The Selling of Drew Peterson

Drew is expecting a nicer headline this time around?

Today, Drew Peterson’s PR agency announced that Drew Peterson and the Idiot Woman-child, Christina Raines, will be featured in Friday’s upcoming issue of People Magazine.

Drew’s publicity agent, Glenn Selig, states, “For Mr. Peterson, this was an opportunity for People readers to see him in a new light.”

Ridiculous PR spin aside, it was also yet another opportunity for Drew to cash in on the notoriety that has surrounded him since he became the only suspect in his fourth wife’s, disappearance (and possibly the homicide of his third wife).

Last week we heard from Randy Miller of WGN radio that Joel Brodsky charges for interviews with his client, or as Joel so elegantly puts it, “Yeah Drew will do it. It’s going to cost you some money.”  If a media outlet shows some qualms about ponying up cash, Joel tries to work out a barter, trading air-time with Drew for advertisement for his bar; as long as “the plug [is not] connected in any way to Drew Peterson or his attorney”.

Strange behavior from a defense team that has lashed out at every potential witness for the prosecution with accusations that they are speaking out only for financial gain.

When Drew’s old friend Ric Mims spoke of Drew showing him a fold-up gun in his possession, Brodsky dismissed it saying, “I think this is just another story that Mr. Mims is trying to shop to The Enquirer… He made money, you know, selling some pictures of a bed to The Enquirer. Now he’s trying to do it again.”

Drew Peterson: Where is the Love?

Drew Peterson cutting down ribbons honoring his missing wife on Sunday.

Recently, I came across a Facebook comment from Tom Morphey’s sister, Sue Cathcart. She wrote, “The entire Morphey family is anxiously awaiting SOMETHING to put this murderer away! It is incomprehensible that Drew is walking around a free man, destroying the lives of his innocent children and mocking the justice system. I pray for some closure for Kathleen & Stacy’s families, and normalcy for the Morphey family. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged and supported my brother, Tommy, during this difficult time for him.”

Sue isn’t the only person to come forward in support of Tom Morphey, the man who claims to have helped his brother move a blue container from Drew Peterson’s house the night that Stacy Peterson went missing. Tom’s brother, John Morphey, has also spoken publicly in defense of his brother. He’s described Tom as a man with a past of drug and alcohol abuse, but also as a man who has worked hard to clean up. He describes his brother as trusting and loyal saying “He’s loyal to a fault. Put it this way: His sophomore year of high school, he was playing football [at Hinsdale South High School] and one of the guys on his team picked up the ball and ran the wrong way. Tom blocked for him.”

Tom’s friend Walter Martinek says, “He’s a down-to-earth person. He’ll give you the shirt off his back. I can’t say nothing bad about him. His past is his past. From when I moved into the neighborhood six years ago, I’ve never seen no problems whatsoever.”

These people have all come forward in support of a man who Drew Peterson’s defense is trying to paint as someone with “severe mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction“; someone who lies and hallucinates; a man who thirsts so much for approval that he’ll admit to knowing about and being involved in the murder of his sister-in-law. Yet, there are people who will stand up to vouch for and defend Tom Morphey.

So, where are Drew Peterson’s supporters?

Drew and Joel’s Payola Radio Shakedown.

Best chicken wings and best burgers in Chicago, but you didn't hear it from me, Drew Peterson!

I’m sure that many people were disappointed today when they tuned in to WGN radio to  listen to  the Drew Peterson interview scheduled with Randy Miller.

It didn’t happen.

During the one o’clock hour, Miller explained why. During a phone conversation with Drew everything seemed to be fine but Drew asked him to contact his attorney, Joel Brodsky, which Miller did.  Brodsky surprised him by saying, “Yeah Drew will do it. It’s going to cost you some money.”

Miller was not going to pay for the interview and said, “Goodbye.” but  Joel assured him that all was not lost. The interview was still on and, “We’ll work something out.”

Then Randy Miller received an e-mail which he read on the air verbatim:

“To Randy Miller. This will confirm that you will be plugging the following establishment at least two times tomorrow and two times on Friday and that the plug will not be connected in any way to Drew Peterson or his attorney. The establishment is … Bar and Lounge which has the absolute best chicken wings in the city. A great place to drink, eat listen to music, and watch the game.”

A personal affirmation that you went there and loved the wings would be good.

Please confirm this agreement and I will confirm Drew’s cooperation on tomorrow’s show.”

Drew Peterson and the Slayer Statute. Can a Killer Inherit?

On last night’s Justice Interrupted show Robin Sax and Susan Murphy-Milano invited UCLA Law School professor and partner in the Personal Planning Department of Proskauer Rose, Andy Katzenstein, to talk about the estate and will of Kathleen  as well as the status of Stacy Peterson’s estate.

