U.S. & World News

(CBS) A defense attorney has entered a not guilty plea for former Illinois police officer Drew Peterson in the 2004 death of Peterson's third wife.

Peterson stood silently in court Monday, wearing a blue jail jumpsuit and shackles.

He's been in custody since May 7, when he was arrested near his Bolingbrook home on first-degree murder charges in the death of Kathleen Savio.

Savio's death was initially ruled an accident but the case was reopened after Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, disappeared in 2007. Peterson has denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors filed a motion at the hearing asking for a new judge. State's Attorney James Glascow didn't give a reason, and court recessed while another judge was called to handle rest of the hearing.

Attorneys for Peterson are expected to make a bid to lower his $20 million bond.

In an interview on the CBS Early Show, Peterson attorney Joel Brodsky said there is "absolutely no evidence that Drew did anything wrong, or anything at all, regarding Kathleen Savio's death."

Savio was found dead in a dry bathtub on March 1, 2004. Her death was initially ruled an accident, but her body was exhumed in 2007 and her demise was reclassified as a homicide staged to look like an accident.

The exhumation followed the disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, who vanished in October 2007. Peterson is also a suspect in her disappearance and suspected homicide.

Peterson is in protective custody at the Will County Jail, instead of being held with other prisoners, Brodsky said.

"He's Being treated well, and he's being taken care of," said Peterson attorney Reem Odeh.

"It's a little bit boring, but much better than normal jail circumstances," Brodsky added.

As prosecutors try to put him away, Peterson's words could play a big role even if he never takes the stand.
Peterson never shied from the media that has followed his every move since Stacy vanished and he became a suspect in Savio's killing.
In fact, he's seemed to relish the spotlight, often offering reporters a joke or smart-aleck remark -- like smiling and calling his handcuffs "bling" as he was led to his first court appearance earlier this month.
And that, attorneys say, could be one of Peterson's biggest problems.
"If one wife goes missing and (another) wife is dead, those aren't usually the subject of jokes," said Roy Black, a defense attorney whose clients have included Rush Limbaugh and William Kennedy Smith. "People are going to think this is a very bizarre person, who's more likely to have committed murder than someone who is in mourning."
Marilyn Brenneman, a senior deputy prosecutor in Seattle's King County, once won a murder conviction after she showed a jury a video of a news conference given by the man she was prosecuting in a drowning death.
"We used it to show his attitude was blase," she said. "He was kind of wooden and didn't show any emotion. ... That is not really an appropriate response."
Defense attorney Mark Geragos has seen what a defendant's own words can do to a case -- starting with one of his most famous clients, Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, after a trial in which jurors watched three television interviews given by Peterson before he retained Geragos.
The interviews included Scott Peterson saying he told police about his affair with another woman the first night his wife was reported missing and saying he told his mistress the truth about being married within several days of the disappearance. Neither was true. And by the time those clips played at trial, jurors knew from other testimony they were watching Scott Peterson lie.
"Some of the most compelling evidence the jury can see is prejudicial but unfortunately it's compelling," Geragos said.
If the Scott Peterson case is exhibit A in how their own words can hurt defendants, then the case of Cynthia Sommer is exhibit B.
Sommer was convicted in San Diego in 2007 of first-degree murder in the slaying of her husband after prosecutors based much of their case on the idea that Sommer did not behave like a grieving widow after her husband's death.
The jury heard about how Sommer used insurance money to pay for breast implants, took part in wet T-shirt contests and had casual sex with other men.
Then a year later, a judge dismissed the charges that Sommer poisoned her husband with arsenic after new tests revealed there were no arsenic in his system.
"This case was all about a grieving unbecoming of a widow," said Sommer's attorney, Allen Bloom. "That's all it was, it was a lifestyle, it was painting her with a scarlet letter."
Even if the videos of Drew Peterson's arrival in court or of his interviews don't make it into trial, they can still have an effect.
"Whether it's admissible or not is one thing ..." said Joe Tacopina, a prominent defense attorney in New York. "But it's certainly admissible in the court of public opinion, which is your jury pool."
Peterson's attorney said joking around is how Peterson deals with stress.
"In a tight, uncomfortable situation, you're gonna get humor and wisecracks," said attorney Joel Brodsky, who is expected to ask a judge Monday to reduce Peterson's bond, which is now $20 million.
Peterson said he wouldn't behave any other way.
"Would it be better if I hid my head down and tried to hide my face and hunched and had tears in my eyes?" he asked NBC's Matt Lauer during a telephone interview aired on the "Today" show Friday. "I mean, no, that's just not me."
Instead, from almost the day Stacy Peterson vanished in October 2007, Peterson has done things like joke about his fourth wife's menstrual cycles and agree to take part in a radio show's suggested "Win a Date With Drew" contest.
Brodsky said he is confident that if Peterson stands trial the jury will do the right thing.
"My experience is that juries usually work very hard to put away biases and look at the facts," he said.
Others, though, aren't so sure.
Bloom said even though most people who sit on juries want to be fair, they can still end up being swayed by things that have nothing to do with evidence.
"They say they won't, but they can be impacted by innuendo, suspicion, speculation and moral judgment," he said.
That explains why Peterson reminds Black of a lawyer who displayed a mounted fish on his wall.
"It had a sign that said, 'I wouldn't be here either if I kept my mouth shut,"' said Black, chuckling.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)