By Michael Sneed
The Chicago Sun-Times
WILL COUNTY, Ill. — He says he sleeps on a lawn-chair mattress in a cold cell, where he is being housed in isolation and is frequently strip searched.
Besides his lawyers, the only human contacts for Drew Peterson — who is awaiting trial in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio — are prison guards and an inmate who brings him meals, clean clothes and linen “passed through a chuckhole,” Peterson says in a handwritten letter to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed.
In the 10-page letter received by Sneed last week, the 56-year-old Peterson describes in detail his life in the Will County Jail since his May 2009 arrest. Peterson — a former Bolingbrook cop who has also been named a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy — is facing even more time in prison while prosecutors appeal a ruling that blocked them from using hearsay evidence in his upcoming trial.
“It almost took an act of god to get a second blanket and a thermal shirt,’' he writes. “I haven’t figured out yet if I’m being protected from the other inmates or are they being protective from me.”
The letter from Peterson was given to Sneed by a confidential source, who removed parts of the missive. The Sun-Times also edited the letter for space, but Peterson’s words were left largely verbatim.
While Peterson writes about the restrictions of prison life — and at times jokes about what he has gone through — the Sun-Times is aware of the pain the Savio family has endured while waiting for justice in the murder of their loved one.
In the second installment of the letter to Sneed, to be published in Monday’s Sun-Times, Peterson writes about what he misses on the outside, the letters he has received from sympathizers and his trademark jail humor.
The arrest
I find myself with a lot of time these days where I have looked back on my life and many trials and tribulations.
I recall the day I was arrested 5-7-9. It was a beautiful sunny spring day and as I moved about during my daily chores caring for my family I noticed a buildup of press in front of my house. I’ve been harassed by the press for the past 19 months but this day was different. They parked down the street leaving the front of my home clear for something. Something’s up. It was late afternoon all my anti-Drew neighbors were outside as if they were waiting for something to happen.
I needed to run to the bank so I told my children I would be right back. As I traveled to the bank I was stopped for a traffic light with a marked ISP [Illinois State Police] vehicle pulled right behind me. I was cut off and blocked in by an unmarked pickup truck and was then surrounded by plain clothes ISP patrolmen with guns drawn. I remember looking out my car passenger window and a senior ISP officer standing there looking confused finally drawing his weapon. I gave him the middle finger salute and yell to him, “shoot me asshole.”
As I exited my car I was met by an ISP officer who resembled Pee Wee Herman to me. He put his firearm in his left hand and picked me off the ground with his right arm & Hip. I laughed and said to him, “I’m not fighting you.” He looked confused and I repeated, “I’m not fighting you,” “put me down.” I was set down, I put my hands on my car where I was pat down and handcuffed. In an insulting manner my sunglasses were torn from my face and tossed into the backseat of my car.
I was put in the backseat of an unmarked SUV and transported to the ISP dist 5 Headquarters between two very large sweaty plainclothes officers. One called the Chief of Police of Bolingbrook and boasted, “WE GOT DREW.” I laughed at the officers and their sloppy felony traffic stop thinking of how unsafe it was. I also commented how rattled they were and thought how I was the one who should have been shaken up.
I told the ISP and the Will Co. States attorney’s office on many occasions all they had to do was call me and I would turn myself in if it ever came to that point. I guess with all their efforts and obsession they needed their show. I asked why I was being arrested and what was my bond. They responded “For the murder of Kathleen Savio” and bond was 20 million dollars.
As I joked with them they asked why I didn’t ever try to become an Illinois State Policeman. I think I angered them when I responded I couldn’t because my parents weren’t brother and sister.
The warrant was signed and bond set by Judge Rosak [Will County Judge Daniel Rozak] whom I have known for many years and viewed as a cop in robes. He had signed many of the search warrants for my home with about the same amount of probable cause as you would need to get a free car wash.
At ISP HQ they again tried to question me but were met with me simply stating “I want my lawyer.” I learned later my home was again searched by the souvenir-hunting ISP picking through my belongings for about the 6th time. They did get another shot at terrorizing my children removing them from my home under a blanket hiding them from the press. Our hero’s. My girlfriends kids also got to experience the terror.
Life in jail
I was taken to the Will County Jail where I was processed, strip searched and given a spiffy jail uniform. I was told that I was in “protective custody” and I was taken to a POD and placed in a small cell alone. I realized what was happening to me and I remember this feeling of anger coming over me being mad that the people responsible to putting me there were getting away with it knowing that I have done nothing wrong.
The next day I was allowed to contact my family and found out my kids were OK and with my older son. I was ready for anything. I was then taken to the Medical Part of the jail where I have been housed ever since.
My cell is larger than most and it has a reverse air flow system designed to hold someone with an airborne contagious disease. It’s new and I keep it clean and I have my own shower. Its always very cold.
It almost took an act of god to get a second blanket and a thermal shirt.
I sleep on a lawnchair mattress on a cement slab. I’m kept in solitary confinement on the reflective side of two way glass. My only human contact is with the guards who view me regularly and the inmate pod worker who bring me my meals, clean clothes and linen passed through a chuckhole.
I haven’t figured out yet if I’m being protected from the other inmates or are they being protective from me. My telephone privileges have been limited to only my lawyers and my family after my 30 minute calls to both NBC TODAY SHOW MATT LAUYER which was broadcast live and to MANCOW broadcast live to chicagoland where I gave my standup comedy jailhouse routine. Someone is afraid of what I have to say. With few exceptions I have been treated professionally by the staff here sometimes even with kindness.
By the way the food in here really isn’t that bad. A step down from Army food. I thank Cecil for his efforts.
Cell search
My cell is searched regularly. Very special times in here is when my cell is raided in the middle of the night by ten or so very large men dressed in black swat type uniforms (ERTs). The first time I was handcuffed as my cell was searched.
I was then strip searched, as in each raid, while all ten watched. I hummed the stripper song as I tossed them my clothes one piece at a time. When I got down to my underpants I told them if they tried to put dollars in my pants we were gonna fight. I was later told that they were trying to humiliate me but I don’t think they got the response they were looking for as I left them laughing.
I’m here to tell you I have been looked at naked here more than I care to remember. If you are modest at all this is the place to avoid.
It would really bother me if I ever learned that while they were making love to their women that they were thinking of me naked.
My only source of entertainment is television and all the televisions work off the same cable box so every dayroom T.V. has the same thing on. The officers normally ask me what I want to watch and I try to select something everyone will enjoy like movies or sitcoms. I don’t like to read but I have read about different religions.
I’m in the medical section so my health is being cared for by a very professional staff. I’ve been treated for everything from heartburn to high blood pressure.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.