On looking over Drew and Kathleen’s will which was written up on March 2nd, 1997, Katzenstein had three observations about it:

1. The will is odd. Usually a husband draws up his own will and a wife draws up her own. You shouldn’t write up a joint will, but that’s what this one is.
2. It’s obvious that no lawyer had a hand in writing up the will. It’s hand-written on a a legal pad. There’s probably nothing fraudulent about it but it was obviously drawn up by people who had no idea what they were doing.
3. The will only says what happens if they both die. It doesn’t say what happens if he dies or she dies individually.

Drew Peterson Lies on the Air About Visiting a Storage Facility.

Drew Peterson at WIND 560.

Yesterday, while we were all waiting to see Thomas Morphey speak on Good Morning America, Drew Peterson and Joel Brodsky did a radio interview at WIND 560 am,with Geoff Pinkus and Amy Jacobson.

My hat is off to Jacobson and Pinkus, who went after Drew with some very direct questions, including some about the storage locker that Thomas Morphey claims Drew wanted him to rent the day before Stacy Peterson disappeared. You need to listen to this audio clip from the show.

I was very interested to hear Drew at first deny that the visit had occurred and then under the urgings of Jacobson and his attorney, do a complete 180 and admit that indeed he had visited such a facility with his step-brother, but only to inquire about renting a unit, and only to store tires. Not in any way did he want Tom to put the unit in his name, so that Drew could store a corpse there. No. No way. Absolutely not!

UPDATE:  Geoff Pinkus has got four audio segments from the show available on his site now. They are good!

UPDATE: From a new ABC story
A spokesperson for the Will County State’s Attorney Office responded to the allegations by Brodsky saying that, “Mr. Brodsky has no first-hand knowledge of our investigation and no concept of whom we deem credible or not. Our investigation is focused on the disappearance of Stacy Peterson and the murder of Kathleen Savio.  We fully expect to bring one of those cases to a successful conclusion in the very near future.”.

Has Tom Morphey Run Away to Join the Media Circus?

This is a little concerning. Just how much is Tom going to talk…and what will he say?

Do you think Tom should be speaking out publicly about the events surrounding Stacy’s disappearance? Give us your opinion by taking the poll at the end of this post.

Chris Cuomo, the reporter who interviewed Tom Morphey for tomorrow’s Good Morning America appearance, hosted a Twitter chat this morning about the interview. Scroll down the comments on this thread to see what Cuomo had to say.

Preview of Morphey’s appearance on Good Morning America.

**********************************

Tom Morphey will appear on Good Morning America Monday.

Peterson’s stepbrother wanted on TV news shows
March 13, 2009

By JOE HOSEY jhosey@scn1.com

Thomas Morphey laid low for nearly a year and a half and watched his stepbrother Drew Peterson make the rounds of various TV news shows.

Now Morphey, who says Peterson pulled him into a sinister murder plot against his will, is taking his turn on the small screen.

Tom Morphey, Drew Peterson’s stepbrother, has come clean about what happened in the time around the disappearance of Drew’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson in October 2007.

Morphey jetted out to New York on Thursday to tape an interview on “Good Morning America.” It is the first TV appearance for Morphey since he went public with his story that Peterson not only asked him to commit murder, but roped him into disposing of his wife’s body. The show will air Monday morning.

Peterson’s wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished in October 2007. State police consider Stacy, who is Peterson’s fourth wife, to be the victim of a “potential homicide” and named Drew Peterson their sole suspect.

State police also are investigating the mysterious, March 2004 bathtub homicide of Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio. State police first found nothing fishy about Savio’s death, but got another shot at it after Stacy vanished.

The Peterson Grand Jury: Weighing the Witness Testimony

MORPHEY’S GRAND JURY WORTHINESS

Comments have come up recently about Grand Jury appearances, after Tom Morphey went public with his knowledge of the events leading up to and after the disappearance of Stacy Peterson.  Mr. Morphey has stated that he has not given testimony before the Grand Jury.  Drew Peterson’s attorney, Joel Brodsky, has offered the reason for this, based on his own interpretation.  He has determined, in his ultimate wisdom, that Mr.  Morphey is not credible, and that he “has a documented history of severe mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction.”

While Brodsky may say he’s relying on information provided to him, he seems to be the only one in the public that has specifically mentioned multiple suicide attempts by Mr. Morphey.  When doing an appearance at one time on Fox’s OntheRecord, Brodsky said that Thomas Morphey had attempted suicide “many” times in the past, and was not reliable. While he was on TV saying that, Greta got an email from Thomas Morphey’s sister, who said that was a blatant lie. He had “never tried suicide before.”  We have not found any references to Mr. Morphey’s “many” suicide attempts in the media, other than coming from Brodsky himself.  Wouldn’t it just be wiser, sound more reasonable, to say if and when Mr. Morphey does testify at a potential trial, Brodsky will submit evidence that disputes these implications?  No, instead, a man’s mental stability, references to medication he has been prescribed, and name calling is the rule of the day.  “Fantasy.”  “Delusional.”

