Drew Peterson Lawyer Fighting to Keep Financial Records Secret
The lawyer blamed for losing Drew Peterson's murder trial is resisting attempts to get at his financial records.
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The lawyer representing Drew Peterson the longest before his unceremonious departure from the case is trying to keep his financial records out of the public eye.
Attorney Joel Brodsky filed court papers to head off a subpoena for records of his financial dealings with Peterson.
The lawyers still representing Peterson claim Brodsky blew what would have been a successful defense against charges Peterson murdered his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Brodsky did such a bad job, Peterson's attorneys contend, that the convicted wife-killer should get a new trial.
Peterson's attorneys are trying to get their hands on Brodsky's financial records in hopes of showing Brodsky put his interest in making money in the media and entertainment industries ahead of his client's welfare.
According to court papers filed Friday morning, Peterson was "paraded around as a meal ticket" by Brodsky, "not as part of any intelligent, reasonable, well thought out competent legal strategy. He was a prop in support of (Brodsky's) efforts to enhance his own profile."
Judge Edward Burmila gave Brodsky one more week to comply with the subpoena. One of the attorneys still representing Peterson, David Peilet, was optimistic that Brodsky would cough up the records.
"I'm hopeful that he will," Peilet said. "We're giving him the opportunity to do it voluntarily."
Brodsky did not attend the hearing Friday morning. He failed to respond to a phone message left at his Chicago office.
Peilet said the money trail will show Brodsky let his greed get in the way of trying to represent Peterson, a former Bolingbrook cop also identified as a suspect in the mysterious October 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson.
"The purpose of us trying to receive this information is the outcome of the case was influenced by money," Peilet said.
Besides putting Peterson's interests behind his own attempts to cash in on celebrity, the wife-killer's lawyers say Brodsky blundered when he called Savio's divorce lawyer as a witness during the murder trial. Peterson lawyer Steve Greenberg said the move was a death blow to Peterson's defense, and after the trial, jurors said the testimony from divorce lawyer Harry Smith clinched their decision to vote guilty.
While on the witness stand, Smith repeatedly hammered home to the jury that Stacy told him Peterson killed Savio.
"There is not a competent attorney, or jurist, who could look at this testimony and come to any conclusion other than it was one of the worst things to ever happen in a courtroom," Friday's filing said.
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Bolingbrook Police Department Non-Emergency
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Erin Gallagher
1:07 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
Boy Drew sure is looking old and fat. What a hotty! NOT.
Hendrick Von Lichtenstein
1:36 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
Your bio says you are a professional journalist for 20 years and this is what you have to add to a very sad episode in Will County history.
Rozeeta
1:57 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
hey, von loserstein, shut it. Erin, funny stuff girl!
Maori Tuakana
7:33 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
I like your comment, Erin. Journalists should show their funny side, every now & then. Besides, even if you were joking, it's all true. Good work!!
lala
8:12 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Very unprofessional.
Watchful Eye
2:27 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
Hendrick, who peed in your cereal this morning? It's news. Maybe not the news you care about, but you still read it and commented on it, heh?
Anyway, this Brodsky fiasco is something that has been front and center since Day 1. He even used Peterson to help promote his personal food/liquor establishment, which failed anyway. Brodsky danced with the Devil, and now it's pay-up time.
Tina
3:05 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
Just because Erin is a journalist doesn't mean she can't have a opinion! That exactly what I thought when I saw that picture....... YUCK, LOL!
Hendrick Von Lichtenstein
3:11 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
Quite a few spiteful women here today. I never cared for this Peterson fellow, but I was raised in a different place and time, I guess.
Carry-on hens. Peck away.
Kathy D.
11:55 am on Friday, February 1, 2013
If he keeps growing his beard and hair, he can "play" Santa for all his jail buddies! Sit on my lap convicted felon and whisper in my ear what you want for Christmas when you get out in 20 years? Brodsky..Brodsky..Brodsky, just another step in the the Peterson plan to get him out of jail.
Ed Arter
10:54 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
Glad to see a different picture of this convicted murder, although this one will never make the SI calender.
Earnan Drummann
8:44 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Unbelievable. That was way uncool, Erin. Few people admire Drew Peterson (or Casey Anthony,) but their "hotness" has nothing to do with the story about their crimes. If hotness is important to you, then you might want to follow Michelle Obama's makeover lead. But let's get the discussion going.... Guys, is Erin Hot or Not?
Verbal Sniper
11:55 am on Friday, February 1, 2013
It's The Patch not The New York Times.Lighten up people.You should be more concerned your hack of a States Attorney botched this case and had to create a law to garner a conviction against this goofball.
Dede
12:15 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Has anyone considered the possibility that this whole "incompetency" issue is part of a plan orchestrated in the event of conviction? Drew Peterson went along willingly with the media circus; then it backfired. I really wouldn't put anything past him.
Tara Brown
3:02 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Haha I love getting on the patch and seeing people actually waste time critiquing what everyone writes. Erin was poking fun because its drew peterson lol. He loves to be cocky and make comments to reporters like 'your hot' etc. if he could read that he would laugh. The patch is reporting news, just happens to be about drew, it doesn't affect anyone's day I'm sure. Have a good weekend everyone:) hope you find something else to do with your time than sitting here waiting for the next comment to bash lol
Vicki Pawlowski Dallmann
3:27 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Jounalists are people too and are certainly entitled to share their comments just like the rest of us. I agree with Dede's suspicion that this whole 'incompetent attorney' circus was thier contingency plan from the very beginning.
As far as Drew's apprearance in the photo - I pretty much thought the same thing when I saw it. I think he looks just like "the cowardly lion" in this shot! Yikes. He really let himself go (not that he was anything special before). Jail food must be agreeing with him.
george
11:01 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Drew, Was another THUG with a badge,I have heard from people who knew him and delt with him that he was one bad hombre and he did alot more crooked thing's than killing his wife's.
But i guess that would have to known of to convict him....He belong's where he's at they just need to put him in general pop so he can be someone's wife and clean thier cell and give up the uhhhh you know what!