Joel Brodsky Brings Drew Peterson Drama To Will Co. Courthouse
JOLIET, IL — Joel Brodsky, a flamboyant and talkative criminal defense lawyer out of Chicago, appeared in Courtroom 405 of Will County Judge Dave Carlson insisting he has not committed any crimes by granting national television interviews surrounding his previous role as murderer Drew Peterson’s former criminal defense lawyer.
Brodsky’s appearance on Wednesday at the Will County Courthouse prompted practically every television news station that has kept up on the Drew Peterson murder case to be on hand for the morning’s proceedings.
Bill Elward accepted the appointment as special prosecutor to consider bringing charges against Brodsky, who is accused of violating a gag order preventing him from discussing his role as Drew Peterson’s lawyer in the death of Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead inside the bathtub of her Bolingbrook house March 1, 2004.
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Drew Peterson, it turned out, was not ordered to appear at the Will County Courthouse for Wednesday’s hearing. He remains in custody in Terre Haute, where he recently participated in a one-on-one interview with NewsNation and true-crime host Ashleigh Banfield.
In Courtroom 405, a news media lawyer for NewsNation and WGN Channel 9 convinced Judge Carlson to reject a motion from the Will County Public Defender’s Office seeking to gain access NewsNation’s interviews, notes and off-camera conversations with Peterson, including information that was not aired during its recent national broadcast.
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As for Brodsky, he filed court documents on Monday, suggesting the filing of criminal charges against members of the Will County Public Defender’s Office, as well as against Will County State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow for opposite reasons.
“The State’s behavior is not much better. Not being able to get a motion to dismiss heard in over two and a half years, agreeing to continuance after continuance, does not evidence the aggressive crime fighter that the Will County State’s Attorney tells the public he is,” Brodksy argued in this week’s motion seeking to dismiss the petition of indirect criminal contempt filed by the Will County State’s Attorney.
“Instead, it reeks of collusion with the defendant. Worse, it shows zero concern for the families of the victims, who do not know how utterly meritless Peterson’s post-conviction petition is. All they know is that the press says that Peterson has filed a petition to throw out his conviction. Then, because of the failure of the State to do anything, the families spend years suffering from lack of closure …. Rather than charge me with contempt, the State’s Attorney should be charged with neglect of duty,” Brodsky declared in Monday’s motion.
Brodsky has continued to point out that Drew Peterson scribbled out a handwritten note, pro se, without the help of any lawyer, suggesting the Bolingbrook convicted killer should be granted a new murder trial on the basis of ineffective trial assistance by Brodsky.
“This thing has been pending for two-and-a-half years, I mean, every time it’s up in court it opens up old wounds,” Brodsky told a dozen news reporters following Wednesday’s hearing. “They should be aggressively pressing a motion to dismiss, not continuance after continuance. I’d ask him (Jim Glasgow) that question.”
Earlier this year, the Will County Public Defenders team of lawyers who are representing Peterson filed a motion, which was granted by Carlson, to have Peterson evaluated for a mental competency exam as their next stage in his post-conviction process.
On Wednesday, the public defenders informed Judge Carlson that the evaluation performed by the psychiatrist is still being finalized. They expect it will be done in time for Peterson’s next scheduled hearing, which was set for April Fool’s Day.
Meanwhile, Brodsky insists that Peterson’s mental competency should have absolutely nothing to do with Peterson’s efforts to get his murder conviction overturned.
“Not at this point,” Brodsky told Joliet Patch. “Not at all. Not at all.”
In this week’s court filing, Brodsky insisted he did not violate the attorney-client privilege by appearing on the Banfield Show for the NewsNation network on Feb. 28.
“The fact that the public defender is still proceeding on Peterson’s hand-written post-conviction petition and that the State’s Attorney cannot get its motion to dismiss heard for over two years is not the fault of this court,” Brodsky wrote. “The record shows agreed continuance after agreed continuance, and lawyers who do not know what they are doing.”
Brodsky further explained, “It is truly amazing that the public defender who just last month asked that Peterson be given a competency exam, and who then allowed his client be interviewed by a reporter who tried to get him to confess and succeeded in getting some incriminating statements. This surpasses the traditional definition of chutzpah; a boy who kills his parents and then asks for mercy because he is an orphan. Rather than charge me with contempt, the public defender should be charged with criminal negligence.”
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Brodsky’s four-page filing also went on to add, “The State’s behavior is not much better … Rather than charge me with contempt, the State’s Attorney should be charged with neglect of duty. In 2023, the constitutional restrictions on gag orders were recently clarified and gag orders are presumptively unconstitutional … After two-and-half years of a gag order in this case, and absolutely nothing being done, what could possibly be imminent to justify the continued infringement of my First Amendment right to free speech for much longer?”
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