Drew Peterson Starts Web Site To Raise Money For Defense

Chicago, IL (AHN) -- Former Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson has started a Web site to help with his legal defense fees as Illinois State Police continued their underwater search of a Lockport canal for any trace of his missing wife Stacy.

"I'm not asking them to decide guilt or innocence," Peterson, a 29-year veteran of the police department, told the Chicago Sun Times on Tuesday. "Everyone has the right for a legal defense."

The Web site at DefendDrew.com is called "The Official Drew Peterson Defense Fund" and has a photograph of Peterson smiling, seated beside one of his four children. It calls on the public to help Peterson and his children, who "risk losing their life savings, house, automobiles and may end up impoverished, all by simply defending himself against allegations." The site, which Peterson says is the idea of his attorney Joel Brodsky, says donations will be used for a private investigator to help find Peterson's missing wife. Any remaining funds would be diverted into a trust fund for Peterson's children.

Stacy Peterson was last seen dressed in a red jogging suit on the morning of Oct. 28. Her family has said she feared her husband and she had plans to divorce him. Peterson has not been charged by investigators but suspect he is involved in Stacy's disappearance, which has been classified as a potential homicide.

Police have exhumed the body of Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, since investigation began. Savio was found dead face-down with a head wound in her bathtub in 2004. Police have not named Peterson as a suspect in her death but believe that it was a homicide.

Pamela Bosco, the spokesperson for Stacy Peterson's family, said she was shocked and disgusted upon learning about Peterson's public appeal for money.

"We believe in the Illinois State Police," she said in an interview with the Chicago Sun Times. "A private investigator is doing the same thing police could do."

Brodsky told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he would be in court Wednesday to ask for the return of vehicles, computers, ammunition and other items including eight handguns and three long guns confiscated by investigators from Peterson's home.

"By federal law, retired police officers are allowed to carry weapons in all 50 states," he said. "Why shouldn't he have them back?"