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Posted: Tuesday, 09 February 2010 6:41AM
Lawyer: Stacy planned to blackmail Peterson
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JOLIET, Ill. (STMW) -- Stacy Peterson hatched a plan to blackmail husband Drew Peterson with the murder of his previous wife, a Wheaton attorney said Monday.
Harry Smith, the lawyer who represented Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, in their divorce, said fourth wife Stacy called him and requested he represent her when she dumped Peterson herself.
Smith said representing two of Peterson's wives in divorces only a couple years apart would be a conflict, and Stacy revealed a chilling secret.
"She told me that Drew was pissed at her because 'he thinks I told (his son) Tom that he killed Kathy,'" Smith said.
But even with a supposedly murderous husband suspicious that she was spreading gossip about how his third wife died, Stacy felt no fear for her own life, he said.
"She told me that she had too much 'expletive' on him at the police department, that she wasn't worried about her own life," Smith said.
Stacy then unveiled her plan for prying money out of Peterson when she gave him the boot.
"Could we get more money if we threatened to tell the police how he killed Kathy?" Smith said Stacy asked him. "I told her she could get arrested."
Smith was testifying on the 14th day of the pivotal hearing to determine what hearsay evidence will allowed at Peterson's upcoming murder trial.
Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, is accused of drowning Savio. State police ruled she died accidently when she slipped and fell in her bathtub in March 2004. They stuck with this story until the next wife, Stacy, vanished three and a half years later.
Smith said he had two phone conversations with Stacy in the five days before she disappeared.
While Peterson faces no charges in connection with Stacy's disappearance, prosecutors are trying to prove he killed her to keep her from testifying against him. If they succeed, statements Stacy made to others can be admitted at Peterson's murder trial.
During Monday's session, Smith joined the growing throng of witnesses who testified that Savio feared for her life and repeatedly said that if she died, it would be at Peterson's hands but appear to be an accident.
Smith also said he relayed this information to state police after Savio died but was ignored.
"I attempted to do what she told me to do," Smith said, recalling how Savio urged him, "If I die, go to the authorities and tell them Drew did it."
Smith said he followed through on these instructions, but the person he spoke with at District 5 state police headquarters "was not prepared for that kind of conversation" and said someone would call him back. Smith said no one ever did.
Smith also testified that Savio told him "Drew had broken into her house. That he was all dressed in black, that he had threatened her with a knife, that he threatened to kill her and make it look like an accident unless she got this divorce going."
Several other witnesses testified to hearing virtually the same story, including former Bolingbrook police Lt. Teresa Kernc, who also took the witness stand Monday.
Kernc, who is now mayor of Diamond, said Savio told her Peterson broke into her house, ambushed her on the stairs and menaced her with a knife.
"Drew Peterson asked her if she was afraid and she said she was," Kernc testified. "She said, 'Go ahead and do what you came here to do. Kill me.'"
But Peterson said "he couldn't hurt her," Kernc said.
Savio waited 13 days before alerting the police to the incident, Kernc testified.
Kernc said she questioned Peterson about the alleged attack but he claimed he had been invited to come over and that he and Savio spoke about their issues for about three hours before she exposed herself and asked him to have sex with her.
Also Monday, Peterson's former friend Ric Mims testified that he stalked Savio at Peterson's request.
Mims, who moved into Peterson's house for the better part of a week after Stacy vanished, also said Peterson asked him to be his hostage if the police came to take him.
"He said, 'I'm going to ask you a really weird question. I'm going to ask you to be a hostage,'" Mims said.
"He didn't want Stacy's family to get the kids. He wanted to keep the police at bay until (Peterson's adult son) Steve got there to take the kids."
Mims went from being Peterson's most vocal supporter to a finger-pointing detractor when he sold an interview about Peterson to the National Enquirer for $17,500.
On the stand, he said he grew suspicious of his friend after talking to former Los Angeles police Detective Mark Fuhrman about the case. Fuhrman, famous for his role in the O.J. Simpson case, was working for Fox News Channel when he arrived in Bolingbrook in November 2007.
"I call it my 'coming to Jesus' meeting," Mims said of his meeting with Fuhrman.
By the end of Monday's testimony, 60 witnesses had taken the stand during the 14-day marathon hearing. Prosecutors said they have another six up their sleeve, and defense attorney Andrew Abood said his side plans to call about 20 more.
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Sun-Times Media Wire Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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