Drew Peterson makes court appearance on new charges
<span>CHESTER − Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Randolph County State's Attorney Jeremy Walker have filed two new charges against Menard Correctional Center inmate Drew Peterson.</span>
<span>According to a news release from the Illinois Attorney General's office, the 61-year-old Peterson is charged with one count of solicitation of murder for hire and one count of solicitation of murder, both Class X felonies.</span>
<span>Peterson made an initial appearance on the charges Monday at the Randolph County Courthouse. He asked for and received a court-appointed attorney, Lucas Liefer of the law office Cooper and Liefer in Red Bud.</span>
<span>"I'm the one who filed the charges," said Randolph County State's Attorney Jeremy Walker in a phone interview with the Herald Tribune. "(The Attorney General's Office) is here to assist and this is something of an enormous magnitude as far as media coverage goes.</span>
<span>"I certainly have a very busy job to do and there's certainly a lot of media coverage that comes along with this and it's nice to have help."</span>
<span>The charges allege that between September 2013 and December 2014, the defendant solicited an individual to carry out a murder-for-hire plot against Will County State's Attorney James </span>Glasgow.
<span>Glasgow successfully prosecuted Peterson for the 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. He was sentenced in 2013 to 38 years in prison and the case is currently on appeal.</span>
<span>A preliminary hearing on the new charges is set for March 3 at 10 a.m.</span>
<span>"Drew Peterson remains incarcerated at Menard Correctional Center, where he has been moved to a unit of the prison with additional security, which is appropriate given the charges filed (Monday)," said Illinois Department of Corrections Spokesman Tom Shaer in a news release. "Inmates in the unit where Offender Peterson now resides are much more restricted, in numerous ways, than those housed in other areas of MCC."</span>
<span>The case will be jointly prosecuted by the Illinois Attorney General's Office and the Randolph </span>County State's Attorney's Office.
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