Less than two weeks before former cop Drew Peterson
stands trial on murder charges, his son has filed a $10 million federal lawsuit
claiming he was wrongly fired from his job as an Oak Brook police officer.
Stephen Peterson was dismissed in February 2011 after the
village’s fire and police commission determined he didn’t disclose important
information to Illinois State Police during their investigation into the
disappearance of his father’s fourth wife, Stacy.
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 firing the younger Peterson last year, 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.”
Peterson already has filed a lawsuit in DuPage County
seeking to overturn his dismissal.
His new federal lawsuit alleges former Police Chief
Thomas Sheahan and commission chairman Frederick Cappetta improperly moved to
dismiss him because they were “livid” he wore his police uniform when called to
testify before a Will County grand jury investigating Stacy’s disappearance.
Neither Sheahan nor Cappetta could be reached for
comment, while an Oak Brook spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Drew Peterson is scheduled to stand trial July 23 on
charges he drowned third wife Kathleen Savio in her bathtub during their bitter
2004 divorce.
Defense attorney Joel Brodsky said he was unaware of
Stephen Peterson’s federal lawsuit, but expressed support for the younger
Peterson’s legal action.
Stephen Peterson, now 32, isn’t working as a police
officer but is raising his four half-siblings and living in his father’s Bolingbrook
home.
Neither Stephen Peterson nor his attorney could be
reached for comment.