Fun not in the cards for Drew?
JOLIET -- Drew Peterson's days of card playing with his lawyer and calling into radio shows from the county jail appear to be over.
Judge Stephen White ordered Peterson to compile a list of phone numbers for his family, friends and attorneys, and told the accused wife-murderer to limit his calls to these people.
White made the ruling during a Wednesday afternoon hearing in which he also ordered Peterson's attorneys to contact him and the state's Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission if they plan to appear on television or grant interviews to the media.
On top of that, Assistant State's Attorney Nicole Moore argued at the hearing that Peterson should be forbidden from playing cards with his attorneys when they visit him in jail. Peterson and one of his attorneys, Joel Brodsky, were caught in the middle of a game last month.
The face-to-face visits with his attorneys are a special privilege and a burden on the jail's staff, Moore said.
White actually shot down Moore's case, but Brodsky conceded he and Peterson will not be playing anymore.
"(White) didn't say no card playing," Brodsky said. "He said abide by the rules of the jail."
And while there may be no regulations forbidding card playing on the books, Brodsky said, "I'm assuming the jail has changed its rules to prohibit card playing."
Another of Peterson's attorneys, Andrew Abood, explained that Brodsky was playing cards with Peterson in an attempt to calm him.
"He was trying to relax his client in an uncomfortable environment," Abood said, claiming that spending nearly the last month in isolation has made Peterson "sluggish and slow."
Peterson has been segregated from other inmates because he is a former police officer and due to the notoriety of his murder case.
At the conclusion of the hearing, prosecutors turned over six cardboard boxes containing two copies of discovery documents numbering 9,464 pages each. Peterson's attorneys have a week to surrender their discovery evidence to the state.
White ruled that the names of all witnesses be kept secret and prohibited attorneys from publicly identifying them.
The ruling by White was less than what State's Attorney James Glasgow had asked for. Glasgow last week requested a gag order be imposed on all discovery evidence. Brodsky objected to this and claimed publicity was beneficial to the defense of Peterson.
"When things are published in the newspapers, people come forward," he said.
"That helps our defense," Brodsky said. "We don't have a team of 100 investigators."
White scheduled Peterson's trial to start Aug. 24, but Brodsky said that some time before that date he will file to either have the case taken out of Will County or to have a jury shipped in from elsewhere.