Joel Brodsky. (Courtesy of Joel Brodsky)

Joel Brodsky, who seized the national spotlight by representing convicted wife killer Drew Peterson before being stripped of his license to practice law, is running to represent Lakeview on the Chicago City Council.

Brodsky also represented former Chicago Police Officer Robert Rialmo, who shot and killed 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, who called police while suffering a mental health crisis, and his downstairs neighbor, Bettie Jones, in December 2015. Rialmo was fired in October 2019.

Brodsky told WTTW News while laughing that he decided to run for City Council to take advantage of “all of the bribes” offered to alderpeople. 

Later, Brodsky said he was running for the City Council to make Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “political life as miserable as possible” while tackling crime and police reform. 

“I’m highly qualified on those issues,” said Brodsky, who said he is not a member of the Democratic Party and criticized President Joe Biden as an ineffective leader. Elections for the Chicago City Council are nonpartisan.

Brodsky said he would also work to ease the ban on the sale of flavored liquid nicotine products passed by the City Council in September 2020.

Brodsky has not reported any campaign contributions to state officials, records show.

Ald. Tom Tunney announced in August he would not seek a sixth term as 44th Ward alderperson. Tunney, who is weighing a run for mayor, endorsed his chief of staff Bennett Lawson on the same day he announced he would not run again for the City Council.

That would be “more of the same” in the ward that includes Wrigley Field and the Northalsted community once known as Boystown, Brodsky said.

Brodsky represented Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, when he was convicted in 2012 of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004. Peterson also was a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, who has never been found.

The Illinois Supreme Court stripped Brodsky of his law license in 2019 on the recommendation of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the state agency responsible for disciplining lawyers, for engaging “in conduct that threatens irreparable injury to the public and to the orderly administration of justice.”

Brodsky told WGN News in May that he was considering revealing what he knows about Peterson, who is presumed dead, violating rules that prohibit attorneys from disclosing confidential information from current or former clients. Will County Judge Edward Burmila ordered Brodsky not to discuss what Peterson told him, issuing a gag order.

Brodsky, who has been working as a consultant and investigator, said he has no plans to ask state officials to reinstate his law license.

“It is much more fun, and I get out of the office,” said Brodsky, adding that he has been more “harshly punished” than other attorneys because of his outspokenness.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]