Casey Anthony sits in her cell awaiting her release on Sunday, July 17, while we sit and wonder where she’ll go, how she’ll remain incognito, and whether she’ll resume her party girl existence of days of yore. Although her attorneys have given few clues about Ms. Anthony’s plans once she exits the slammer, a few current events might require a little toe dancing if she is to disappear into the landscape. All will not be peaches and cream for the nubile prevaricator when she gets out.
Lots of developments have arisen over the past week. What follow here are some of the little hitches as well as some of the continuing circus machinations that face Miss Mendacious on her release from the slammer.
González Suit
On the evening of the day on which a jury found her not guilty of all felony counts, Anthony was served a subpoena to appear at the offices of plaintiff counsel Morgan & Morgan on July 19, two days after her release, for a deposition in the civil case González v. Anthony. One Zenaida Fernández-González of neighboring Osceola County is suing Anthony for sullying her name during the plethora of lies Casey used to cover up the disappearance of her daughter for thirty-one days. A woman named Zenaida Fernández-González was named by Anthony as the babysitter who first was tending to Caylee and then absconded with her. Ms. González is represented by noted Orlando personal injury/accident contingency attorney John Morgan, whose slogan is “For the People.”
I’m not sure how well Morgan has done with defamation suits in the past, but he’s been rather successful in his main line of work. Still, this one is a stretch. There are probably 1200 Zenaida Gonzálezes in the Bronx telephone directory. What makes it interesting is her hyphen: she’s a Fernández-González. There are probably only 12 of them in the Bronx directory. Actually, I have no idea, but those are extremely common Spanish surnames, and I’ve known a couple of Zenaidas in my time (not carnally); thus, Zenaida is not uncommon as a given name. The field having been whittled down just a bit, I’ve now got to wonder what tricks Morgan has up his sleeve to let the other side think he has enough proof of Ms. González being damaged by Casey Calumny’s damn lies to win in court, so he can squeeze a settlement out of them.
Earlier this week, Mr. Morgan expressed concern that Ms. Anthony would immediately change her appearance and skip town upon her release. Yesterday, Morgan filed an emergency motion asking Judge José Rodriguez to compel Casey’s appearance at the deposition saying he’s worried she might leave the area. He also requested a hearing and suggested that Anthony’s deposition could be taken in jail. Anthony’s civil attorney Charles Greene filed a fiery response this morning. Greene’s response asked Judge Rodríguez to cancel the hearing, stop the deposition and schedule a case management conference which would, essentially, set up how the case should proceed.
It’s the usual lawyer stall tactic. One of the reasons Greene gave was that Casey needed to have counsel available and present for the proceedings, but Green had a trial starting (conveniently) on Tuesday. He said that if Ms. Anthony was required to testify this week, she would have no recourse but to assert her Fifth Amendment rights. (In this Turkey’s non-legal mind, he thought that the Fifth Amendment affected only one’s right not to testify for one’s self in criminal trials, not civil proceedings. But who am I?) Further, Greene said that Casey was worn out from the trial, and there’s no need to consider this an emergency. Like give her time to rest up.
Yeah, and presumably escape. I’m expecting Casey to suddenly become a short-haired blonde with a pocket full of airline tickets. Defense counsel Cheney Mason, on the NBC Today show, said that she would have to disappear for a while to escape all those who would potentially harm her. When asked if Ms. Anthony would be leaving the country, Mason chortled, “It’s her country as much as anyone else’s.” Meanwhile, lead defense counsel José Baez says her plans are a secret. They better be, as Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings has stated that the county does not intend to provide any special considerations for Ms. Anthony. Mr. Baez met with her today in jail under attorney client privilege. No details were divulged.
In any case, a meeting will be held at 8 AM on Friday to determine who does what to whom with respect to González v. Anthony.
Texas EquuSearch Suit
On Tuesday afternoon, volunteer search outfit Texas EquuSearch filed a lawsuit against Casey Anthony, asking for $112,000 in expenses incurred by the organization to search for Caylee Anthony. Because of Casey the EquuVocator’s bald faced lies, the volunteer group was sent on a wild goose chase. EquuBoss Tim Miller was particularly peeved about the defense’s statement that Caylee was never missing. If Caylee was never missing, then why the hell was Texas EquuSearch called in? “It was Jose Baez’s opening statement when he said Caylee was never missing because she had died, that got me really upset,” Miller said. “We were lied to and misled.” Miller’s non-profit group had to turn down 15 other families that asked for assistance in 2008 because they were searching for Caylee, he said.
Here is the press release from the Texas EquuSearch web site:
07/12/11 — With the advice of our legal counsel, Marc Wites and Alex Kapetan of Wites & Kapetan, and the approval of our Board of Directors, Texas EquuSearch has filed a civil suit against Casey Anthony in an effort to recoup expenses in the search for Caylee Anthony. This case was filed in the 9th Judicial District Circuit in and for Orange County, FL; styled Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery v. Casey Anthony; Cause No. 11-CA-8475. A copy of the Complaint will be available on our website later this afternoon.
For a downloadable copy of the Complaint, click here.
State of Florida Seeks to Recover Prosecution Costs
You might recall that after the verdict was rendered and the trial wound down, the prosecution asked the judge for a conference to address the State seeking more than $500,000 in investigation and prosecution costs from Ms. Anthony. Again, the premise is that Caylee was never missing, according to the defense, and the soft-soaping Anthonys all knew where she was all along. Absent any mystery, the State would not have had to investigate anything. In a way, the “not guilty” verdict on the felony counts against Casey hammered down the State’s claim that the time spent on the case was wasted. In my non-legal, off the top of my head opinion, I’ve got to think this one is a long shot. A conference between the opposing counsel and Judge Perry will take place in late August.
