May 15, 2009 6:25 pm US/Central
Drew Peterson Defends Flippant Remarks
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) ―
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Former Bolingbrook, Ill., police sergeant Drew Peterson arrives at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 8, 2009, for his arraignment on charges of first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his former wife Kathleen Savio, who was found in
M. Spender Green/AP
Former suburban Chicago police officer Drew Peterson defended his apparently cavalier attitude about his arrest in the death of his third wife, saying that acting in a way people might consider more appropriate is "not me."
"There's no book written on how I'm supposed to act," Peterson told NBC's Matt Lauer during an interview aired on Friday's "Today" show.
"Would it be better if I hid my head down and tried to hide my face and hunched and had tears in my eyes? I mean, no, that's just not me," he said by phone from the jail in Will County, where he's been held since his
May 7 arrest in the slaying of Kathleen Savio.
Since shortly after the 2007 disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, Peterson has often made jokes to the media. He affected the same demeanor after he was named a suspect in
Stacy Peterson's disappearance and after Savio's body was exhumed.
That
continued after his arrest, when he joked with reporters, calling his jail-issue jump suit "spiffy" and the handcuffs "bling."
Peterson reiterated to Lauer what he has long said, that he had nothing to do with either the disappearance of Stacy Peterson or Savio's 2004 death.
Peterson, who has maintained he believes Stacy Peterson left him for another man, told Lauer he believes she is alive and most likely living outside Illinois.
He also said that while his two teenage sons know about his arrest, his younger children, ages 4 and 5, do not. He said one of his adults sons who is caring for all of them, has told the youngest children, "I'm just with the police right now, helping them."
Peterson is scheduled to appear in court Monday. His attorney is expected to ask the judge reduce his
bond, which is now $20 million.
Peterson is accused of killing Savio, who was found dead in her bathtub weeks before the two were scheduled to go to court for a trial to determine how their property would be divided.
Savio's death, originally ruled a suicide, was reclassified as a homicide after her body was exhumed and an autopsy conducted following Stacy Peterson's disappearance.
One aspect of the investigation into the slaying is to determine how much money Peterson stood to lose had that trial taken place. According to Friday's Chicago Tribune, Peterson could have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and Savio hoped to get half of his pension of $6,000 a month.
An attorney who represented Savio told the paper he had turned over to Will County prosecutors subpoenas pertaining to financial matters, including the pension, that he had issued to Peterson days before Savio's death.
The Will County state's attorney's office would not comment on the investigation.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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