The battle over the TES records has reached new heights as George and Cindy Anthony's latest attorney, Brad Conway resigned as of their attorney. This latest development comes after a heated trading of accusations between Mark NeJame, TES counsel and Jose Baez, Casey Anthony's long-time "lead" attorney.
Baez started hurling accusations at NeJame in his Response To Motion To Quash The Court's Order . In a long part of the motion which accused NeJame of all sorts of nefarious behavior, Baez stated:
13. The Defense grew increasingly concerned that Mr. Nejame has a direct conflict of interest in this matter as he is representing Texas Equusearch in a substantially related matter, whose interests conflict with that of his former clients. See Exhibit "B". What is more disturbing is that he has used his position with Texas Equusearch to compel his former clients to sign a waiver of conflict in exchange for their new lawyer reviewing the Equusearch documents. Exhibit "B". This can under no circumstances be considered a knowing and voluntary waiver. Furthermore, after George and Cindy Anthony withdrew their waiver. Mr. Nejame falsely claimed that the waiver is "valid and cannot be recanted." This court cannot allow Mr. Nejame to continue in this matter given the obvious conflict of interest. Furthermore, it is the defenses position that Mr. Nejame is using this case to further promote his own interests. (bold mine)
Of course, the infamous "Exhibit "B" contains the letter from Conway's clients to Mark NeJame, in which they rescinded their waiver. This was probably the same waiver of conflict of interest that Conway had waved before the court on more than one occasion to bolster NeJame's assertion that there was no conflict of interest in his representation of TES.
Mark NeJame's Reply to Defendant's Response to Motion to Quash the Court's Order on Defendant's Application for Subpoena Duces Tecum for the Documents in the Possession of Texas Equusearch Based on Bad Faith responded to the accusation by stating:
4. In the Defendant's response they falsely claim that the undersigned compelled a waiver of conflict from Mr. and Mrs. Anthony in exchange for allowing their attorney, Brad Conway, to review the TES files. In the time that the Defense took to write this ludicrous and untrue response, they could and should have performed their due diligence and contacted Brad Conway, attorney for George and Cindy Anthony, who would have informed them that these allegations were frivolous, untrue and lacked any measure whatsoever of truthfulness or veracity. Mr. NeJame has communicated with Mr. Conway as recently as yesterday morning and Mr. Conway reconfirmed that no consideration was offered whatsoever to review the TES documents and that Mr. NeJame's act was that of compassion for the grandparents, with no consideration of anything in return.
The defense attorneys should have simply done a modicum of work or expended the most minimal effort by checking their facts and calling Mr. Conway, rather than filing deceptive, untruthful, irrelevant and outlandish pleadings. Mr. Conway is an ethical, respected member of the Bar and is well aware of the truth and the facts surrounding this specious allegation contained in Defendant's pleadings and confirms them to be untrue.
This latest claim by the defense placed Conway in an untenable situation in regards to his clients. NeJame is clearly stating that their attorney has verified his position.
Brad Conway's letter of resignation:
WESH published a copy of Conway's resigation letter:
With regret I am forced to resign as George and Cindy Anthonys attorney. The defense motion filed on August 9, 2010 contains allegations that are not in fact true. As an officer of the court I cannot stand idly by knowing allegations involving me have been misstated. I am now a witness to an inaccurate legal pleading filed in our court system. As such, I cannot continue in good conscience as a legal representative. George and Cindy Anthony have done nothing improper, it is the failure of the defense to verify the facts alleged in their motion that forces my withdrawal. I will continue to support the Anthonys, will continue to attend hearings and the eventual trial and most importantly I will continue to search for the full truth regarding the killing of Caylee Marie Anthony.
Bradley A. Conway, Esq. Law Office of Bradley A. Conway 189 S. Orange Ave. Suite 1850 Orlando, Fl. Office: 407-246-0803 Fax: 407-386-3114
Notice that Conway doesn't put any of the blame on Georg and Cindy Anthony. He puts it all squarely on Baez, as well he should. The defense did not verify their facts and he joins with NeJame in indicating that that is the issue at hand.
Conway couldn't say anything else without breaching his attorney-client privilege. However, one has to wonder if he was ticked off at being the conduit for information between the Anthony's and Mark NeJame. See Baez' Exhibit C.
