Peterson's attorney seeks change of venue

JOLIET — There's no justice for Drew Peterson in Joliet, the accused wife killer's lawyer claimed Thursday.

Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, filed a motion to have Peterson's murder trial moved out of Joliet.

Brodsky conceded that extensive questioning of potential jurors should be given a shot. But once that fails, he wants Peterson's murder case to hit the road.

Brodsky has been threatening to file a change of venue motion since shortly after Peterson was charged with murder in May.

In his motion, Brodsky blamed the media for having "prejudiced the jury pool," and claimed the Internet search engine Google returned 2.95 million results for Drew Peterson.

"This is almost double the amount of results of a Google search for 'Rod Blagojevich,'" according to the motion.

Peterson and Blagojevich share more than millions of Google results. The disgraced former Bolingbrook cop and the disgraced former Illinois governor are represented by the same Florida-based publicist. Brodsky's law firm is also represented by the publicist.

Brodsky failed to return calls for comment Thursday.

Murder trial

Brodsky's motion will be argued in court Aug. 14.

The start of Peterson's trial on charges he murdered his third wife, Kathleen Savio, is expected to be tentatively scheduled as well.

In addition to facing murder charges in connection with Savio's March 2004 death, Peterson is the sole suspect in the state police investigation into his fourth wife's disappearance.

State police believe the missing wife, Stacy Peterson, who vanished in Oct. 2007, is the victim of a "potential homicide."

Allegations of prejudice

In his motion to have the murder case moved, Brodsky took a shot at Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow's office for a Feb. 21 press release titled "Pathologist declares Kathleen Savio's death a homicide," which he claims "prejudiced the jury pool in regards to the most contested fact of the entire case — namely the manner of death."

Charles B. Pelkie, the spokesman for the state's attorney's office, pointed out that Peterson's "name is not even mentioned" in the release and argued prosecutors have done nothing to poison the jury pool.

"The state's attorney has adopted a very strict interpretation of the Supreme Court rules regarding pretrial publicity," Pelkie said. "We follow both the spirit and the letter of those rules.

"We release only information that the public has a right to know," Pelkie added. "We've taken every step possible to ensure that this office did not contribute to the media frenzy that surrounded this case."

Brodsky and Peterson, on the other hand, have plunged head first into the media frenzy, with both attorney and client making numerous TV appearances since Stacy Peterson's disappearance nearly two years ago.

Even after his arrest on the murder charges, Peterson continued to thrust himself into the public eye by calling an AM radio station from the county jail to tell jokes.

A judge has since forbidden Peterson to call anyone but those on a pre-approved list.