Last week, Drew Peterson's son was suspended from his job at the Oak Brook Police Department after allegedly hiding his incarcerated father's guns in his home. Now, Peterson--who goes to trial this year for the 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio and is the main suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife--is expressing outrage over the treatment of his children.
According to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed, Peterson's attorney Joel Brodsky gave her a letter his client wrote from jail. Sounding a bit like Rod Blagojevich, Peterson opines about being "taken" from his family and refers to his prosecutors as "obsessive thugs." He also calls the suspension of his son the result of "malicious prosecution."
"Its been almost three years since my wife Stacy went missing with the Illinois State Police and the Will County States Attorney's Office launching probably the largest, most obsessive and expensive investigation in U.S. history," Peterson writes. "The investigation has thus far turned up rumors, gossip hearsay and out right lies and more recently the bodies of a lot of raccoons and possums all at the expense of the hard working Illinois tax payer."
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"I was taken from my family without being able to say goodbye to my kids with my kids being also taken into custody and turned over to The Department of Children and family Services. This process would be scary for an adult much less a four and five year old. My 31 year old son Stephen, an Oak Brook Police Officer, stepped up and took custody of my four kids just after having a child of his own. My son Stephen is a good man and a dedicated father and policeman." (Read the entire letter here.)
Stephen Peterson has been suspended five times in his six-year career at the Oak Brook Police Department.
Most notably, he was chastised for driving an Oak Brook squad car to a grand jury investigating Stacy Peterson's disappearance, where he testified in full police uniform. He has also been suspended for running improper background checks on village employees and making rude comments to citizens.
In his letter, Peterson writes that he believes the Illinois State Police and the Will County State's Attorney's Office are behind these charges against his son in order to "get at" him. He also says he plans on "devoting all my resources that I have available to fight this atrocity against my son."
This is the second letter from Peterson that has been printed by Sneed--who has been criticized for providing a "public, one-sided forum" from the murder suspect. Chicagoist editor Marcus Gilmer writes that the Sun-Times is doing Brodsky's job for him by providing his client a "pulpit from which to preach without any checks and balances."