I have a feeling he's felt like the monkey-in-the-middle for a long time. Now, he has jumped out of the middle and steered himself closer to Mark NeJame in regards to the waiver of immunity.
This morning, Brad Conway appeared on The Today Show. Here is the video:
As for Jose Baez, InSession broadcast a response from him this morning. Host Vinnie Politan quoted Baez as saying:
Brad Conway sat in my office with me and Andrea Lyon and told us that the only way he could view the documents was if George and Cindy signed a waiver.
I'm not really sure if that answers the question, we'll have to watch the news coming out. Stay tuned here for updates!
The obvious question is, what happens next? Will there be a TES hearing with the laywers duking it out as to who is telling the truth? Will Judge Belvin Perry simply rule in chambers on the merits of the motion? Will he call all the attorneys into chambers for a "Come to Jesus" talk? Will their be charges to the Florida Bar?
So many questions! Your guess is as good as mine!
WESH
Baez started hurling accusations at NeJame in his Response To Motion To Quash The Court's Order . In a long part of the motion which accused NeJame of all sorts of nefarious behavior, Baez stated:
13. The Defense grew increasingly concerned that Mr. Nejame has a direct conflict of interest in this matter as he is representing Texas Equusearch in a substantially related matter, whose interests conflict with that of his former clients. See Exhibit "B". What is more disturbing is that he has used his position with Texas Equusearch to compel his former clients to sign a waiver of conflict in exchange for their new lawyer reviewing the Equusearch documents. Exhibit "B". This can under no circumstances be considered a knowing and voluntary waiver. Furthermore, after George and Cindy Anthony withdrew their waiver. Mr. Nejame falsely claimed that the waiver is "valid and cannot be recanted." This court cannot allow Mr. Nejame to continue in this matter given the obvious conflict of interest. Furthermore, it is the defenses position that Mr. Nejame is using this case to further promote his own interests. (bold mine)
Of course, the infamous "Exhibit "B" contains the letter from Conway's clients to Mark NeJame, in which they rescinded their waiver. This was probably the same waiver of conflict of interest that Conway had waved before the court on more than one occasion to bolster NeJame's assertion that there was no conflict of interest in his representation of TES.
Mark NeJame's Reply to Defendant's Response to Motion to Quash the Court's Order on Defendant's Application for Subpoena Duces Tecum for the Documents in the Possession of Texas Equusearch Based on Bad Faith responded to the accusation by stating:
4. In the Defendant's response they falsely claim that the undersigned compelled a waiver of conflict from Mr. and Mrs. Anthony in exchange for allowing their attorney, Brad Conway, to review the TES files. In the time that the Defense took to write this ludicrous and untrue response, they could and should have performed their due diligence and contacted Brad Conway, attorney for George and Cindy Anthony, who would have informed them that these allegations were frivolous, untrue and lacked any measure whatsoever of truthfulness or veracity. Mr. NeJame has communicated with Mr. Conway as recently as yesterday morning and Mr. Conway reconfirmed that no consideration was offered whatsoever to review the TES documents and that Mr. NeJame's act was that of compassion for the grandparents, with no consideration of anything in return.
The defense attorneys should have simply done a modicum of work or expended the most minimal effort by checking their facts and calling Mr. Conway, rather than filing deceptive, untruthful, irrelevant and outlandish pleadings. Mr. Conway is an ethical, respected member of the Bar and is well aware of the truth and the facts surrounding this specious allegation contained in Defendant's pleadings and confirms them to be untrue.
This latest claim by the defense placed Conway in an untenable situation in regards to his clients. NeJame is clearly stating that their attorney has verified his position.
Brad Conway's letter of resignation:
WESH published a copy of Conway's resigation letter:
With regret I am forced to resign as George and Cindy Anthonys attorney. The defense motion filed on August 9, 2010 contains allegations that are not in fact true. As an officer of the court I cannot stand idly by knowing allegations involving me have been misstated. I am now a witness to an inaccurate legal pleading filed in our court system. As such, I cannot continue in good conscience as a legal representative. George and Cindy Anthony have done nothing improper, it is the failure of the defense to verify the facts alleged in their motion that forces my withdrawal. I will continue to support the Anthonys, will continue to attend hearings and the eventual trial and most importantly I will continue to search for the full truth regarding the killing of Caylee Marie Anthony.
