RANDOLPH COUNTY — In prison for killing his third wife, former Bollingbrook police officer Drew Peterson has been charged with trying to hire a hitman to kill the prosecutor who put him there.

Drew Peterson (photo courtesy of IDOC)
Drew Peterson
(photo courtesy of IDOC)

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan confirms in a press statement that she and Randolph County State’s Attorney Jeremy Walker have filed a two-count criminal information against Peterson, charging him with one count solicitation of murder for hire and one count solicitation of murder.

Peterson has been charged with trying to put a hit on Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, who led the prosecution team in Peterson’s 2012 murder trial.

Madigan says the 61-year-old Peterson made an initial court appearance on Monday, and was informed of the charges against him. He was due for a preliminary hearing on March 3 in Randolph County.

“The charges allege that, between September 2013 and December 2014, the defendant solicited an individual to carry out a murder for hire plot against Will County State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow,” Madigan said.

Madigan said her office is involved in the latest case against Peterson, because Randolph County prosecutors requested her assistance, and Will County prosecutors have an obvious conflict of interest in the case.

Peterson is serving a 38-year prison sentence at Menard Correctional Center in Randolph County. In September 2012, a Will County jury convicted Peterson of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who drowned in a bathtub in March 2004 while the couple was in the midst of a divorce.

Initially, Savio’s death was ruled accidental, but the case was reopened after his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007. A new autopsy ruled Savio’s drowning to be a homicide.

Peterson has been named a suspect in Stacy’s disappearance, but she has never been found, and no charges have been filed.

Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer confirms Peterson is being held in Menard Correctional Center, but notes that in light of Monday’s charges he has been moved to a unit of the prison with additional security.

Shaaer says inmates in the unit where Peterson now resides are much more restricted, in numerous ways, than those housed in other areas of MCC.

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