Crime & Safety

Lawyer Said Drew Peterson Wife Pleaded: 'You Can't Let Him Get Away With It'

Drew Peterson's lawyers sparred for hours in hopes of keeping out damning evidence, including testimony from his wife's divorce attorney.

"He's going to kill me."

"He's going to make it look like an accident."

"You can't let him get away with it."

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Wheaton attorney Harry Smith testified Wednesday that Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, told him constantly of her fear that the disgraced Bolingbrook cop would murder her.

Smith represented Savio in her divorce from Peterson and also defended her in a pair of misdemeanor cases.

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He was Savio's lawyer from 2002 until her death in March 2004. He testified in a pretrial hearing Wednesday that Savio feared Peterson would kill her so he could keep all their money.

Peterson was charged in May 2009 with murdering Savio. He is also the sole suspect in the mysterious October 2007 disappearance of his next wife, Stacy Peterson, but faces no charges in connection with Stacy's case.

Judge Edward Burmila has yet to decide whether Smith will testify at Drew Peterson's murder trial. The judge and Smith are going to have a private interview Thursday to determine what other information Savio may have told Smith about her marriage to and divorce from Peterson.

Peterson defense attorney Steve Greenberg unleashed a vicious verbal attack on Smith both inside and outside the courtroom.

Greenberg questioned why Smith only made one attempt in 2004 to tell the police Kathleen Savio predicted her own death. He also pointed to a lack of documentation by Smith of Savio's fears.

"If she said these things, she's clairvoyant," Greenberg said. "And now it's come true and what does he do?"

Greenberg also imitated Smith's voice as he mocked the attorney's supposed motivation for coming forward again after Stacy Peterson vanished.

"I'm going to get my piece of this and I'm going to get my face on TV and I'm going to get my publicity," Greenberg said in his Smith voice.

"He wants people to see him as a hero. It's business," said Greenberg, who after the hearing called Smith "gold-digging" and "self-serving."

"It's been an evolving story with him of what's going on," Greenberg said. "It's getting better and better and better with him."

An angry, emotional James Glasgow shot back at Greenberg, calling the "attacks on Mr. Smith unwarranted."

"He didn't profit from this," Glasgow said. "He didn't make money from this. That's absurd."

Glasgow continued his defense of Smith after the hearing, saying, "Harry Smith is a courageous attorney. He didn't have to come forward with the information he did. But he did and I thank him."

Burmila also ruled on Wednesday that three of seven video clips prosecutors want to use as evidence can only be presented to jurors as transcripts and audio.

Burmila decided the videos are prejudicial to Peterson because he was filmed while sitting next to defense attorney Joel Brodsky.

"How would it not be prejudicial to the defendant if the lawyer's sitting there?" Burmila said. "You're sitting there with your lawyer—what do the movies call them? Mouthpiece?"

Greenberg had argued for all seven videos to be tossed.


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