are a couple of deadbeats.  They were and still are desperate for cash.  They were involved court collection lawsuits and filed Bankruptcy just before retired Bolingbrook police sergeant, Drew Peterson was charged with murder.   When the Drew Peterson investigation went high profile the tabloids came to town and provided some short-term financial hope for this troubled pair.  They had known Peterson so they put themselves out for the media and police as spies.    This pair claimed they could get Peterson to implicate himself in criminal activity on tape.  Police wired this couple for months and despite numerous recorded conversations with Peterson they completely failed to trap the retired cop. They pair lied to various media organizations claiming that they had trapped Pete...

Drew Peterson    Photo by Paul Huebl  Joliet, IL --Lawyers for Accused retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson rested their case today.  There’s no reason for Peterson to testify because everyone knows what he has to say.  He formally declined to do so.   Prosecutors get yet another bite ate the apple putting on their hired gun, expert witnesses to cancel out Peterson’s.   The defense will cross-examine but the tricky part will by for prosecutors not to punish the jury with the total duplication of their murder speculation. Throughout the day both sides will offer up jury instructions to the court.  The rub here is addressing the barrage of never before admitted hearsay evidence brought on by the new Drew Peterson Law.  The judge may have a few instructions of his own.  Next come the final arguments beginning with the prosecutor claiming they’ve proven their case, “beyond a reasonable doubt.”  That’...

Drew Peterson   Photo by Paul Huebl Joliet, IL —The prosecution in the murder trial of retired Bolingbrook, IL police sergeant Drew Peterson is taking its last gasp.  The Illinois Legislature put their foot on the scales of justice by enacting the, “Drew Peterson Hearsay Law.”   That allowed gossip rather than sworn direct testimony be used as evidence in this trial.  They still, have yet to make a case for murder. They put up two forensic experts that were convinced that Kathleen Savio was murdered based on their re-examination of remains that had been decaying in a grave for over three years.  They may be right but it’s only their best guess and speculation. Of course there is the original investigation and autopsy on fresh remains that were determined to be the result of an accidental death.  We can’t now guess that if the first group of investigators and experts did a better job what the results might have been.  It is what it...

Drew Peterson   Photo by Paul Huebl Joliet, IL—Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow made a non-stop mess of his questionable effort to destroy Retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson .  He knows that while gossip and hate may be over the top, real evidence of murder and Peterson’s possible involvement is almost non-existent. At best it can be shown that Peterson was a lousy husband and that Kathleen Savio was on a campaign to grab the marital assets of her failed marriage. She was an angry and scorned woman. Savio had her emotional problems and was taking or in some cases not taking drugs prescribed to her to keep her under control. It's also reasonable to believe that Peterson said some ugly things about and to Savio.  Divorces seldom bring out the best behavior of those involved.  The biggest problem I have is calling Savio’s death a murder.   Aside from the original investigation and autopsy are the total lack of signs...

Drew Peterso   Photo by Paul Huebl Joliet, IL —The murder trial of Drew Peterson is not about physical evidence but a relationship gone bad, through the subjective mouths of people that hate the accused. Was Kathleen Savio a victim of an accident or murder?  That is the first question that needs to be answered and we can only take a wild guess as to the answer.  We really don’t know because nobody saw what happened and there is no reliable way to reconstruct whatever happened in that bathtub.  Grandstanding experts are not clairvoyant and neither is prosecutor James Glasgow . If we want to insist it was in fact a murder than we have to determine who was responsible.  There are really two potential suspects we know about.  Drew Peterson who conveniently was in a divorce/property contest with Savio seems logical.  What about Savio’s new boy toy?   We know Savio and her new lover had an argument at the time of her death. We also ...

Drew Peterson   Photo by Paul Huebl Joliet, IL—Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow has painted himself in a legal corner.  He’s trapped in a no win case where his theory is the cops investigating the case were incompetent.  Glasgow is now trying to sell a jury his theory that some more of his cops say the first crew mistook a murder for an accident.   The physical evidence has not changed.  There is still no significant evidence that indicates Kathleen Savio was even murdered or who may have killed her.  We all know that bathtubs are deadly because healthy people do slip and fall in them.  I think we’ve all had a close call or two.  The problem here is Savio had a head wound and those all bleed profusely.  There was no blood shed outside of the tub.  There were no signs of a struggle.  The wound could have been easily been caused by contact while falling with any hard surface.   We have an angry and ...

Kathleen Savio Death Scene Joliet, IL—Retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson is on trial for his life.   He was in the middle of a protracted and difficult divorce from Kathleen Savio .    Their marriage was problematic perhaps because of Savio’s mental illness and state of emotional turmoil. We have to first get past the difficult hurdle of proving Savio’s death was not just a tragic accident that happened while she was locked in the safety of her own home.     Savio changed the locks specifically to keep Drew Peterson out.   Savio was prescribed the controversial drug, Zoloft to help her function under the circumstances.   The drug is commonly used to treat Bi-Polar disorder and other mental disorders.   The prosecution wants to use hearsay evidence of what others are now claiming Savio said.   Since Savio was an emotional mess and was going through a stressful divorce it’s only common sense that she said some...

Drew Peterson       Photo by Paul Huebl Joliet, IL—Judge Edward Burmila angrily chastised the prosecution for their “low blow” making it clear that their conduct was deliberate and designed to deny the retired Bolingbrook IL police sergeant a fair trial.    The judge denied the defense request for a Mistrial and now double jeopardy is firmly attached if for no other reason on the judge’s comments to the jury alone. Burmila tried to resolve the issue with an inappropriate compromise solution to strike the entire testimony of a witness.   The Peterson defense team turned that down simply because this was an all or noting proposition.   Burmila apparently struck a portion of the testimony from the record but that action was a woefully inadequate remedy for this intentional prosecutorial misconduct.     The Peterson trial is in such a shambles now, that no appeals court could ever affirm Judge Burmila’s denial of the mistrial...