Drew Peterson Charged After Allegedly Trying to Hire Hit Man to Kill Prosecutor

Peterson, 61, is serving a 38-year sentence for the murder of his third wife

Photo: Courtesy Illinois Dept of Corrections

Former Bolingbrook, Illinois, cop Drew Peterson, who is serving 38 years in state prison for the murder of his third wife, has been charged after he allegedly tried to hire a hit man to kill the prosecutor for that case.

“The charges allege that between September 2013 and December 2014, the defendant solicited an individual to carry out a murder-for-hire plot against Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow,” according to a press release from the Illinois attorney general’s office, which is handling the case with the Randolph County state’s attorney’s office.

Peterson, 61, who is incarcerated at the Menard Correctional Center in Menard, Illinois, was charged with one count of solicitation of murder for hire and one of solicitation of murder at a hearing at the Randolph County Courthouse Monday morning, the press release said. His preliminary hearing will be March 3.

Peterson’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, who is handling the appeal of his conviction, did not have an immediate comment on the arrest.

“I have absolute faith in law enforcement and our criminal justice system to handle this case appropriately,” Glasgow said in a statement Monday. “It is unfortunate that prosecutors sometimes must deal with allegations of this nature. However, in no way will a threat to my personal safety deter me from the important work I perform as the State s Attorney on behalf of the citizens of Will County.”

Peterson’s former defense attorney, Joel Brodsky, who represented him at trial, had harsh words for how Greenberg is representing his former client.

“If the current allegations against Mr. Peterson are true, in my opinion, the actions are a result of attorney Steve Greenberg’s failure to control his client, and his failure to keep him informed and focused on his legal opinions, his appeal and other post-conviction remedies,” Brodsky tells PEOPLE.

Greenberg’s appeal argues, in part, that Brodsky was an ineffective counsel.

Those allegations are “baseless and totally without merit,” Brodsky says.

“If Drew committed the acts he is currently charged with, why would he have done so if he had confidence in his appeal?” he tells PEOPLE. “Drew’s alleged actions speak volumes on that issue.”

In September 2012, Peterson was convicted of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio, 40, who was found dead in a waterless bathtub in March 2004. He is still a suspect in the October 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, who was 23 when she vanished.

He was also briefly engaged to a fifth woman until his May 2009 arrest for Savio’s murder.