Drew's attorney says authorities don't believe stepbrother's claims
Police and prosecutors don't believe Thomas Morphey's explosive claims that he helped stepbrother Drew Peterson remove a mysterious blue barrel on the day that Peterson's fourth wife vanished, Peterson's attorney said Tuesday.
If they did, Morphey would have testified before the Will County grand jury that has spent 17 months probing Stacy Peterson's October 2007 disappearance, Joel Brodsky said.
"If they found him credible, (Morphey) would have been one of the first witnesses they would have brought in, and they would have based the entire investigation and the entire case on his testimony," Brodsky said at a news conference called to rebut Morphey's first public allegations against his stepbrother.
"The fact that they haven't done that I believe is clear evidence, they - the state's attorney and the state police - don't think he's credible," Brodsky said.
Morphey said the attacks on him by Brodsky and Peterson indicate they're fearful about the information he has disclosed.
"From the very beginning, they have done nothing but paint me in a certain light," Morphey said. "If there was nothing to hide, why would they go to the extremes that they have?"
In an interview published Tuesday in the SouthtownStar, Morphey said he helped Peterson carry a heavy blue barrel from Peterson's Bolingbrook home on the night that Stacy, then 23, vanished. Morphey believes the barrel contained her body - a thought he said drove him to unsuccessfully attempt suicide two days later.
Morphey also said that the day before the barrel incident, Peterson asked him if he loved Peterson enough "to kill for me" and whether Morphey could live knowing that Peterson had killed someone.
Morphey also said Peterson gave him a cell phone earlier on the night the barrel was moved, told him not to answer it and apparently called the phone twice from Stacy's cell phone.
Morphey has received an offer of immunity from prosecution for his testimony but said he has not been called before the grand jury probing Stacy's disappearance and the March 2004 murder of Kathleen Savio, Peterson's third wife.
Illinois State Police have described Peterson as the only suspect in Stacy's disappearance and are investigating him in Savio's murder.
A spokesman for State's Attorney James Glasgow refused to say why Morphey hasn't appeared as a witness.
But Brodsky said Morphey's history of mental illness, alcohol addiction and drug problems means that any testimony he gives is unreliable.
"A person like that has fantasies, they are delusional,'' Brodsky said. "You can't take somebody like that at their word. ... He's never going to testify, he's useless to (prosecutors)."
He said Peterson, 55, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, remains concerned that he could be charged in his fourth wife's disappearance, though he had nothing to do with it.
"Drew is obviously concerned,'' Brodsky said, adding that "anybody under the gun would have concerns."