Scared MonkeysDana Pretzer radio interview with Joel Brodsky and Drew Peterson November 2, 2008

PRETZER: We’vegot a big show ahead of us tonight. We're going to be all over the map. I wanted to startout with news that I'm hearing, reading about, seeing, that Drew Peterson is about to be arrested andindicted. I thought I would bring on his lawyer and Drew himself to comment on that. Good EveningGentlemen.BRODSKY: Good Evening, Dana.PETERSON: Hi Dana.PRETZER: Hi Drew. Joel Brodsky, I know we did the show just a couple of weeks ago and we were talkingabout some of the predictions the media is making but they don't seem to be going away. Your comments?BRODSKY: Yeah, they really don't. This media...this round is fueled by a statement that came from theState's Attorney. He'll be up for election in a few days and he issued a press release that talked about thematter coming...that he expects something to be resolved in the near future and that kind of started thespeculation all over again, unfortunately.PRETZER: When you hear that term, "something to be resolved in the near future" what can you comment onJoel? Have you been told anything?BRODSKY: No. There's nothing. I said when I first heard this, or was told about this press release, I thought atthat point that it really had more to do with the election. He has a contested election coming up here in afew days and I thought it had more to do with the election and I still do than it has to do with any significantchange in the case or the facts of the case. Jim Glasgow is a fine State's Attorney - really a very goodState's Attorney. The people of Will County are lucky to have him as a State's Attorney. He does a great job.But on the other hand, he is a politician and politicians do have to get elected and re-elected andsometimes they say things that...more for the intent of getting elected than anythingelse. I think that'swhat we're dealing with here.PRETZER: Drew, I've asked you this question before but obviously you have a contingency plan when and if something like that does happen but you can't help but hear these things and your kids, especially your olderones, hear these things. How do you deal with that?PETERSON: You just get everybody ready for something. It's just like you prepare for the worst and if thebest happens you're delightfully surprised. That's about all I can...I do. You hear things and you've heard so

much things and you just deal with it each time. So contingencies are in place for the well being of thechildren and that's my main concern.PRETZER: One of the comments, or actually I guess several comments when I have you on, Drew, sent to meand one of them was "How dare you bringDrew Peterson on when he said on the anniversary of thedisappearance of Stacy Peterson, "Well, it's just another day"? Now I don't know if you said that or not. Ididn't hear you say that. But I'm going to ask your comments on that question.PETERSON: Well, it's my kids miss their mother every day. So, it's just like to celebrate it or to,whatchacallit, memorialize it, or whatever you say is a little out of line. If anyone else wants to do that it'ssomething that my family or my kids is just not going to get involved in. 'Cause we miss her being aroundevery day so it's like just another day. Same missing her.PRETZER: Joel Brodsky, we've talked about Geraldo Rivera and other people in the news. In fact, I againinvited Geraldo to come on tonight and got no response however he is quite quick to vilify you and yourclient in the media but when he comes to, when it comes to confronting the two of you on a forum thatsomebody else is moderating he doesn't want anything to do with that. The media maybe has slowed downa little bit but I'm curious. Your comments on how it's been going lately?BRODSKY: Well, I'm afraid it's going...I mean the one year anniversary, for lack of a better word, causedsome, a lot of media attention and then we're going to have the trial on the weapons charge coming up inDecember, during December 5

,and that's going to bring a lot of media attention to Drew's situation. It'sprobably going to be covered on a daily basis by everybody, but I think after we're past that hopefully thingswill calm down and go back to some semblance of normality for Drew. Because, there really is nothing that'sgoing to happen that's going to change things. It's, there was no evidence of any wrongdoing eleven monthsago and any wrongdoing six months ago and there's not going to be any evidence of any wrongdoing by Drewin a year. So I'm hoping after the weapons case is over things will start simmering down and Drew can getback to a semblance of some sort of normal life. I know it won't be 100% normal because the mom...Stacy'snot with the family. She's run off somewhere. At least as normal as it can ever be.PRETZER: Drew, I'm going to ask you this question. A police officer over thirty years. We usually put peoplebefore the courts. We usually don't go before the courts. Of course, there's this stigma about bad cops andthis cop did this bad and that cop did that bad. You're going to be going to trial on a weapons charge. You'regoing to be vilified again and again and again in the media. I'd like you to comment on that from theperspective of being a former police officer.PETERSON: Well, it's kind of a hard thing to deal with. I've led my life pretty honorable and I've donehonorable things. I think in thirty years I was disciplined once. That was for the actions of a subordinate,not for something that I'd done. So it's just like kind of hard to swallow. Being often portrayed the bad guywhen I led my life most honorably as I could. So everything I did in my police career was honorable things.I've guarded presidents and dignitaries and heads of state and had an exemplary arrest record, record as a

police officer and to now be looked upon as a bad guy - it's kind of a scary thing I'd say. More heartbreakingthan anything.PRETZER: Joel, you were going to say something?BRODSKY: Drew has, I hope he picks up on this, Drew has told me that he's particularly upset about thisweapons charge because the weapon in question he had got strictly for use in his department. It wasn't apersonal weapon. It was, he bought it at his own expense to use on duty and now they're trying to turn thatagainst him. I know that Drew expressed to me on several occasions how he felt about that.PETERSON: Here is something they want to charge me for having and it was particularly possessed and usedand carried and designed strictly to protect the people of Bolingbrook, people of the state of Illinois andnow to be charged with something that I did something wrong is kind of really an injustice. It's kind of a slapin the face pretty much for every police officer out there to know that something like this would happen.PRETZER: Joel Brodsky, would you consider this charge a 'fishing expedition"?BRODSKY: Yeah, it is. We've asserted, one of the defenses we've asserted is that, it's called "vindictiveprosecution" or saying that the state police caused this charge to be brought because Drew went into courtand got his weapons back – the guns that were his property. They were taken in the search warrant. Afterthe police had the opportunity to process it as evidence and record it and do all the ballistics tests andeverything that he went and got it back. And they didn't want to give it back at first, then they went andthey pulled his firearms owners license and then after that I forgot in order for the guns to go back to hiskids, his son Steven, another police officer, that he was charged and I really think that this charge is simplybrought by the state police to punish him for exercising his rights to get his property back - his weapons. Ithink we'll be able to show that to the jury and if we do the jury will have to come back, they'll beinstructed to come back with finding him not guilty.PRETZER: Drew Peterson and Joel Brodsky are here. Drew, the last time we had you on the program we weretalking to the author of the book that convinced you... I guess that's not the right term, you agreed to takea polygraph and some questions came back truthful. Some did not. We won't get into that. Joel was upsetwith you for taking that polygraph but how big was that to you to take that polygraph? Did you think thatwas a shot for this to all go away?PETERSON: Well basically I'd been convicted by the press and everybody's going to start yelling "Take apolygraph! Take a polygraph!" Well I did take a polygraph and the questions that came back were deceptivewere three of the nine questions and the questions that came back non-deceptive they were, "Did I hurtanybody? Did I do anything to anybody?" I said no and all those questions came back truthful. It basicallywas a response to, basically "OK, Shut up. I took your polygraph. I basically passed all the serious questions.”