Bradley A. Conway, Esq. Law Office of Bradley A. Conway 189 S. Orange Ave. Suite 1850 Orlando, Fl. Office: 407-246-0803 Fax: 407-386-3114
Notice that Conway doesn't put any of the blame on Georg and Cindy Anthony. He puts it all squarely on Baez, as well he should. The defense did not verify their facts and he joins with NeJame in indicating that that is the issue at hand.
Conway couldn't say anything else without breaching his attorney-client privilege. However, one has to wonder if he was ticked off at being the conduit for information between the Anthony's and Mark NeJame. See Baez' Exhibit C.
I have a feeling he's felt like the monkey-in-the-middle for a long time. Now, he has jumped out of the middle and steered himself closer to Mark NeJame in regards to the waiver of immunity.
This morning, Brad Conway appeared on The Today Show. Here is the video:
As for Jose Baez, InSession broadcast a response from him this morning. Host Vinnie Politan quoted Baez as saying:
Brad Conway sat in my office with me and Andrea Lyon and told us that the only way he could view the documents was if George and Cindy signed a waiver.
I'm not really sure if that answers the question, we'll have to watch the news coming out. Stay tuned here for updates!
The obvious question is, what happens next? Will there be a TES hearing with the laywers duking it out as to who is telling the truth? Will Judge Belvin Perry simply rule in chambers on the merits of the motion? Will he call all the attorneys into chambers for a "Come to Jesus" talk? Will their be charges to the Florida Bar?
So many questions! Your guess is as good as mine!
WESH
Posts
17 comments:
Ritanita,
Thanks for your great article!!
OMG, I am really stunned. I respect Conway for resigning and certainly in search for the truth.
Now, who would I believe? JB or Conway? You know my answer, JB has lied about the recording of the phone calls between Robin Lunceford and himself. In fact, I believe there would be no need for this mess, JB should be looking for "Zenaida Fernandez Gonzalez", a fabrication of his client's delusional mind, not TES records. I just hope there will be a hearing on this matter, certainly sparks will fly. Judge Perry is a wise man and he will make the right decision. We will have to wait and see.
When you think you have seen everything there you have it, more twists and turns.
"Brad Conway sat in my office with me and Andrea Lyon and told us that the only way he could view the documents was if George and Cindy signed a waiver."
Well Andrea should be able to verify that. If she can't then Baez is hosed because his reputation with the court is somewhere around baseboard level.
This case is a full blown circus with three big rings of entertainment:
1.Casey's parents, who appear on TV every week showing us more and more of their delusions...
2. The tragedy of the case itself and a little girl who never had a chance in that family...
3. The he said/he said/he said attorneys that accuse each other of something new each week.
I imagine Brad will be having a steak and a bottle of wine tonight just to celebrate!
Could someone explain this to me? Why would an attorney resign simply because another attorney makes allegations about him? Why can't he just say "those allegations are false and should be retracted" (or something to that effect)
I guess this makes me look dumb, but I really don't understand this move. Help!
Thanks in advance
Rockytop
Rockytop,
You ask a very good question!
There are lots of reasons Conway could have left off representing the Anthony's, but we'll probably never know all his reasons.
The route he chose was a logical one. When Baez wrote his reply to NeJame's motion, he put Conway smack dab in the middle of the issue of the TES records. According to Conway, Baez was not truthful in his pleading and the information that is not truthful concerns Mr. Conway. Should this information be argued in a hearing, Conway could very well be called as a witness by the State to indicate Baez was untruthful.
That would be in conflict with his former clients as they back up what Baez says with their e-mails and letter to NeJame.
I just read at the Orlando Sentinel that the defense attorneys, NeJame, and the State's attorneys were called into Judge Perry's chambers for a meeting.
We will never know what happened in that meeting, but it couldn't have been pretty!
Thanks Ritanita,
That helps a lot and I suppose more will come out a bit later anyway.
I guess I would have thought that Mr Conway would have waited to resign if and only if he was called as a witness in a hearing. It makes me wonder if he was
"hoping" for a way out. I can't imagine what it must be like representing those two nut cases!
Thanks again. I love this site! You guys know a lot more than I do about legal stuff and I like learning about it.
Rockytop
Ritanita,
I believe you watched the press conference JB and CM called today. What did you make of it?
