Drew Peterson arrested — but will it stick?

The murder case against Drew Peterson is not a strong one, the former police sergeant’s attorney said. Peterson was arrested Thursday and charged with the murder of his third wife. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife.

“This is a weak, circumstantial case at best,” lawyer Joel Brodsky told TODAY’s Natalie Morales Friday in New York. He pointed out that Will County, Ill., prosecutors have to prove that Peterson drowned his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in her bathtub in 2004. “Drew doesn’t have to prove his innocence,” Brodsky said.

Joking in cuffs
After Peterson was arrested at a traffic stop in his hometown of Bolingbrook, Ill., he was led to jail in handcuffs. He quipped to reporters, “I guess I should have returned those library books.”

Morales asked Brodsky if Peterson understood the gravity of the charges against him.

“He takes it very seriously,” Brodsky said, dismissing the flip remark as a way to deal with tension. “That’s just Drew’s way of reacting to his stressful situation. That’s just his nature. It’s impossible not to take it seriously.”

Peterson, 55, was scheduled to be arraigned on charges of first-degree murder in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Peterson is being held on $20 million bond, Illinois State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich said, and his young children are in the custody of local child welfare officials.

“We are very confident in our case,” Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said.

Savio’s body was found in a dry bathtub, hair soaked in blood from a head wound, just before the couple’s divorce settlement was finalized. Her death originally was ruled an accidental drowning, but authorities later said it was a homicide staged to look like an accident.

The indictment alleges that “Peterson on or about Feb. 29, 2004 ... caused Kathleen Savio to inhale fluid,” causing her death.

Savio’s family has long voiced suspicions, saying she feared Peterson and told relatives if she died it would not be an accident. Their fears resurfaced after the October 2007 disappearance of Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, then 23.

Drew Peterson is a suspect in the disappearance, which police have called a possible homicide. But he has not been charged and has repeatedly said he thinks Stacy Peterson ran off with another man.

John Smierciak / Getty Images Contributor Former police officer Drew Peterson was arrested for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, near his home in Bolingbrook, Ill.

In one of several appearances on TODAY after Stacy Peterson’s disappearance, Peterson told co-host Matt Lauer, “I can look right in your eye and say I had nothing to do with either of those incidents.”

‘Lock-tight alibi’
One of Peterson’s attorneys, Andrew Abood, said the indictment was not a complete surprise.

“There was tremendous pressure for the government to do something in this case,” Abood said Thursday evening. But Abood said one of Peterson’s sons with Savio has “provided a lock-tight alibi” for his father, who faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted.

In an appearance on CBS’ “The Early Show” last month, 16-year-old Thomas Peterson appeared alongside his father and defended him.

“I highly do not believe that my dad had murdered my mom. Because, first off, he wasn’t there, he was with us during that period of time,” Thomas Peterson said on the show.

Peterson has seemed to relish the spotlight since Stacy Peterson's disappearance, appearing in a People magazine cover story and on multiple national talk shows — most recently to tout his new engagement to a 24-year-old woman.

TODAY Stacy Peterson had two children with Drew Peterson before her disappearance.

From the day Stacy Peterson was reported missing, her husband, a cop of nearly 30 years, knew if investigators weren’t focused on him, they soon would be. And it wasn’t two weeks before the Illinois State Police made it official, calling Peterson a suspect and her disappearance a possible homicide.

When at the same time authorities announced they believed Savio’s death looked like it was a homicide, Peterson knew authorities were looking closely at him as well.

“The husband is always a suspect, whether you declare him so or not,” another of Peterson’s attorneys, Joel Brodsky, said when authorities revealed an autopsy on Savio’s exhumed body showed she was murdered.

Savio’s body was found by a friend of Peterson’s after the police sergeant called him to say he was worried because he had not talked to or seen Savio for a few days. The couple had recently divorced.

The friend, Steve Carcerano, has said he went to the house and went upstairs while Peterson waited downstairs. When he found Savio’s body in the bathtub, he called downstairs to Peterson, who has said he then ran upstairs, took Savio’s pulse, but found none.

Video   Peterson’s fiancee: ‘I just don’t believe it’ Feb. 13: Drew Peterson, who is suspected in the disappearance of his fourth wife and the death of his third, and his fiancee, Christina Raines, talk about their plans for the future. Today show

Peterson’s next wife was Stacy, who was 30 years younger. They had two children, who lived with the couple along with Peterson’s two children from his marriage to Savio.

On the morning of Oct. 28, 2007, Stacy Peterson talked to a friend. Stacy’s sister, Cassandra Cales, tried to call her in the middle of the afternoon, and did not get through. Late that night, Cales went to Peterson’s home, but neither Drew nor Stacy was there. A few minutes later, she reached Peterson on his cell phone, with Peterson telling her that Stacy had left him.

Cales didn’t believe it and reported her sister missing the next day.

Pamela Bosco, a friend of Stacy’s family who has acted as an unofficial family spokeswoman, said, “We’re just happy for the Savio family.

“We always said that Stacy and Kathleen had one thing in common ... Drew Peterson,” Bosco said.

For more details on Drew Peterson's arrest in the death of his third wife, watch Dateline on NBC Friday, May 8, at 9 p.m. ET.

—Mike Celizic, with additional reporting by The Associated Press

More from TODAY Duggar No. 19 arrives early | Images: One big family Admitted Woods mistress: No money, only heartbreak Three siblings get gift of hearing on same day | Video Holi-dazed? Get gift ideas, recipes, decorating tips galore Makeover! From thrift store to fashion score

MORE FROM PEOPLE

People Section Front

Duggar baby No. 19 arrives early Admitted Tiger mistress: No $, only heartbreak   Kendra Wilkinson gives birth to baby boy S.C. first lady files for divorce from cheating gov Alleged mistress: Woods ‘never mentioned wife’ Grandma who crashed into swamp going strong Gate-crashers to take the Fifth if subpoenaed   Dad triumphs over tragedy   Will Tiger Woods’ wife break her silence?   Knox kin describe her life in prison People Section Front   Add People headlines to your news reader: