According to Bolingbrook Police Chief Ray McGury, an internal investigation conducted over the last few weeks turned up enough information against Drew Peterson’s on-duty work performance within the last 12 months that the department filed charges with the Bolingbrook Fire and Police Board seeking his termination.

The board accepted Peterson’s resignation Tuesday Jharris 11/21/07 Nov. 20 night, in effect nullifying the findings of the internal investigation, but that doesn’t mean the issue is closed.

McGury said the charges will be filed with Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow to review for possible criminal charges in the future.

“(Peterson) has brought shame to the department,” McGury said during an impromptu press conference following the meeting. “I wanted to see him fired.”

McGury would not detail the specifics of the internal investigation, which had begun a few days after Stacy Peterson, Drew Peterson’s fourth wife, was reported missing Oct. 29.

According to Lt. Ken Teppel, spokesman for the Bolingbrook Police Department, the charges filed with the Fire and Police Board had nothing to do with either the Stacy Peterson missing person case or the death of Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio.

“The charges centered primarily on on-duty procedural and policy issues,” he said.
As of Wednesday, Glasgow had been notified of the details of the internal investigation, Teppel said.

According to Teppel, the internal investigation began a few days after Stacy Peterson was reported missing, and on Nov. 9 the department suspended Drew Peterson without pay, the second time in his career he had been suspended.

The department informed Peterson through a memo to his attorney, Fred Morelli Jr.,  he was to appear Nov. 13 for an Internal Investigations Division interview.

On Nov. 12, the day before the scheduled interview, a man identifying himself as Drew Peterson’s brother hand-delivered Drew Peterson’s letter of resignation to officials at the Police Department Administrative Offices in Village Hall, Teppel said.

That letter included Drew Peterson’s request for retirement benefits and also stated he would not appear for the Nov. 13 interview. His $6,000-a-month pension was later granted by the Police Pension Board.

“Chief McGury did not want to accept the resignation because the internal investigation began well in advance of Drew Peterson’s resignation,” Teppel said. “We had to confirm through Drew Peterson’s attorney that the letter we received was actually sent by Drew.”

Following the Fire and Police Board meeting, Robert Armstrong, chairman of the panel, referred all questions to attorney Kathleen Elliott.

When asked if the board had reviewed the detailed charges filed against Peterson, Armstrong responded, “We accepted Drew Peterson’s resignation; let’s just leave it at that.”

By statute, the commission had no legal authority not to accept the resignation letter, said Elliott.

In a prepared statement read by Mayor Roger Claar at the Village Board meeting Tuesday night, the mayor acknowledged Drew Peterson was suspended in June 1985 and fired by the Fire and Police Board “for cause” on Aug. 12, 1985.

“He was reinstated by order of the Will County Circuit Court on March 4, 1986,” Claar said.

The Fire and Police Board and the Police Pension Board are two separate legal entities that are not under control of the Village Board or the Police Department, Claar said.

“The village does not control the pension board or matters that come before it, and hiring and firing of police officers is done solely by the commission,” Claar said.

Peterson recently was named a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, by the Illinois State Police, the agency in charge of the investigation into her disappearance.

Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio, died March 1, 2004, just a few months after Drew Peterson and Savio  were divorced. That case, initially ruled an accidental drowning by a six-person Will County coroner’s office jury, has been reopened by James Glasgow, Will County state’s attorney.

Glasgow said her death looked like it had been staged to look like an accident. Glasgow was not in office at the time of Savio’s death.

According to recent published reports, one of the jurors at the time of the Savio inquest was a police officer who may have known Drew Peterson.

In his statement, Claar said the police officer was from Orland Park, not Bolingbrook.