CONFIDENTIAL MEDICAL RECORDS

Funny guy, that Brodsky is, since we are all covered under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which “provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities, and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information.”  In other words, unless one specifically gives another a Medical Authorization to freely obtain one’s medical records, they are private. Confidential.  We here assume Mr. Morphey did not give Brodsky a Medical Authorization to legally obtain his medical records, so we must assume Brodsky is full of himself and is merely making up the accusations of Mr. Morphey’s multiple suicide attempts to deflect attention from his  crime-suspect client. What is the word that comes to mind, the one  defense lawyers hate?  Oh, yeah, “hearsay.”  Brodsky must be relying on “hearsay” to make those bold statements repeatedly about Mr. Morphey’s “many suicide attempts”.  Unless Brodsky comes out with proof and can verify he has legally obtained authentic medical records relating to Mr. Morphey, we can just assume it’s all smoke and mirrors, once again. 

Health Information Privacy

Joel Brodsky: This Witness Isn’t Credible Because He’s Lying–I Mean Confused!

"Nothing against people with mental illness..."

Tuesday afternoon, in response to Thomas Morphey coming forward and giving a detailed account of his knowledge of the events surrounding the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, Joel Brodsky held a news conference.

In front of a handful of bored-looking reporters, he recited the same tired defense we’ve heard for the last seventeen months: Thomas Morphey is delusional and suffers from mental illness. He never came to Drew’s house. There was no blue barrel. Not in the past, the present or the future (pretty neat trick that–seeing into the future).

But earlier in the day Joel strayed from the script a little and told Steve Miller of WBBM that maybe Tom was just confused, “There’s probably things in the past that Morphey might have done – helping Drew unload a truck on some job project or something, that Morphey, in his mind, may have twisted around.”

Joel Brodsky did the same thing when the Engagement Stunt fiasco was in the news. Joel at first completely denied that there was any sort of stunt. But, when it got a little hot for him (since the Idiot Woman-child, Christina Raines, claimed that it was in fact, Joel who had plotted it) he hedged a bit saying, “I don’t blame her. She made a mistake. She basically confused a couple of things she overheard and just didn’t know what she was really saying…”

Tom Morphey Talks!

Thomas Morphey

Peterson’s stepbrother tells police his story
A summary of what Morphey told police about weekend of Stacy’s disappearance

By JOE HOSEYmailto:jhosey@scn1.com

Believing Stacy Peterson was in the blue barrel he helped his stepbrother haul to a waiting get-away car, Thomas Morphey said he tried to kill himself by swallowing bottles of anti-depressant and anti-anxiety pills.

Morphey survived the attempt but does not know if this makes him lucky.

“It kills me,” said Morphey, who broke a near 17-month silence to speak out last week. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wish I could take back the events of that day.”

Morphey is talking about Oct. 28, 2007. That’s when Drew Peterson, he said, came out of the master bedroom in his home pushing a blue barrel and asked Morphey for a hand in carrying the barrel downstairs.

“I asked him, ‘Shouldn’t we have gloves on?’ He said, ‘No, don’t worry about it,” then hushed Morphey to be quiet.

“That leads me to believe the kids were home, in their rooms,” Morphey said.

Drew Peterson and an Imminent Arrest: Prepared or Scared?

In light of the latest news article by Joe Hosey about the immunity offer to Tom Morphey, and amid speculation about an imminent arrest, it seems that Drew Peterson himself may be waiting for that day to come, sooner rather than later.

In November, Drew stated on the Scared Monkeys radio show that he was prepared for an arrest: “You just get everybody ready for something…So contingencies are in place…”

Source:Scared Monkeys Radio Show

In December, when the story first came out about Drew’s engagement to Christina Raines, Raines father recounted: “He put the ring on her finger…He said, ‘We’re going to get married and get a house’…He said he’ll probably go to jail for a couple of days, but will probably be bonded out . . .”

Source:Peterson Spotted at Downers Grove Club

In a February 8, 2009 interview with Mike Puccinelli, of CBS – Channel 2 News, Chicago, he was asked if he expected to do any time in connection with the murder of Kathleen Savio or the disappearance of Stacy Peterson.

DREW PETERSON: “I don’t know. Innocent people go to jail all the time…and guilty people get set free, so I don’t know…”

Source:Video: Drew peterson: “Innocent People go to Jail.”

It would seem that Drew Peterson has been ready for an arrest since that day in 2007 he wrote that 250k check over to his son, or maybe ever since the night in 2004 when he spoke to Stacy while dressed all in black and hastily loading the family clothes washer with his ex-wife’s clothing. But for Drew life goes on, media appearances are made, vacations are taken, jokes are played, night clubs visited, women romanced and welcomed into his house to share his life, a grandchild is born.

When will there be an arrest? Will there be an arrest?

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