Derek Armstrong may have to turn over Drew Peterson tapes

Self-publisher, Derek Armstrong

Drew author not protected
November 26, 2009By JOE HOSEY jhosey@scn1.com
JOLIET — Prosecutors want a Canadian publisher who penned a book about Drew Peterson to stop playing reporter.

Derek Armstrong, the operator of Kunati Publishing and the author of the account “Drew Peterson Exposed,” invoked journalistic privilege when the state police contacted him about testifying before a grand jury in November 2008.

But prosecutors filed a motion Tuesday claiming Armstrong was no reporter when he was supposedly “spending hundreds of hours interviewing key players” in the Drew Peterson case.

According to the motion, “Armstrong was not a reporter” since he was not “collecting, writing or editing news for publication” on a full or part-time basis.

In some situations, news reporters are protected from handing some information over to police or the court. That privilege isn’t ironclad and doesn’t extend to all people who write.

Armstrong failed to return calls for comment, as did Peterson’s attorney, Joel Brodsky.

Maybe Drew Peterson’s defense team should go “buy” the book.

The weapons charges against Drew Peterson were dismissed in November, 2008. However the State has appealed that decision and would like to pursue the charges again. Last Monday, August 3rd, Drew Peterson’s defense filed a new response to the prosecution’s decision to appeal a court’s dismissal of gun charges.

While one could question why attorney, Andrew Abood is filing a 30-page brief about the appeal of a dismissed weapons charge when his client is already in jail indicted on two counts of murder, it’s a little more concerning that some of the information given in the response is blatantly un-factual.

In particular, this quote from pages 29-30:

No one can deny the Chicago Tribune and the Naperville Sun have reported on this case regularly. The Naperville Sun has even published a book about Mr. Peterson, featuring him on the cover connected to a lie detector machine.

For the record, there have been only two books published about the Peterson case. Neither of them was published by the Naperville Sun.

Joseph Hosey, who reports for the Herald-News in Joliet, authored “Fatal Vows: The tragic wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson“. It was published by Phoenix Books.

The other book written about the Peterson case is by Derek Armstrong. It’s called “Drew Peterson Exposed” and it was written after Peterson’s publicist, Glenn Selig, went looking for an author to tell “Drew’s side” of the story. It’s published by Kunati Books.

Please note that the book cover showing Drew attached to the “lie detector machine” is that of Armstrong’s book–the book  written after Drew voluntarily provided “hundreds of hours” of interviews and personal photos to the author. It should also be pointed out that the polygraph of Peterson took place at the offices of his lawyer, Joel Brodsky, and at Brodsky’s request. In fact the photo credit in the book reads, “Photo courtesy of Brodsky & Odeh”.

So, to be clear (since Abood is not), the photo in question was one that Drew Peterson actually posed for, taken by and provided to the author by Joel Brodsky…and yet the defense team is now using it as an example of how the jury pool has been tainted.

If Peterson’s defense team can’t get details like this straight, can we trust the accuracy of any of the information in those 37 pages?

When Joel Brodsky was asked to comment on such an embarrassing gaffe, this was his response:

I think it’s a very slight mistake. I took the picture for Drew and he gave it to author Derek Armstrong to prove Drew took the lie detector test, which was a prerequisite for Armstrong to do his book. The picture (part of the book cover) was later re-published in the Naperville newspaper and I also believe in the Joliet Herald and the Sun Times when Armstrong’s book came out. The Naperville Sun did not publish the book, but they did publish the picture of Drew on the lie detector. However, Joe Hosey, who works for the Sun Times Group, of which the Naperville Sun is a part, did in fact author a book about Peterson. The line in the brief should have read “The Naperville Sun published a story about Mr. Peterson, featuring him on the cover of a book connected to a lie detector machine.” This is not a big deal, and these things happen, (like when the New York Times has its daily “clarification and corrections” section every day on page 2 of its newspaper). Its not significant to the legal argument, and we will clarify the issue in the rebuttal brief.

UPDATE AUGUST 14: Two days ago, Abood filed a correction which reads:

The Naperville Sun even published a story about Mr. Peterson about a book featuring him on the cover connected to a lie detector machine.

Now, the information has gone from false to nonsensical.

