Savio’s family files lawsuit claiming Drew Peterson beat, drowned third wife April 22, 2009 –
www.suntimes.com/news/peterson/1538456,CST-NWS-drew22web.article
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter/drozek@suntimes.com
Drew Peterson beat and drowned third wife Kathleen Savio in her bathtub in 2004, then improperly seized control of her financial assets, her relatives contend in a wrongful death lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The suit also criticizes the original investigation into Savio’s death — which initially was classified an accidental drowning — and contends that Peterson’s now missing fourth wife, Stacy, knew immediately that Peterson had killed Savio.
The civil suit filed in Will County seeks financial damages from Peterson but also is intended to keep attention on the 55-year-old former Bolingbrook cop, who has not been charged criminally with either Savio’s death or Stacy Peterson’s 2007 disappearance.
“We want to let him know he’s front and center on this — and one way or the other, he’ll be taken to task,” said John Q. Kelly, a New York lawyer who represented Nicole Brown Simpson’s relatives in a successful suit against her former husband, O.J. Simpson.
The four-count lawsuit by Savio’s relatives was in part timed to coincide with the expected conclusion of a grand jury investigation that since November 2007 has been probing Savio’s death and Stacy Peterson’s disappearance, Kelly said.
Filing the suit now, Kelly said, means the civil case likely won’t interfere with whatever action — if any — is taken by the grand jury.
The allegations in the suit include blunt claims that Peterson deliberately murdered the 40-year-old Savio on March 1, 2004 so he wouldn’t have to split marital property and assets with his former wife. The couple had finalized their divorce in October 2003 but were still battling over how to divide their assets.
“Peterson purposefully, knowingly and intentionally caused Kathleen Savio bodily injury and death by beating and drowning her,” the lawsuit contends.
On the day of Savio’s funeral, Peterson skipped a reception for family and friends — instead he drove a truck to Savio’s Bolingbrook home and took personal possessions he wasn’t entitled to have, the suit alleges.
It also contends that the coroner’s jury that initially ruled Savio’s drowning accidental heard testimony from an Illinois State Police trooper who hadn’t seen Savio’s body, hadn’t attended the autopsy and never interviewed Drew Peterson. A police officer also served on the coroner’s jury and vouched for Peterson’s character during deliberations, the suit contends.
Stacy Peterson learned right away that Drew Peterson had killed Savio, the suit claims, citing information Stacy Peterson allegedly shared later with her pastor. That information included a description of how Drew Peterson allegedly described striking Savio on the back of her head prior to her drowning to make her death “look like an accident,” the suit contends.
Drew Peterson declined to comment Tuesday on the suit. His attorney couldn’t be reached for comment.
The civil suit won’t have “any impact at all on the criminal investigation,” which remains open and active, a spokesman for Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said.
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