Wednesday, May 5, 2010

It's $$$ Day! How much will Casey Anthony's defense team get?

Tomorrow at 9:00 AM, there will be a hearing between Judge Belvin Perry, the JAC (the money people) and Casey Anthony's attorneys Jose Baez and Cheney Mason.

Money will be the one and only issue discussed. According to Judge Perry's ORDER, the defense is to be prepared to provide information about the budget for the case which, among other items:

...an estimate of the number of hours to be expended by expert witnesses and whether those witnesses can comply with JAC rates.

InSession has just announced that they will be airing the hearing live. I'm sure all the regular outlets will air the hearing as well.

As for the civil case hearing yesterday, it was literally over before it began. There was a video feed, but no sound. Later on, WFTV reported that:

During a pre-trial hearing Tuesday afternoon, a judge delayed the start date for the civil trial Casey Anthony is facing.

The trial had been scheduled for June 14, but because of things not being completed, rulings still awaiting decisions and more information to review, both parties said they would not be ready for the June date.

Instead, the judge said that the trial wouldn’t start until the first quarter of next year, but a date has not been set.

Read more details HERE from the Orlando Sentinel.

Tomorrow should be another interesting hearing!

UPDATE!

It is being reported by WESH that

Anthony's lawyers are asking the judge to seal all state records indicating how her defense is funded.

In a new motion, Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, argues public disclosure of invoices they submit for reimbursement will lead to "rampant speculation as to the defense strategy."

Thanks to Muzikman over at Websleuths for the pertinent documents!

Motion to Seal All Justice Administration Commission Documents

Amended Motion For Justice Administration Commission
Hearing And Motion For Approval Of Out Of State Mitigation
Specialist An Expert Witnesses


Both motions were filed by Jose Baez yesterday at 4:18 PM.

The first motion is very simple. It states that the JAC is a State agency and is subject to public access. He then indicates that the JAC allows records to be sealed if a a court order is obtained, although he cites no rules or statutes.

His reason is stated in the 4th paragraph (the second #3).

Documents and requests for funding will lead to endless speculation as to the Defense strategy for defending Miss. Anthony and could ultimately affect her right to a fair trial.

The second motion asks the Court's permission to use out-of-state experts. Throughout the motion, Baez makes reference to the fact that these experts have already spent many hours working on the case and going over discovery. It would be a waste of the State's money to have Florida experts start from the beginning.

All of the experts mentioned are willing to work for the fee stipulated by the JAC. Experts specifically named in the motion are:

Ms. Jeanene Barrett - Mitigation Specialist

Mortimer Smith - Investigator

Other than those two, the rest are listed under Out Of State Expert Witnesses.

As usual, there is a portion of this motion which I find especially interesting. In this case, it is paragraph 18 in the expert witness section. It provides a window into Baez' interpretation of the case.

18. The natural progression of this case through it's (sic) twists and turns has left all parties never knowing what will happen next, much less being able to anticipate the opposing parties next move, at least from a defense standpoint.

I find this part quite interesting because Baez is saying that it's the State that is causing him to never know what is coming next. I'd contend that the State has even more difficulty guessing what the defense will pull next.

What started out as a Child neglect case quickly catapulted into a homicide investigation to a First Degree Murder Indictment without a body, to one with a body, to a full blown Death Penalty Case. The argument being that it was extremely difficult to anticipate what type of case will ultimately go to trial?

I would guess that the constant changing of the nature of the case was that Casey Anthony was the one who didn't report her child missing for 31 days (child neglect). It was her car that reeked of death. (homicide) Once Caylee's remains were found with duct tape over the face, we were up to a death penalty case.

The last sentence there leave me baffled and confused as it starts as a statement and ends as a question.

The fact is that this case has had as many twists and turns as there have been lies and deceit by Ms. Anthony and her supporters.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought that hearing was going to be monday

ritanita said...

The hearing Monday is for non-death penalty motions.

The hearing Tuesday is for death penalty motions.

FRG said...

Ritanita,
Thanks for the article!
It's anybody's guess if Judge Perry will seal KC's witness list right? Why is JB trying to be secretive now? We all know all of the expert witness he will be calling, they were all over the National Media, weren't they?
BTW, I will be very very mad if JP allows defense to get out of State Experts. Does JB want us to believe defense's experts were working for a bag of oranges?
In my layperson opinion defense has no defense since Zenaida was never found, or was she? I find it very unlikely KC will take the stand to change her kidnapping story and what defense is trying to do is just blowing smoke. KC is fried!!! Jurors are not stupid and I hope they won't fall for what defense will try to do which is "alienate the jurors".
We will see what happens.
Ritanita, I have a question for you, you told me AL is working pro-bono, what about CM and JB??? Will all of them be paid for their costs??? What costs will JB have? He lives in Kissimmee right?
Thank you very much.

ritanita said...

FRG, I hope you read the final version of the article!

I kept adding to it as the news was breaking.

I think that if Baez can prove it would be more expensive to start over with experts (say the Mitigation Specialist) than pay them the schedule fee and travel, it could happen.

I did notice he mentioned that people had analyzed evidence (obviously not the physical evidence) as well.

I have no idea what the judge will decide on all of this, it's out of my league. But at least we will hear the answers tomorrow.

Tomorrow is going to be a learning experience for us all.

As for Baez, I really don't know his situation.

Boy aren't I (not) informative today!