Does Stacy Peterson’s family really agree with Joel Brodsky?

Stacy's sister, Cassandra Cales and Pam Bosco, family spokesperson

Drew Peterson’s lawyer, Joel Brodsky, has followed up the airing of the Lifetime movie, Drew Peterson Untouchable, with a series of media appearances. Considering the record-breaking views the movie got, the intent of these interviews would appear to be damage control. Brodsky has been quick to describe the movie as inaccurate, laughable and possible grounds for requesting a change of venue when it comes time for Peterson’s murder trial.

Something that Brodsky has mentioned repeatedly (ostensibly to strengthen his case) is that the family of Stacy Peterson has also called it inaccurate. He’s even taken to his Facebook page to crow that “Stacy Peterson’s family and friends state that the made for TV movie “Drew Peterson: Untouchable” is misleading and inaccurate.”

While it’s true that the family has complained about discrepencies, and didn’t like the idea of the movie being made, one would be very wrong to assume that means they are in any kind of agreement with Joel Brodsky because that is far from the truth.

In a recent interview with Amy Jacobson, family spokesperson, Pamela Bosco detailed what she and Stacy’s sister, Cassandra Cales, felt Untouchable did not portray accurately. Besides the typical complaints about a movie adaptation; timeline discrepancies, the flora and fauna of a location, etc. their complaints appeared to be more that the movie didn’t do enough to convey the actual horror that a family deals with when a loved one goes missing and fear that she has been murdered.

The Television incident:

“There was a damaged TV but it was not…Cassandra was not told it was because of what happened in that scene. Things like that we would have never known happened because we weren’t told them. We didn’t experience that. Some things were told to Cassandra about what he was doing and we did know that he was tracking her left and right in the end.”

Note that Bosco doesn’t say that it never happened, only that there were things that Stacy didn’t always tell the family, or everyone in the family. Kerry Simmons, Stacy’s step-sister related the TV incident in an interview with Hoda Kotb. While Cassandra has stated to the press, “I have seen him, personally, throw my sister across the room.”

The day Stacy disappeared:

“There was more horror to the real details of this that if the public actually knew they would…feel the trauma that the family is now going through.”

“The whole scene about Cassandra trying to find Stacy from the day she left my house and throughout that evening. She didn’t confront him in the morning. She never ran into the house. (The original plan for that day was to get together and paint Yelton’s house but instead) Cassandra came to my house to drop off a puppy that day so there was a thing there where she didn’t–she changed her plans and so because of that there was a delay in her first following through and contacting Stacy.”

So the film did them a disservice by compressing the incidents of that day. Only Stacy’s family can know how it felt to realize that a loved one is missing, to suspect that she’s been hurt and to spend the day trying to contact her without success. I’m sure that for them no movie would be able to really convey the awfulness of that day.

Rob Lowe’s portrayal of Drew Peterson:

“Rob Lowe didn’t seem to put his heart into it–the sense of danger that this man, that you would feel when you were around him. He just smirked and I think tried to get through this movie as fast as he could.”

So yes, Brodsky. The family states that the film is inaccurate. Inaccurate because Lowe didn’t effectively convey the sheer creepiness of your client, Drew Peterson. Hey, she knows the man. Who are we to question her take on this?

However there was one aspect about Drew Peterson that Bosco thinks the film got right:

“One thing they got right in the movie was Drew’s controlling nature. He was very controlling, very suspicious, and poor Stacy could not fight against that. But she had these children that she absolutely adored. If you could only understand what a great mother she was, then you would know that she would never leave those children.”

And lastly from Pam Bosco:

“These kind of productions we aren’t in support of but we actually appreciate when the public is still interested in Stacy’s case.”

Listen to interview with Pam Bosco
Listen to interview with Joel Brodsky

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Drew Peterson trial coming soon to your living room? Illinois finally to allow cameras in the courtroom

It’s not a sure thing but today’s decision to allow cameras in trial courts in Illinois on an experimental basis has the hearts of trial-junkie couch-potatoes thumping.

A press release from the State of Illinois states that “the Supreme Court has approved a policy for a pilot project to allow news cameras and electronic news recording in Illinois trial courtrooms for the first time.”

“This is another step to bring more transparency and more accountability to the Illinois court system,” said Chief Justice Kilbride. “The provisions of this new policy keep discretion in the chief circuit judge and the trial judge to assure that a fair and impartial trial is not compromised, yet affords a closer look at the workings of our court system to the public through the eyes of the electronic news media and news photographers…

…Until now, Illinois has been one of only 14 states where cameras in trial courtrooms were either dis-allowed or allowed on such a restrictive basis that they were hardly utilized.

