Judge: Police Can Keep Peterson's Seized Property
posted 5:34 pm Mon December 17, 2007 - JOLIET, Ill.
Attorneys for Drew Peterson had argued previously that authorities have had ample time to examine items seized since Stacy Peterson went missing in late October, but they said Monday that Will County Judge Daniel Rozek's ruling was reasonable. Attorney Joel Brodsky said the judge plans to reconsider the issue next month.
"Forensics are very intricate, detailed," attorney Joel Brodsky said after a five-minute hearing. "It's only been seven weeks and we're happy the judge is going to keep a leash on them."Peterson has been named a suspect in his wife's disappearance, which authorities have called a possible homicide, but he has not been charged. He did not attend Monday's hearing.
Along with the vehicles, the seized property includes four computers belonging to Peterson's children, and he said Monday at his Bolingbrook home that he's been paying $350-$400 a week to rent a car and his kids need a computer for school.
"All I'm looking for is one back," he said of both the computers and vehicles.
"How long does it take to scan the computers?" he added. "You copy the hard drive and you're done with it."
Stacy Peterson was last seen Oct. 28 and was reported missing by her family the next day.
Peterson, a longtime member of the Bolingbrook Police Department until he quit after his wife's disappearance, has denied any involvement in her disappearance. He has said he believes she left him for another man and is alive.
The investigation prompted the exhumation of the body of Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. Prosecutors have said evidence indicates her 2004 death may have been a homicide staged to look like an accident. Results of a new autopsy have not been released. Peterson has not been named a suspect in her death.
Brodsky said Monday he wants a special prosecutor to look into the leaking of information from a grand jury convened in the investigations.
"It is obvious to anyone who watches the television news-based entertainment media, especially certain television cable channels, that there is a serious and continuing leak of information emanating from these special grand jury proceedings concerning Sgt. Drew Peterson," Brodsky wrote in a letter to Rozek.
Will County state's attorney's spokesman Charles Pelkie called the letter "an attempt to discredit the grand jury proceedings."
"There's no basis in fact, no basis in reality for what he is requesting here," Pelkie said.
By DON BABWIN Associated Press Writer
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