Judge upholds Oak Brook’s firing of Drew Peterson’s cop son
BY CHUCK FIELDMAN | cfieldman@pioneerlocal.com March 18, 2013 3:14PM
Updated: March 21, 2013 2:33PM
The firing of former Oak Brook police officer Stephen Peterson in 2011 was been upheld Monday by DuPage County Judge Terence M. Sheen.
After being fired by Oak Brook’s Police and Fire Commission, Peterson filed a lawsuit in DuPage County, seeking to overturn his dismissal.
Peterson was dismissed after the Fire and Police Commission determined Peterson didn’t disclose important information to Illinois State Police during their investigation into the disappearance of his father’s fourth wife, Stacy.
Drew Peterson, Stephen’s father, was sentenced to 38 years in prison for the 2004 murder of Kathleen Savio, his third wife.
Authorities have said Stephen Peterson was given three weapons and $236,000 by his father shortly after Stacy Peterson vanished from her Bolingbrook home on Oct. 28, 2007, but didn’t immediately disclose that information to investigators.
“In this case, it was in no way arbitrary or unreasonable for the board to conclude that Officer Peterson exhibited conduct incompatible with continued service as a police officer,” Sheen wrote in his opinion. “Therefore, this court finds that Officer Peterson’s conduct, when viewed in its entirety warrants the sanction of discharge.”
In firing the younger Peterson, commission members in a prepared statement said he “used extremely poor judgment with respect to the weapons and the money he received from his father.”
“We agree with the judges decision and the actions our Police and Fire Commission took,” Oak Brook Village Manager David Niemeyer said.
Peterson has 30 days to appeal Sheen’s decision to the Illinois Appellate Court.~.