The policy is effective immediately and invites the Circuit Courts in the state to apply for approval from the Supreme Court to take part in the experimental program. So, if we are to see media coverage of Drew Peterson’s upcoming trial for murder, Will County will need to apply to participate.

No more than two video cameras and two still cameras will be allowed so media pooling is encouraged.

In the case of a media member promising coverage of a proceeding from beginning to end, that member of the media shall receive priority consideration for placing its equipment in the courtroom. If the media cannot agree among themselves on the pooling arrangements, extended media coverage will be disallowed.

In other words, news media will need to play nice and share or it’s no go.

And heads up, Joel Brodksy. No more naps in the courtroom!

Pilot Project for Cameras in Courtroom

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Stacy’s family, Kathleen’s son and Peterson react after viewing “Drew Peterson: Untouchable”

The family of Stacy Peterson watched the premiere of the Lifetime movie, Drew Peterson:Untouchable, from the Bolingbrook hotel where Stacy was working when she first met Drew Peterson. They later met with the news media and gave their impressions of the film.

Drew and Kathleen’s eldest son, Tom Peterson, made mention of the film with a dry comment on his Facebook feed: “I’d never thought I’d see it: public excitement, anger, and frustration over a new lifetime movie.” He goes on to state that his father was portrayed as a much bigger jerk than he is and that neither he nor his brother ever walked in on their parents having sex.

(Where did they get the idea for that scene? We’ve been asking around and no one will fess up to having told the writers this story.)

Earlier in the day Joel Brodsky brought a DVD screener to Drew Peterson to watch via his lawyer’s laptop, while detained in the Will County Adult Detention Center in Joliet. Peterson’s reaction was predictable. He deemed the movie to be “hysterical” and complained about the way his hairstyle was worn by actor Rob Lowe. Joel Brodsky seemed most concerned with making sure everyone knew that the movie was a fictionalized account of events, despite the fact that the movie has never been marketed as a documentary.

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Drew Peterson is **Hopefully** Not #Untouchable

Reblogged from :

After watching the movie that is about the exploits of Drew Peterson, I'm ready for people to step up and change this system that rewards the actions of people who do wrong and minimizes the pain of victims.  The Lifetime TV network is supposedly "FOR women."  If that is true, then I want to see them do something that will be beneficial for real women who are abused.

Read more… 143 more words

Thought we'd share this blog post from Neil Schori who was pastor to both Drew and Stacy Peterson.

“Drew Peterson: Untouchable.” Live-blog here tonight

Tonight is the premiere of the made-for-TV Lifetime movie, Drew Peterson: Untouchable. I’ll be watching even though I’m not a fan of Lifetime movies and certainly not a fan of the title character. I am, however, interested in anything having to do with these cases and am curious to see how the story will be told.

Since I know we’re going to want to pick at every little thing in the movie we are going to live-blog it in the comments section. If you’d like to comment feel free to chime in as well.

The movie airs at 8 pm (7 central time). Check the listings in your area for channel, etc.

Official movie site

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Pastor Neil Schori weighs in on Drew Peterson: Untouchable

Pastor Neil Schori talks about Drew Peterson: Untouchable and how it does or doesn’t tell the stories of the victims.

Lots of great articles coming out tonight. Numerous reviews of the movie, comments from Stacy’s sister and State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow, a Drew Peterson coloring contest, and the possibility that Drew Peterson may be watching the film on Saturday night.

As usual attention-hungry lawyer, Joel Brodsky, is feeding the minutia of Drew’s now banal life to Michael Sneed–this time to alert the world that Drew has three (count’em 3!) male pen-pals who send him money for Skittles!

No matter what your stance may be on the film, there should be something to interest you in the comments section.

Also, we added a few photo galleries to the site.

Read the comments and add your own.

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Forget Rob Lowe’s looks. Why did Lifetime subtract 10 years from age difference?

Stacy and Drew Peterson, Kaley Cuoco and Rob Lowe

By now we’ve all seen the unintentionally hilarious trailer in which Rob Lowe utters, “I’m Untouchable, bitch” through the open garage door of his frightened neighbor. If you’ve been watching Lifetime channel or sought them out on YouTube, you’ve maybe seen a couple of the longer ads which reveal glimpses of domestic violence, a body in a bathtub and Rob Lowe’s unconvincing suburban Chicago accent. If you make your living as a movie reviewer you may have even already seen the movie, “Drew Peterson: Untouchable” which is set to air on January 21.

