Thursday, December 13, 2012
The lawyers still representing wife-killer Drew Peterson say former defense counsel Joel Brodsky "single-handedly deprived Drew of his right to effective assistance."
A devastating 32-page court filing not only blames defense attorney Joel Brodsky for single-handedly blowing Drew Peterson's murder trial, but paints the lawyer as a delusional, petty, fame-hungry liar. "Attorney Brodsky expected that Drew Peterson would be his ticket to the legal elite," says the memorandum filed late Thursday. "Regrettably, he was poorly equipped to try a case of this magnitude, resulting in hornbook errors and a smorgasbord of ethical violations." The memorandum says "Brodsky single-handedly deprived Drew of his right to effective assistance" and claims Brodsky "lied to Peterson, misrepresenting his qualifications, going so far as to tell Peterson that he, Brodsky had successfully tried murder cases and other serious …
Friday, November 30, 2012
The convicted quadruple-killer got a quick start to his new life behind bars.
Will County didn't waste any time ridding themselves of Christopher Vaughn, packing the man who executed his entire family off to prison the day after his sentencing. Vaughn, 38, was shipped up to Stateville Correctional Center to start serving the four life sentences handed down by Judge Daniel Rozak on Tuesday. According to Department of Corrections Records, the former Oswego resident made it to Stateville Wednesday. Vaughn declined to make a statement at his sentencing hearing and sat stone-faced as Rozak told him he would never get out of prison alive. Vaughn's father-in-law, Del Phillips, later said he had hoped Vaughn "would open up and say why" he killed his wife, Kimberly Vaughn, and three children—Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and …
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Christopher Vaughn got separate life sentences for the murders of his wife and three children.
Right before a Will County judge dropped four life sentences on Christopher Vaughn, his grief-stricken mother-in-law wondered aloud why he couldn't have abandoned his wife and three children instead of killing them all. "What a coward," said Susan Phillips, the mother of Vaughn's slain wife, Kimberly Vaughn. "If you do not want your family, divorce is always the first option, or even just walking away," Phillips said from the witness stand during Christopher Vaughn's sentencing hearing Tuesday morning. Christopher Vaughn, 38, wanted to shed his family so he could start a new life in the Yukon wilderness with an unwitting stripper. In June 2007, he packed his 34-year-old wife and their three children—Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, …
Monday, November 26, 2012
The Drew Peterson media circus prevented Vaughn from getting a fair trial, his lawyer said, and the wife-killer's attorneys didn't help things either.
First, he killed one wife, then he was named a suspect in the disappearance of another, and now Drew Peterson's very existence has mucked up Christopher Vaughn's murder trial, the Oswego man's lawyer said Monday. Vaughn's lawyer, George Lenard, said the specter of Drew Peterson hanging over the Vaughn case is just one of the reasons his convicted quadruple-killer client needs a new trial. Besides the problem with Peterson, whose own murder trial was taking place in the courtroom next-door to Vaughn's in August and September, Lenard claimed Vaughn's case was corrupted when prosecutors succeeded in "indoctrinating" one of the jurors. Lenard also said a prosecutor insulted him during the closing arguments and he accused the jury of "improper …
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Wife-killer Drew Peterson's longest serving lawyer is serving him no longer.
A teary-eyed Joel Brodsky denied he had been crying, then repeatedly insisted he was not fired from wife-killer Drew Peterson's defense team. "I'm doing what's in my client's best interest," Brodsky said of quitting Peterson's case after sticking by the disgraced Bolingbrook cop for nearly five years. Brodsky tried to "temporarily" withdraw from Peterson's case during a Tuesday morning hearing in front of Judge Edward Burmila, but the judge cut him off and told him "there's no such thing" as a temporary withdrawal. With that, Brodsky was gone from the case for good. And as he departed, two other lawyers joined up. New attorney John Heiderscheidt declined to comment on the case after the hearing. The other Peterson lawyer to come on board, …
Friday, October 19, 2012
Cincinnati restaurateur Jeff Ruby's contempt case for mouthing an expletive at wife-murderer Drew Peterson was postponed.
