Reaction continued Wednesday after WGN Investigates exclusive report in which Drew Peterson’s former lawyer Joel Brodsky said he is considering sharing his client’s secrets. Secrets that he said include how to find Peterson’s wife Stacy, who has been missing and presumed dead since 2007.
Brodsky said the case has weighed on his conscience to the point he’s considering breaking attorney-client privilege and perhaps helping to solve one of the Chicago area’s most perplexing mysteries.
But it comes as Peterson is engaged in a longshot court fight for a new trial. He’s arguing that Brodsky provided ineffective counsel because he didn’t let him testify.
Caught in the middle is the family of a suburban mom who has been seeking answers for over a decade.
Cassandra Cales has spent the last 15 years on a one-woman mission to find her sister Stacy Peterson.
She said she is suspicious of Brodsky’s motives.
“If it’s weighing on your conscience that much – you can see the pain in my eyes, it kills me every day – so give it up,” she said. “Why do I still have to be the victim here? Me and my family and her kids want to know where is my sister and what happened? He’s got to be out for something — whether it’s money or fame or just to be in the spotlight.”
The Brodsky bombshell is gaining national attention and not just because of its potential to solve a crime.
“Now, if these potential clients think I can ‘pull a Brodsky,’ if that’s what it’s now going to be called, or, for my own personal reasons – frustrations with the system, whatever – I’m going to start telling secrets of clients, no one will tell us what they need to tell us to effectively represent them,” criminal defense and civil rights attorney Mark O’Mara said.
Cales said she cares little about the implications Brodsky’s revelations could have on the legal profession. She just wants answers.
“I won’t stop until I bring my sister home and give her the proper burial,” she said.
After the WGN Investigates interview aired, Brodsky still insists his motive for potentially sharing his former client’s secrets is pure: to bring Stacy Peterson’s family closure after all these years.
Wednesday afternoon, Brodsky told WGN’s Ben Bradley, “Before I pull the pin on a hand grenade, I need to give the matter a good deal of thought. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”
A scheduling hearing on Drew Peterson’s request for a new trial was canceled Wednesday. No new court date was set.