Drew Peterson’s former lawyer considers revealing killer cop’s insider secrets

“Maybe it’s time.”

Those people a few terms trace that solutions in a single of the nation’s most notorious unsolved situations could shortly be solved. Attorney Joel Brodsky represented suburban Chicago cop Drew Peterson additional than a decade ago when the officer’s fourth wife, Stacy, disappeared. 

“It’s anything that weighs on my conscience,” Brodsky told WGN Investigates in his Chicago apartment overlooking Lake Michigan. “I would never ever do anything that would harm a previous consumer, but he’s in jail, he’s under no circumstances getting out.  So, if he’s a man, he’d say ‘I’m done, here’s what transpired,’ so people today can have closure.” 

Stacy Peterson’s loved ones straight away feared the worst when she vanished in 2007 due to the fact Drew’s prior spouse, Kathleen Savio, died underneath mysterious conditions. While Stacy has never ever been found, her disappearance prompted police and prosecutors to reopen – and inevitably convict – Drew Peterson of killing his earlier wife in a bathtub. Law enforcement labeled Drew as the only suspect in what they suspect was Stacy’s murder, but considering the fact that her physique was in no way located, they’ve been not able to prosecute.

“I know every thing about each of his wives – every little thing,” Brodsky claimed. “I come to feel negative about Drew even now not using responsibility and Stacy still staying lacking.  I’m pondering about it’s possible revealing what occurred to Stacy and the place she is.” 

Why would a man who practiced regulation for 37 decades take into account betraying his profession’s most sacred exercise? Brodsky said it is due to the fact he feels the career betrayed him. In 2019, the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission suspended his law license for two many years, leaving him and his clients in limbo. A complaint explained Brodsky engaged in “a sample and observe of unprofessional actions which includes fake allegations and inappropriate diatribes in pleadings.” Brodsky says he regrets the perform and attributes it to being “overzealous” in defending his clients.

Brodsky thoughts why he gained these a extreme sanction when two effective politicians – previous Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and Chicago Alderman Ed Burke – nevertheless have the capacity to observe regulation and gather expenses regardless of getting billed by federal prosecutors with using their community office environment to steer business enterprise to their personal law methods. Burke’s spouse is a justice on the Illinois Supreme Courtroom, which oversees the Legal professional Registration and Disciplinary Fee. “Decisions are made, rulings, viewpoints are made based mostly not on elements of legislation but based mostly on who you [and] what you know and what your monetary connections to them are,” Brodsky claimed. 

Brodsky’s two-yr suspension is around but he has nevertheless to utilize to have his law license reinstated. “It’s virtually like I really do not want to get again into a filthy company – what I consider is a dirty small business,” Brodsky said. 

Stacy Peterson’s sister, Cassandra Cales, told WGN Investigates she’s skeptical of Brodsky’s drive to support bring closure to the family members. “If that truly weighed on him – and if he’s not out to gain some thing – he should really get to out to me or legislation enforcement,” she said.

Authorized gurus claimed it’s pretty much unheard of for a lawyer to betray their client’s have confidence in in these a daring manner.

“I think it is despicable,” explained previous appellate judge David Erickson of Chicago-Kent University of Regulation. “To break that breaks the quite rely on that this whole method of regulation ought to be based mostly upon.”