UPDATE!
December 22, 2010
WESH has announced thatJudge Belvin Perry has slated a hearing for Jan. 3 on all six motions. "
Muzikman has made my day yet again! This afternoon, the defense filed a slew of Motions in Limine to exclude certain evidence and types of testimony of the trial. I am literally writing this as he is posting them to DocStock!
The first motion is entitled Motion In Limine To Prohibit The Introduction Of a Table Knife And Any Testimony Related Thereto As Allegedly Found In The Defendant's Automobile.
This motion refers to the knife Cindy Anthony found in the car. She took it into the house, washed it, and put it away. The knife was tested and nothing of evidentiary was found. The motion itself is less than one page long. There is, however a Memorandum of Law that goes on for the remainder of seven pages of the document.
I don't think there will be a big issue about this one.
The next is a Motion In Limine To Preclude Testimony Or Alleged Statements Of Witness Anthony Lazaro (sic) Connected To Inquiries, Conversations, Or Interrogations By Corporal William Edwards Related To Sexual Relations With The Defendant.
Yes, you read that one correctly!
In the motion, the defense team goes after Corporal Edwards by saying:
The witness Anthony Lazaro (sic) was "interviewed" by Corporal William Edwards in this cause.
During the questioning, said Corporal improperly inquired of the witness pivate and personal matters regarding his alleged sexual relationsip with the Defendant.
The subject matter and the questions and responses given in said interview are not relevant or material to any issue in this case and, further, are scandalous and incompetent and should not be allowed in any aspects of this case.
Again, the motion was a mere page long followed by a detailed Memorandum which pointed out that the prejudicial nature of the testimony would outweigh the probative value.
That could possibly be true. However, when Anthony Lazzaro takes the stand, there is no reason he cannot tell the court how many nights Casey stayed overnight without Caylee. I think the jury could figure it out all by themselves.
Next up is a remarkably similarly named Motion In Limine To Preclude Testimony Connected To Questions And Responses Of Witness Anthony Rosciano (sic) In The Interview By Corporal Yuri Melich And Sergeant John Allen Related To Sexual Relations With The Defendant.
Similarly, the witness's name is misspelled! It Anthony Rusciano!
The wording here was identical to the Anthony Lazzaro motion, just change the names of the interviewers. Again, there is a longer Memorandum to explain it all out in detail. In this one, however, there was mention made that Melich asked this Anthony if he knew any of his other classmates who "hooked up" with Casey. Oh my.
Again, the prejudicial vs. probative comes into play.
The next motion speaks to Tim Miller's account of Casey and the Map. Entitled Motion-in-Limine-Regarding-Speculation-as-to-Defendents-Knowledge,
1. Texax Equusearch President, Mr. Tim Miller, has purportedly stated his "opinion" to investigative Detective Allen, and/or others, that he thought that the Defendant was on particular ocasions,...about to mark on a map where the body was".
2. Such speculation is totally unfounded, irrelevant, and immaterial, and should in no way be admirtted or testified to by any witness.
Again, it's a one page motion followed by a more detailed explanation of the motion.
Moving on, the next motion in limine is the Motion In Limine Regarding Testimony Of Neighbor Brian Burner In Reference To Shovel.
You can literally change the word "knife" to "shovel" to read this one.
The shovel has not been linked by witness or any forensic evidence whatsoever to any aspect of this case and, accordingly, is irrelevant and immaterial.
The memorandum of law goes on for nearly eight pages explaining why the shovel isn't material to the case.
The last motion filed had me puzzled when I read the title. The Motion In Limine Regarding Any Testimony That The Defendant Has A History of Lying And/Or Stealing. Could the defense REALLY expect this trial to be free of lies or thefts by the defendant? Well, I read the actual motion and this is what it says:
COMES NOW THE Defendant, CASEY MARIE ANTHONY, by and through her attorneys, J.CHENEY MASON and JOSE BAEZ and moves this Court for entry of its Order in Limine prohibiting the State of Florida from soliciting from any witness in the State's case in chief regarding any testimony of the Defendant having a history of lying or stealing, and as grounds therefore shows:
1. Various investigative reports in this case have attributed to the Defendant's father, George Anthony, and to other expended family members assertions that the Defendant has a history of lying and/or a has a history of stealing.
Considering the many lies she told to the investigators, considering how elaborate they were, and considering she is facing charges of lying to LE at this very trial makes me wonder why a history of lying would not be germain to the case.
2. In addition to the following Memorandum in support of this Motion, Defendant shows that any such allegations would not be relevant or material to any issue in dispute in this case, and that any potentially probative value, under Section 90.401(I), would be outweighed by the prejudicial impact of such improper character evidence, in violation of 90.403.
My goodness! How could any of Casey's friends even take the stand without indicating Casey lied to them? The lies are so intrinsically entwined in the many stories she told to different people. Casey's intricate web of lies is the foundation of her life both before and after Caylee went "missing"
Friends, I'd love to hear what you have to say about these motions!
Also, consider this: how many more motions in limine does the defense have up their sleeves? Just remember every piece of evidence collected in this case.
Click Orlando was the first to break the news of these motions in the media. Their story ended with the following:
The state attorney’s office will not comment on pending motions, but if ordered, they will have to reveal to Judge Perry whether they think any of the testimony should be allowed into evidence and, if so, why.
There are going to be some VERY interesting hearings as the Court goes through these motions!
Again, many thanks to Muzikman for getting down to the courthouse and posting these motions at Websleuths. Also my thanks to FRG for the heads up!
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19 comments:
This is hysterical. Since they can't find any way to quash her statements and the facts, they want to squach every person who could possibly have anything to say regarding Casey (except of course, the to-be-named-later mitigating witnesses).
