(MCT) — JOLIET, Ill. — Joel Brodsky, once the lead attorney in Drew Peterson's murder trial, was waiting in the hallway Tuesday when his former legal teammates asked that he be brought to the stand.

Brodsky refused to enter the courtroom, and a deputy relayed the message to the court that Brodsky expected to be called by the state, not by his former fellow attorneys. The refusal drew laughs in the courtroom but a rebuke from Judge Edward Burmila.

"A subpoenaed witness is a subpoenaed witness; there is no such thing as a state's witness," Burmila responded with a sigh to a sheriff's deputy. "Tell Mr. Brodsky to enter the courtroom."