The original brief:

View this document on Scribd

The letter of correction submitted August 12

Drew Peterson’s next hearing is on August 10.

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Where was Drew Peterson at 10:59 am on October 28, 2007?

That’s the question that Fox reporter Jeff Goldblatt says we should be asking Drew Peterson.

Drew’s answer? “Refer that question to my attorney.”

Since last night Fox news has been saying that they have a “bombshell” regarding the Peterson case and that it relates to Stacy Peterson. Both Peterson and Goldblatt appeared on the Mancow & Cassidy WLS radio show this morning, Goldblatt to promote the rport on tonight’s 9 o’clock news hour and Drew to promote…Drew?

Mancow of course, dangled the story and tittilated the listening audience with nonsense for the majority of his show but I’ll spare you the fluff and cut to the meat of the conversation.

MULLER: “”You know how uncomfortable we are? We’ve got Drew Peterson looking at us. He’s about two feet away standing in the studio.”

GOLDBLATT: “The point of this is not to “destroy” him as you said, Mancow. You’re just embellishing on things. The point of this is not to make him uncomfortable. That’s what you do. The point of this is two things.

First of all there’s some key investigative documents, confidential authoritative documents that we got a hold of. They got out into the public.

The other thing is, Mancow, as we both use each other here, because we certainly have worked together in the past, is that a lot of this evidence, or these documents points squarely at Drew Peterson. So that’s what I’m out to do. I’m not out to destroy him. I’m out to present what we’ve gotten and then just let people think what they want. I don’t have anything against Drew Peterson. I don’t know where he was on this day or that day. A lot of people have a personal vendetta against him. That’s fine. Let people do that.

There’s a time line, for starters, surrounding Stacy Peterson’s death — her disappearance — and it points squarely at Drew. It documents where he was in the time leading up to that day, October 28th. Ask DP where he was 10:59 am October 28th. It’s not a question he’ll answer.

Arrest for Drew Peterson in the Next Seven Weeks?

If you don’t already listen to Justice Interrupted on Blog Talk Radio, you might want to give it a try!

The show is hosted by names that should be familiar to many who read and comment here: Stacy Dittrich, Susan Murphy-Milano, and Robin Sax, who take to the air weekly to provide justice for those whose lives have been interrupted by rape, murder, sexual predators of children, strange and unexplained disappearances, domestic violence, and cold cases yet to be solved.

Last night one of their guests was Joe Hosey, reporter for the Joliet Herald-News and author of Fatal Vows: The Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson. There was lively discussion about the status of the Peterson cases including some conjecture as to arrest dates.

Joe Hosey and Susan Murphy-Milano both mentioned having new information that they’ve been keeping under their hats for the sake of the investigation. Hosey did say that he feels that an arrest will come within the next seven weeks. Any guesses as to that particular timeframe?

Take a listen to the show at the Justice Interrupted web site at Blogtalk radio (the 2/24 show) and give us your impressions.

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Drew Peterson: “Society, you can kiss my butt!”

I spent some time transcribing the CBS 2 interview with Drew Peterson, and while doing so I noticed that for the most part Drew remains very composed and reticent. The few times that he does gesture or react I found noteworthy, especially if you are a follower of the Lie to Me or Eyes for Lies style of analysis.

I made some screen captures of those moments.  What do you think? When Drew reacts, are his reactions telling us something about what he is hearing and saying, or is he just a guy with a couple of itches and a sense of humor?

TIME: 01'18"

PUCINELLI: Do you love her?
PETERSON: Like she says, “I thought I did.”
At this point Drew was just asked if he loves Christina Raines. He uses the very words that Chrissy used in an interview when she was asked if she loved him. Then he laughs at his joke. Contrast his emotional state to hers when she spoke those words.

Drew Peterson: Dietition, Handy Man, Co-dependent…

"Chrissy's diet consisted of cigarettes, chocolate, diet pop and beer."

The complete 24-minute interview with CBS’ Mike Puccinelli is up at the CBS website now.  I found it much more interesting than the three-part “package” they put together for the news.  Drew was asked many more questions than they included in the news segments or in the latest story on their web site.

Click on the picture above or on this link to  watch the full interview. Make sure to watch the clip entitled RAW VIDEO.