In my opinion they did that to give people the impression they (defense) had gained access to TES records, in a way that they won he battle, that's the impression I had. In fact "nothing has changed", Judge Perry's ruling continues the same as before from my understanding. Also it was a way to lash out at Conway and Mr. NeJame. Who were they thinking they were fooling??? Not me, it was a waste of time!!! It seems that JB and CM can't get away from the cameras... They should be at Mr. NeJame 's office taking a look at the TES documents! They are so pathetic!!
Also I heard Laura Buchanan was deposed today, I am curious to read her statements.
It's itneresting to listen to the presser. The first thing I noticed was that after reading from his latest gadget, he makes a point of saying that Conway has offices in the same building as NeJame and had unlimited time to view the documents. I'm sure he could have taken the necessary time, if he wasn't so busy giving these meaningless pressers!
If he had just followed the original instructions, this would never have become an issue at all.
You are so right in your assessment.
I am looking forward to the judge's order on all of this.
Here's the addy for the presser:
http://www.wftv.com/video/24651478/index.html
When will the collateral damage end?
Does the factual truth mean anything to Baez et al? Before dragging Mr. Conway into the mama trauma drama, Baez should have taken the time to research the facts. And why didn’t Baez include Lyon’s supporting affidavit to prove they not only had that alleged meeting but also documenting the substance of the meeting with Mr. Conway? Yes, just where is Lyon’s written affidavit memorializing there meeting with Mr. Conway? Is it any wonder AL fled FL?
The conduct of Baez et al concerns me: if Baez isn’t taking the proper and necessary time and effort to research his unfounded allegations regarding Mr. Conway, just how much time and effort is he taking to properly investigate and defend Casey Anthony? Honestly, after Casey’s convicted and sentenced, I worry her conviction and death penalty sentence will be overturned due to the ineffective counsel of Baez et al.
Drat! I was really hoping the “Come to Jesus Meeting” would take place in open court.
What do you want to bet that George and Cindy will have "something to say" about their attorney abandoning them?
Sprocke,
Exactly! Cindy will come up that "she" fired Conway as she did when Oprah cancelled C&G on her Show, when NeJame quit... blah, blah, blah... alright Cindy. Yawning!!!!
Now, my bet is that Janey Weintraub (JVM) will be Cindy's new puppet, I mean new lawyer. LOL
It will be more garbage out of their mouths, so no surprise there.
Thanks again Ritanita for an informative post!
I haven't been closely following these recent developments....as a matter of fact so far, what I know about it is what I have read here.... MY first thought when I heard Conway quit representing the Anthonys was, "who will take his place?" FRG I like your suggestion:
Janey Weintraub + Cindy Anthony =
They deserve each other....but I'm afraid it wouldn't last, neither could allow the other to have the last word.~rolling eyes~
I agree with Valhall and kellygreen, Judge Perry could resolve this particular dispute with a supporting affidavit from Professor Lyon(s).
IMO, The fact that Baez didn't offer that affidavit up to the court makes him look bad regardless of whatever the truth is. At best he appears lazy and/or incompetent at worst someone who will present a legal pleading that is a blatant lie.
One of these days someone will file a bar complaint on Baez that will stick.
Thanks all for the great comments. I'm reading today and it would seem that Judge Perry isn't going to issue a new order and the Orlando Sentinel is reporting what we expected all along.
Judge Perry will allow Baez the access he granted in the last Order and that's it!
In their "presser" Mason and Baez managed to make it sound like some sort of huge victory. The fact is, the judge gave them a little bit of what they wanted (taking notes) but allowed NeJame's restriction on publication of any of the names involved.
As to the reason I believe the if there is something sealed is that it contains the bad faith portion of the NeJame motion.
Were there any flies on the wall of Judge Perry's chambers when the "negotiations" occurred? If so, give me a buzz!
Ritanita,
Here is KC’s docket:
08/20/2010 Order on Motion
to Quash the Court’s Order on Defendant’s Application for Subpoena Duces Tecum for the Documents in Possession of Texas Equusearch for Bad Faith
08/20/2010 Order
for Motion for Transcription Services
http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=6236234
****************
So, I guess we will soon to be reading JP's order, so far I didn't find any Media outlet that posted it. Maybe later. I am looking forward to read it, are you?
Yes, I will. I think we already know what Baez and Mason have gotten from the last order.
I'm hoping there is some commentary on NeJame's motion and Baez' reply!
Post a Comment