Exclusive: Immunity deal offered in Peterson case
BOLINGBROOK -- Details have emerged about prosecutors' offer of a free pass to the man who may have unwittingly acted as Drew Peterson's accomplice in allegedly disposing of his wife's body, so long as he sticks to the truth, his original statement and did not play a part in actually killing the missing woman.
The Herald News has obtained a copy of the immunity deal inked by State's Attorney James Glasgow for Thomas Morphey in exchange for his testimony.
Glasgow signed the immunity agreement more than 17 months ago, yet sources say Morphey has never appeared before the grand jury investigating the disappearance of Peterson's wife, Stacy Peterson.
Glasgow made the agreement offer on Halloween 2007, three days after Stacy, who is Peterson's fourth wife, was last seen alive and likely while Morphey was still hospitalized following an Oct. 29 suicide attempt.
Morphey overdosed on sleeping pills after he learned Stacy vanished and he feared he may have something to do with her disappearance, sources said. Morphey's suspicions were based on his helping Peterson carry a blue barrel out of his stepbrother's bedroom, down the stairs, outside to the driveway and into the back of his waiting Yukon Denali the night of Oct. 28, sources said.
Not only that, police sources allege Morphey assisted Peterson in a scheme to set cell phone towers pinging near the home of her friend Scott Rossetto, a male nurse living in Shorewood. The sources said they suspected Peterson was trying to frame Rossetto for doing away with Stacy.
Peterson is believed to have left his cell phone with Morphey in Bolingbrook, then went to Shorewood with Stacy's cell phone. Peterson is alleged to have called his own cell with Stacy's from Shorewood to leave a record of the call, sources said.
After Morphey was released from Edward Hospital in Naperville, where Peterson says he paid his stepbrother a visit, he vanished from his Bolingbrook home. His girlfriend, Sheryl Alcox, said at the time that Morphey was in "therapy." Peterson has repeatedly said the authorities put Morphey, who has struggled with substance abuse, someplace to "dry out."
Morphey is back in his Thistle Drive home and has been for months. He declined to discuss his immunity agreement -- or anything else relating to the Peterson case -- on the record.
But if Morphey gets caught lying or holding back on his story regarding his "information and knowledge of the kidnapping or murder of Stacy Peterson, or if any evidence emerges indicating that Thomas Morphey personally participated in the murder of Stacy Peterson, this agreement shall be null and void."
Peterson laughed when told of the immunity offer for his stepbrother and said, "Un (expletive) believable." He would not elaborate.
Charles B. Pelkie, the spokesman for the state's attorney's office, declined to comment on Morphey's immunity deal.
Peterson is the sole suspect in the state police investigation of Stacy's disappearance. State police Capt. Carl Dobrich called the young woman's disappearance a "potential homicide."
The state police also are investigating the 2004 homicide of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found drowned in a dry bathtub.
State police originally failed to find anything suspicious about Savio's case when they first investigated it and her death was eventually ruled accidental. Soon after Stacy disappeared, authorities determined Savio was the victim of a homicide and the state police give them another chance at figuring out who killed her.