Peterson attorney no stranger to controversy
The newest member of the Drew Peterson defense team is no stranger to controversy.
In fact, state officials once accused Naperville attorney John Paul Carroll of single-handedly bankrupting a fund for indigent defendants facing possible death sentences, later sparking oversight reforms.
A Will County grand jury handed up a May 7 first-degree murder indictment against Peterson, charging him with the 2004 drowning of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.
The 55-year-old retired Bolingbrook police sergeant maintains his innocence. His lead attorney, Joel Brodsky, announced after Monday's arraignment that Carroll had joined the four-member defense team.
Brodsky cited the considerable experience of Carroll, a former Chicago homicide detective, but his handling of a downstate death penalty case continues to be a subject of debate.
Illinois lawmakers passed oversight reforms to the taxpayer-supported state capital litigation fund in 2005 as a direct result of Carroll's bill for his defense of Cecil Sutherland, on death row for the July 1987 sex slaying of a 10-year-old girl in rural Jefferson County.
Carroll represented Sutherland in his 2004 retrial, in which the attorney submitted a $2 million bill, including $900,000 in legal fees, prompting outrage from state legislators. Among his bills, Carroll charged $135.68 an hour for the time it took to pack his van at his former Minnesota home and drive to Illinois.
He later opened a Naperville office.
"He is the poster boy for capital litigation abuse," said Kati Phillips, a spokeswoman for Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose office oversees the capital litigation fund.
Philips said Carroll's billing directly led to reforms that require judges to preapprove defense attorneys' hourly rates and budgets before they may tap into the state fund.
Carroll never faced any formal discipline for his billing in the Sutherland case, but state officials said they began looking into it further last summer after he was appointed to another death penalty case involving the state fund.
A Kane County judge appointed Carroll in June 2008 to defend Darren Denson, who may face a death sentence if convicted of killing an Elgin drug dealer Feb. 11, 2003.
In Will County, prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty against Drew Peterson for Savio's murder. That may change, however, if Peterson is ever charged in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy.
A special Will County grand jury ended its term this week with issuing only a Savio indictment. Savio, 40, was found March 1, 2004, in a dry bathtub in her Bolingbrook home, her hair soaked in blood from a head wound, just before the former couple's divorce settlement was finalized. She also had bruises and cuts elsewhere on her body.
Carroll did not respond to Daily Herald interview requests, but Brodsky defended him. Brodsky argues Carroll's past billing is not an issue because Peterson prosecutors lack enough evidence to win a conviction, much less seek a death sentence.
"(Carroll) knows more about proper procedure and protocol in a homicide investigation than probably anyone in this state," Brodsky said. "He was just doing what needed to be done."
In the 1990s, Carroll's law license was suspended for 18 months, according to the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission. An ARDC disciplinary panel found Carroll filed false income tax returns, gave inaccurate accounting to a client, and charged an excessive fee, according to an agency report.
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