Order Of Protection - Prosecutors To Call Forensic Pathologist - Drew Peterson Trial Updates

Continual coverage of the trial of Drew Peterson for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

4 p.m. 'Avalanche of prejudicial evidence'

In arguing for a mistrial, defense attorney Joel Brodsky said the trial has been filled with an avalanche of prejudicial, illegal evidence and the case should be thrown out.

Brodsky asked that the judge declare a mistrial with prejudice, which would mean Peterson could be freed and could not be tried again. Prosecutors vehemently argued against the move.

Judge Edward Burmila said he was surprised that Peterson only wanted a mistrial if he is freed and not retried.

Prosecutors apologized to the judge for the error, but said it could be remedied by telling jurors to disregard mention of an order of protection .

3:50 p.m. No mistrial ruling today

Judge Edward Burmila says he will take mistrial motion under advisement and issue a ruling Wednesday morning.

2:55 p.m. Mistrial options

A judge has several options for declaring a mistrial. The case could be tossed completely, what is called mistrial with prejudice, or a mistrial without prejudice could be declared, which would allow the state to retry the defendant with a new jury, experts said. Throwing the case out completely is extremely rare, experts have said.

2:25 p.m. Another motion for mistrial

For the third time in as many weeks, the judge is considering mistrial in the Drew Peterson murder case. He has given prosecutors until 3 p.m. to come up with an appropriate response for their latest mishap.

The judge had ordered prosecutors not to make any mention of an order of protection during questioning of former Bolingbrook police officer Teresa Kernc because it s too prejudicial to the jury and because Kathleen Savio never did obtain an order of protection against Peterson. Kernc was testifying about interviewing Savio after an alleged threat made against her by Peterson in 2002.

Just minutes into her questions, assistant state s attorney Kathleen Patton asked Kernc if she suggested getting an order of protection to Savio. The question prompted an objection from the defense, and after the jury was escorted out of the courtroom, a strong rebuke from Judge Edward Burmila.

Burmila seemed incredulous, at times laughing in apparent frustration, after the misstep.

"You interjected order of protection into this case when I said don t do that," he said. "There was only one thing I said you can t go into and that s exactly what you did."

Burmila said this would be the third time he would need to instruct the jury to disregard a prosecutor s misstep and to do it a third time it may impact the state s ability to get a fair trial.

He gave prosecutors until 3 p.m. to propose a remedy.

Patton, who apologized repeatedly and sounded shaken, offered various explainations for asking the question, including forgetting to cross it off a list of questions she d written this morning.