Joel Brodsky Talks About The Drew Peterson Case On Scared Monkeys Radio 052409

Joel Brodsky on Scared Monkeys Radio – May 24, 2009 “The first thing I said to myself when I found out drew was arrested was, well there goes my summer.” On the Replacement of the Judge “We made a motion to reduce bond and the judge denied it. New judge. It seems that the biggest part, we're spending a lot of time trying to figure out what judge we should be able to get and it's unfortunate but... We'd like to have all judges equally be as good and equally as fair but that's not how real life is. She denied it so now we're preparing an appeal. In Illinois we can take an immediate appeal of a refusal to modify or lower bond. And the appellate court where you use it de novo, that's Latin for "like new". So they can substitute their judgment for that of trial judge and it's kind of like getting a second bite at the apple. If the appellate court says the $20 million bond stands, then I guess the $20 million bond is gonna stand and if they lower it, we'll have to see.” “Judge Schoenstedt who heard the weapons charge and also ordered the property returned to Drew has a reputation in Will County and beyond as being an extremely fair, a very thoughtful judge, evenhanded. He did not rule all in our favor. We got ruled against plenty by him in procedural things. He certainly wasn't pro one side or the other and he's a chief judge in the criminal division of that County and for the State's Attorney to say that he's prejudiced was quite shocking but he did and now we have two changes of judges that we can do and we're trying to decide whether or not we want to exercise those. It's one of those things - once it's done, it's done. There's an old saying, if you try to assassinate the king, you better not miss. We'd hate to ask for a change of judges and get somebody who's a little less lenient.” On the Denial of a Lower Bond “Glasgow was saying it was needed because Drew, as a police officer had violated his oath to protect the public, that as an undercover narcotics agent he had the ability and knowledge of how to hide himself, all which obviously presumes he's guilty. A $20 million bond is a bond very few people can make. It's in effect, a denial of bond and we're going to appeal on the ground that if you're going to say he deserves a bond, he's not a no-bond which you can get in certain case, but he qualifies for a bond, then you have to give him a reasonable bond, a bond that he could potentially make. Maybe it takes every penny he has, but at least one he can make. Case law supports us in this argument but there is a lot of emotion, especially in Will County, Illinois about this case and I just don't know how much the emotion, even the judge's, is going to override what should be done. On a Change of Trial Venue “By law, the jury has to come from Illinois so do we want a jury from some very rural county downstate? Maybe that's not where we want to go. Do we want to go to places to East St. Louis that's very, coming to a lot of very poor people in that area? Do we want to come to some southern suburb of Chicago? What I'm trying to say is every single step in this case from now on is going to be hard fought, very difficult decisions. I don't see anything going easy in this case. The State's Attorney is going to fight us tooth and nail.” On the Possibility of the Trial Being Televised “We haven't had a televised trial in Illinois since I can remember. It has to be approved by the supreme court. I wouldn't mind this case being televised. It's a circumstantial case, it's got a lot of witnesses with credibility issues. It's going to be a very interesting case to try. I think it will be very educational, too. You'll see a lot of forensic evidence, interesting forensic evidence. I would hope some larger media outlets would take a petition to the Illinois Supreme Court.”

On the Discovery of Human Remains on the Banks of the Des Plaines River “Unfortunately, and I know where this area is, this area where the remains were found is where a major interstate running from Memphis, Tennessee, north to Chicago. It crosses over the Des Plaines river and unfortunately bodies are recovered in that area every month or so. It's a tragic comment on people, destitute people, prostitutes and drug addicts and such. Just because it happened on the day the Grand Jury in Drew's case terminated, I think that had something more to do with the speculation that it was Stacy than the fact that a body was found around there because, I was talking to one reporter and she told me that they had found, in the two years that she had worked down in that area, that she recalled seven bodies being found just off that bridge, and that was just one reporter. It doesn't concern us. We're very sure to positive that it's not going to have anything to do with Drew and it's unfortunate that Stacy's family has to be put through this, what's got to be a lot of stress waiting for an autopsy result, when there's really nothing special, nothing about this particular body that makes it any more likely than is a body being found in Arizona, that it belongs to Stacy.”