EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect new information about participants in the proposed documentary.
It’s been 18 months since Drew Peterson’s former attorney told WGN Investigates he wanted to commit the Cardinal Sin of the legal profession and break attorney-client privilege by revealing what happened to two of his former client’s four wives.
Since then, Joel Brodsky has been gagged by the courts, reportedly faced financial hardship and seen his own efforts to sell the story devolve into a lawsuit.
WGN Investigates reviewed records from a federal lawsuit filed by Brodsky against an entertainment lawyer who was working with a production company on a documentary about the Peterson case. The contract, a copy of which was filed in the lawsuit, shows Brodsky agreed to collaborate on a documentary, including providing “information regarding Stacy Peterson including her current whereabouts” in exchange for a guaranteed payment of $55,000 plus a one-third share of producer proceeds if the project was sold.
Court filings also include emails in which Brodsky is said to have “financial difficulties” and may lose control of a “warehouse and a storage facility full of materials,” including audio and video recordings relevant to the Peterson case.
When reached for comment on the production deal and subsequent dispute, Brodsky denied money was his motivator.
“It wasn’t just me selling information and walking away,” Brodsky tells WGN Investigates. “It was doing a documentary and telling the entire Drew Peterson story which – believe me – is much deeper than Stacy or even Stacy and Kathy. There’s a lot more here. There’s other victims.”
Brodsky claims his knowledge – backed by records in his possession – would finally reveal what happened to Stacy Peterson. The Bolingbrook mother was just 23 years old and had only been married to Drew for a few years when she vanished in 2007. Her disappearance caused investigators to re-examine the 2004 death of Drew’s previous wife, Kathleen Savio. She was found dead in a dry bathtub. Her death was originally ruled an accidental drowning but later re-classified as murder. Peterson was convicted and sent to prison for Savio’s death but hasn’t been charged in Stacy’s disappearance.
“There’s some confession in there, yeah; but there’s also some stuff that’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” Brodsky said of his information and potential evidence.
The 2021 documentary deal with Tri-American Productions ended with Brodsky suing an entertainment attorney for more than $75,000 for breach of fiduciary duty. Attorneys for the entertainment lawyer, Cameron Stracher, said in a court filing Stracher was retained by Tri-American not Brodsky in the deal, he denies wrongdoing and asked a judge to dismiss the case.
“[Brodsky] made material misrepresentations about Drew Peterson’s waiver of any attorney-client privilege and his permission to disclose the truth of what happened to Stacy Peterson,” Stracher’s attorneys wrote. The response also notes Brodsky is under a gag-order preventing him from disclosing details about the case.
The response to the lawsuit also includes a link to a video Brodsky is said to have later made with a second production company aiming to get a documentary produced and sold.
The video recounts the unconventional national media tour Peterson and Brodsky chose in the early days of the investigation and features Brodsky looking straight into the camera and declaring: “I am offering this story exclusively to you so that the true story of Drew Peterson can be told and the truth regarding Kathy Savio and Stacy Peterson can be revealed.”
Brodsky told WGN Investigates the second production deal also fell apart, but he’s still hopeful he can share the story in documentary form.
Stacy Peterson’s sister, Cassandra Cales, called Brodsky’s participation in the project “disgusting.”
She originally denied Brodsky had consulted her, as he claimed. However, after the original report was broadcast, Brodsky provided a copy of what he said was a contract Cales signed in 2021 with Tri American Productions that offered her an upfront payment of $2,000 plus $500 per week of production to participate in a documentary tentatively titled “Where is Stacy Peterson.”
Cales now tells WGN Investigates: “It wasn’t about the money. [Brodsky] was promising me my sister and I didn’t even read the contract.”
Cales said she immediately grew concerned about the proposed project and withdrew within a month of signing the contract. Cales said she did not accept payment.
Representatives of the production companies – as well as Kathleen Savio’s family – did not respond to requests for comment. The public defender, who is currently working with Drew Peterson on a longshot bid to have his conviction thrown out, also did not respond to an inquiry.
Peterson’s central argument is that Brodsky provided him with ineffective counsel. Brodsky had his law license suspended on an unrelated case and has not sought to have it reinstated.