CHICAGO — Drew Peterson officially lost his freedom last month — and now he could lose his pension, too.

The Bolingbrook (Ill.) Police Pension Board has hired an outside attorney to help decide whether it should strip Peterson of his retirement pay following his murder conviction and sentencing. The move marks an ironic turn in the high-profile case, given that prosecutors argued that Peterson killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio, partially because he did not want to share his pension with her.

The five-member panel — which includes three current or former officers who worked on the force with Peterson — recently retained public pension expert Charles Atwell to review trial transcripts and determine whether the former police sergeant’s conviction requires him to forfeit his $79,000-a-year pension.