Cincinnati steak man Jeff Ruby finally had his day in court Friday, and he'll have another one next month too. Ruby, the man behind the Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment chain of steak restaurants, is up on a contempt of court charge for telling off Drew Peterson during the wife-killer's murder trial. Ruby, 64, said Peterson was glaring at him during a break in the trial, so he locked eyes with the murderer and mouthed, "F--- you." Not 12 hours later, a warrant was issued for Ruby's arrest and a pair of plainclothes sheriff's deputies apprehended him in the lobby of Harrah's Casino hotel. A source said the cops laid a trap for Ruby, having the hotel staff change the lock on his door so his keycard would not work, then capturing him when he…
Thursday, October 11, 2012
The Naperville lawyer trying to take over Drew Peterson's defense says the convicted wife-killer is feeling a "little bad" about cutting out his old lawyer.
Naperville attorney John Paul Carroll said he sat face-to-face with convicted wife-killer Drew Peterson in jail and tried to soothe the guilt he feels for dumping his old lawyer, Joel Brodsky. Carroll said Peterson told him, "I feel a little bad. I feel kind of like a traitor to Mr. Brodsky because he represented me for five years." Peterson also admitted he was "kind of concerned about (Brodsky's) future as an attorney," Carroll said. "I said, 'Don't be concerned,'" Carroll recalled. "I want to get you out of jail," he said he told Peterson. "That's all I want to do. Get you out of jail. If that's not all right with you, let me know now." It looks like Peterson is going to have to let Carroll know one way or another during a Friday …
Thursday, September 27, 2012
County Board Member Kathleen Konicki sent an email to the chief judge complaining about the state's attorney's conduct during the Drew Peterson trial.
Lame duck Will County Board member Kathleen Konicki took a shot at top prosecutor James Glasgow for supposedly praising a Cincinnati tycoon jailed for muttering an obscenity at wife-killer Drew Peterson. Konicki accused Glasgow of lauding Cincinnati restaurateur Jeff Ruby in a courthouse hallway a week after Ruby was arrested and briefly jailed on a contempt of court charge. "Mr. Ruby is feted as a folk hero," Konicki, a Homer Glen Republican, wrote in an email to Chief Judge Gerald Kinney. "To understand his status, it may be helpful to take into consideration the hallway conversations of officers of the court." Konicki referenced one hallway conversation in particular. She claimed it occurred Aug. 30 and she quoted Glasgow as saying, "I …
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Drew Peterson's defense team is shrinking by the day.
Last week wife-killer Drew Peterson fired a lawyer. This week one quit on him. Defense attorney Darryl Goldberg's exit from the Peterson defense team became official during a brief Tuesday morning hearing. Peterson attorney Joel Brodsky—the only one of Peterson's four remaining lawyers to show up for the hearing—tendered Goldberg's motion to withdraw to Judge Edward Burmila. Brodsky slipped out a back door after the hearing and fled down the stairs. A courthouse source said Brodsky told her he wanted to make his getaway without having to answer questions from the media. Reached by phone after the hearing, Goldberg declined to discuss his break from the Peterson defense team. Along with Brodsky, husband and wife attorneys Joseph and Lisa …
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The jury in the Christopher Vaughn's murder trial found the Oswego man guilty in less than an hour.
Christopher Vaughn's murder trial lasted a full month, but it only took the jury 50 minutes to signal the court that they had a verdict. That verdict was guilty on all four counts of first-degree murder. Vaughn sat expressionless while Will County Judge Daniel Rozak read the finding and as each juror repeated it in turn. "This case was not just a murder, it was an atrocity," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said at the trial's conclusion Thursday afternoon. Vaughn, 37, killed his entire family in June 2007. He initially faced the death penalty if convicted, and that played a large part in the case's lurching progress through the court system. "If there's a case that deserves the death penalty, it's this case," Glasgow said. Gov. …
Bob Jamesly
3:19 pm on Saturday, December 15, 2012
Peeing on each other! Wow! How satisfying is that to witness? Had my doubts that the Drewfus would be convicted, but lo and behold his attorneys did the work of the state. He had it all in Bolingbrook, and threw it all away. Gotta hurt! Now he has nothing but a handful of allegations to work with. And they will fool nobody. Greenberg had a hand in the bad representation. Might as well just quit … more ›