Peterson lawyer criticizes handling of tub in Savio case
By Janet Lundquist jlundquist@stmedianetwork.com July 16, 2012 3:48PM
Drew Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, left, speaks at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, IL on Wednesday June 6, 2012. \ | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media
Updated: August 18, 2012 6:12AM
A lawyer for Drew Peterson said Sunday that Will County authorities tried to stiff the couple that bought Kathleen Savio’s Bolingbrook home after removing the bathtub, carpeting and other items from the house.
Joel Brodsky said in an email that Rodolfo Hernandez, who lives in the house where Peterson’s third wife, Savio, was found dead in 2004, had to hire a lawyer to get reimbursement for the items that were taken.
“And all they payed (sic) him for was the value of the tub and faucet, not for any labor of a plubmer (sic) to have to re-install the tub (the most expensive part),” Brodsky wrote in an email. “He told me he is made (sic) at the cops because they mislead (sic) him about being paid, and now he won’t do anything without a court order.”
No one answered the door at the Hernandez home Monday afternoon, and the family’s phone number is unlisted.
Charles B. Pelkie, spokesman for the Will County state’s attorney’s office, said Monday that Brodsky’s email was simply an attempt to “stir up controversy,” that the office and the state police have been communicating directly with Hernandez on the investigation, not an attorney, and have made sure he was fully compensated for his time and trouble.
“Through the entire process, we did everything that we could to make sure that the inconvenience to Mr. Hernandez and his family was limited, that he was completely compensated for any of the alterations that were made to his bathroom,” Pelkie said.
Peterson sold the Hernandezes the home where Savio lived during their divorce in 2004, about eight months after Savio’s death — six months after her demise was first ruled accidental.
In 2007, after Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished and sparked a national media frenzy, investigators reopened Savio’s case.
Since then, the Hernandez house has been visited regularly by police, prosecutors, reporters and random sightseers. The visits became more frequent after state police arrested Peterson for Savio’s murder in May 2009.
Through the years, investigators have taken the bathtub Savio’s body was found in and other evidence from the house.
Prosecutors would like to show jurors that tub during Peterson’s upcoming murder trial, which begins Monday, either in the courtroom or reinstalled back inside the Hernandezes’ house.
