Judge's Son Changed Mind About Pleading Guilty, Didn't Have To Bother Showing Up For Court

A judge’s son scheduled to plead in a felony domestic battery case Thursday changed his mind and didn’t even have to show up for court.

Grundy County Judge Robert Marsaglia gave Louis Goode — the son of Will County Judge Carla Alessio Policandriotes — a pass for his afternoon court appearance, said special prosecutor Charles Colburn.

Goode had backed out of pleading and, since the deal wasn’t getting done, Judge Marsaglia excused his presence, Colburn explained.

Goode, 30, has only bothered going to court on his felony case twice in the last nine months, according to county records. His presence was waived at two other hearings in addition to Thursday’s, court records show.

Goode pulled out of his scheduled plea due to problems he encountered with an unrelated criminal case in Missouri, said his attorney, public defender Edward Jaquays.

Goode, on probation for pleading guilty to felony cocaine possession in Callaway County, Missouri, faces possible prison time in that state. Callaway County prosecutors moved to revoke Goode’s probation following his October 2014 arrest for allegedly brutalizing his girlfriend, 30-year-old Tanya Brandolino. Brandolino is also the mother of Goode’s child.

Jaquays, said he had been told a deal was reached in the Missouri case and that Goode found it acceptable, but circumstances changed.

“He’s a little distraught and looking into hiring a new attorney in Missouri,” Jaquays said.

Goode had been willing to take a deal in his Joliet case but wants the one in Missouri to fall in line with it, Jaquays said.

Colburn said he is not willing to reduce Goode’s Will County case to a misdemeanor.

Goode was arrested for allegedly battering and harassing Brandolino, and at one point locking her in the trunk of a car. In police reports obtained by Patch, detectives said Goode explained how Brandolino attacked him while he was sleeping because he took $70 out of her wallet to buy cocaine “for both of them.”

Brandolino “threatened to take his son away from him,” the report said, so Goode told detectives he “grabbed (redacted) by the arm and dragged her to the car and put her inside the trunk.”

“Louis stated that he told (redacted) that he would drive the car off of a cliff,” the report said.

The couple went to bed after Goode let Brandolino out of the trunk, police said, but the abuse resumed the following morning. The reports indicate that Judge Alessio Policandriotes even witnessed her son battering his girlfriend, but instead of reporting the crime, she chose to drive him to the first day of his new job at the Will County Courthouse. Goode was able to secure the county job despite his plea to the felony cocaine case in Missouri.

Brandolino has accused Judge Alessio Policandriotes of looking on as her son made a death threat.

“She got out of the car and said Lou get in the car,” Brandolino said in a petition for a protective order against Goode.

“He then threw the phone into the garage (and) he said in front of his mother I’m going to kill you you’ll never get custody of your son better get a good lawyer,” Brandolino said.

Judge Marsaglia, who was appointed to Goode’s case to avoid the appearance of a conflict, sealed the entire court file for the protective order, effectively making it disappear from public view. Marsaglia also reduced Goode’s bail from $5,000 to $2,000, and allowed him to leave the state for eight days last month so he could go to Texas.