The movie, which is based on Joe Hosey’s book “Fatal Vows: the Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson”, has upset some people. The public wonders if the story is premature–after all, Peterson has yet to be convicted of murdering anyone and Stacy Peterson remains a missing person. Some family members are upset that they were never consulted about the film and that none of its proceeds will go to searches for Stacy or to fight domestic abuse. Peterson and his defense team are possibly the most upset at the making of the movie. A character depicting Peterson seems to be involved in some very bad things that Peterson denies ever having done and not only that, he’s not making a dime off it!

Personally, I’m on the fence. I’m glad to see attention being focused back on the lives of Stacy Peterson and Kathleen Savio after being overshadowed by years of Peterson’s tasteless and cruel public antics. On the other hand, since it’s a Lifetime movie, I fully expect it to be melodramatic and cheesy and maybe it is premature to make a reality-based film about a story that is yet to be resolved.

I am a bit bothered about the casting choices. It isn’t so much Rob Lowe’s good looks that I find so jarring, but rather that he is a good decade younger than Drew Peterson. Meanwhile, Kaley Cuoco, who plays Stacy Peterson, is 26–three years older than Stacy was when she disappeared. It just puzzles me why Lifetime would choose to take the impact away from a very real fact of the story. When Drew Peterson first started dating Stacy Cales, she was 17 and he was 47! If you look at the photo at the top of this story on the left you see a couple who could pass for father and daughter, while the fictionalized version on the right just looks like a couple.

There’s no denying that Peterson has a penchant for very young women and Stacy Peterson was not the only Bolingbrook teenager to catch Drew’s eye. He met Christina Raines, his on-again off-again girlfriend, when she was just 15. Diana Grandel, who carried on a romantic correspondence with Peterson in jail, went public to say that the two of them had met when she was 14 and Sergeant Peterson responded to domestic disturbance calls at her home. To some it appears that Officer Peterson used his uniform and position of authority to impress young girls and perhaps even to groom them for a sexual relationship. With facts like that, it’s surprising that the filmmakers would want to go easy on Peterson when it comes to the age difference…or maybe they just thought that Cuoco could play seventeen (I’m not convinced that she can).

But, ultimately a movie is a movie and reality is reality. The reality is that Peterson sits in jail, awaiting trial for murder of one wife, another wife has been effectively erased from the face of the earth and family, friends and the public all hope for justice.

UPDATE 1/18: Check out the snippets and links to new interviews with Joe Hosey, the author of Fatal Vows, and Mikael Salomon, the Director of Untouchable in the comments thread below.

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New! Drew Peterson FAQ

Lately we’ve noticed a lot of people finding their way to the blog with questions about the basics of the Peterson cases. We’re guessing that the upcoming Lifetime movie with Rob Lowe has probably reawakened interest in Drew Peterson and his wives and people who are new to the story are curious about the facts.

Since Stacy Peterson went missing more than four years ago, there’s been a lot of information put out there about her case and subsequently about the arrest of Drew Peterson for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. But with four years of updates, the main facts of the case can get buried in the details.

Realizing that, we’ve put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions and answers. We hope that this addition to the blog is helpful to newcomers and to anyone who wants to brush up on the facts.

1. Did Drew Peterson kill all of his wives?
2. Was Drew Peterson ever arrested?
3. How many wives has Drew Peterson had?
4. Where is Drew Peterson now?
5. When is Drew Peterson’s trial for murder?
6. Why is Drew Peterson being held in jail?
7. How long has Drew Peterson been in jail?
8. Where is Stacy Peterson?
9. How old was Stacy when Drew started dating her?
10. Did Drew Peterson divorce Stacy Peterson?
11. How many children does Drew Peterson have?
12. Who is taking care of Stacy and Kathleen’s children?
13. Does Drew Peterson have a girlfriend?
14. What is the deal with hearsay evidence?
15. Why don’t we see Drew Peterson on TV anymore?
16. Will Drew Peterson get money for the Lifetime movie ‘Drew Peterson: Untouchable’?
17. How many autopsies were performed on Kathleen Savio?
18. Why was Stephen Peterson fired from the Oak Brook Police Force?
19. Did Drew Peterson kill Laci Peterson?

Visit the FAQ.

Welcome to Justice Café. Are there any questions you would like to see added to the FAQ? please let us know.

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