So, if they have nothing positive to say about the defendant, then it must be immaterial?
I expected another motion to drop all charges because, after all, girls just wanna have fun...
why should anything she's done be used against her? Outrageous!
iwishiwas, Anonymous... you are on the same track I am with a couple of these. You know which ones!
I should have added this line from the motion about her lying from the memorandum:
"...Specifically, Ms. Anthony has been charged with Capital First Degree Murder, Aggravated Child Abuse, and four counts of Providing False Information to a Law Enforcement Officer. , (Indictment). Evidence that there was a history of lying or stealing does not tend to prove any element of the offenses for which she is charged and, thus, is inadmissible as irrelevant.
Don't think Judge Perry will buy that argument.
Did you notice that the State wasn't noticed on any of these Ritanita?
How are they expected to respond?
B Chand, yes, I did notice that. I guess Cheney Mason was too busy cutting and pasting his motions together, he forgot that little "nicety". Not an uncommon ploy for the defense.
LOL! You can bet that those prosecution attorneys will know about them, but I hope they bust Mason with it.
Prediction: we will see a lot more of these motions and fairly soon!
Thanks Ritanita for putting them together - I have been trying to make sense of them all in a piecemeal fashion.
I believe these are the types of motions that the defense should have been getting rulings on over the past many months (or years). It appears to me that they have just discovered there is going to be a trial - and by gosh the prosecution intends to use the evidence that has been collected.
Hard to believe the court had to remind the defense as to what they need to do before May - hopefully they did take notice.
I'm wondering if Casey is worn down by this farce, and if she'll ever just stop wasting everybody's time and money and admit the truth. Finish it once and for all. It's going beyond ridiculus.
Wow, the boys must have been up very late with their crayons and magic markers!
Just another example that these clowns are floundering and I can't imagine Judge Perry is smiling!
Hope these yoyos realize Santa ain't stopping at their houses!
Hi Ritanita, more fabulous coverage & dissection of this case! It's about time the D-team is doing some work and hilarious they want testimony about her lying kept out. They may get some of the statements about her sex life tossed which is ok but hope Judge Perry keeps the table knife in b/c it's just one piece of evidence that Cindy manipulated - goes to her lack of credibility that she'll lie for KC. Btw, could it have been used to cut the duct tape, even though no traces were on the knife after Cindy cleaned it? And regarding George & the map, wouldn’t Tim & George & whomever testify about it then let the jury decide? Anyways, thanks Ritanita - you rock! Merry Christmas & Happy holidays to you, Sprocket, Donchais, Caligirl and everyone!
Ritanita,
Thank you so much for this article! I must admit, my head was spinning! LOL
I have a question, why is it that in the conclusion of all the Motions there are paragraphs (is it they are caleld?) a to e... the e. is pretty interesting:
e. If this Honorable Court denies the instant Motion in Limine, Ms. Anthony reserves the right to renew this motion at trial.
What the heck does it mean?
It seems like an intimidation to me. I thought there were laws to that. The discoveries have been turned over to JB for over 2 years and now Ms. Muffin convicted felon's lawyers have the audacity because you know "death is different" and blah, blah, blah. Geesh!
Now, I remember when people were debating that the 911 phone calls wouldn't be admitted, at least not all of them... and now you have it, Linda Drane-Burdick did a wonderful job at the day of the hearing. I have confidence that the Prosecutors had anticipated these Motions and they may be ready to argue them. At least the ones that will make their case.
Now, CM files motions the same way that he argues at the hearings... he is so annoying!!! He seems to love KC *insert rolling eyes here*. I can't picture, the crayon boy, the annoying old fella and AF at trial. At least we will be hearing AF at the penalty phase only! LOL
Okay, where is the Motion of Prior Bad Acts? Isn't that hearing scheduled for tomorrow?
One more thing, I want to see the paperwork from Dr. Lee, very curious! Deadline was yesterday! Where is it JB?
Everybody, thanks for the comments. We all have a lot of confusion over these routine motions!
One thing I do know is, is that Judge Perry mentioned that if the Kronk motion weren't heard by the 23rd of December, he would have no pre-trial ruling.
That leads me to believe that Baez could attempt to deal with this during the trial, which would make it quite tedious with interruptions in the flow of the case.
BTW, Big thanks to Ritanita, FRG, Muzikman and of course, Sprocket! You're all the bomb for being timely, detailed, informative and for being there for us! You rock!
If I was her and my lawyer couldn't even cover my hide on the check charges, I sure as spit wouldn't have any faith in him on murder charges! But that's just me.
Ritanita, you are so right. I fully expect the defense to be pulling stunts like attempting to use Kronk and such during trial, then crying foul when they are shot down. If they can make it through the entire case without tainting the jury, I'll be shocked.
Hi Ritanita, Jose Baez was planning on delaying this trial for years and years. When Judge Perry came on board, he put a damper on Jose's dreams of free publicity for the next five years. All this scum bag of an attorney is interested in is MONEY!!!! ( like the 250,000 from ABC), Therfore, we have the reason for the delay in filing these motions. I do hope most of them are given to the jury. The shovel and hits in the back yard show Casey buried Caylee at the Anthony home before she dumped her less than a quarter of a mile from her home. Statements of friends and family concerning her lies are the foundation of this case. All she did was lie to everyone about where Caylee was for 31 days. Prosecutors are not going to allow the defense clowns to continue to make this case a three ring circus. The murder of a baby is anything but humorous (Casey laughing and joking with the interns during the hearings). I look forward to seeing how the judge will rule on all of the mentioned motions.
iwishiwas, I'm sure that the defense wants to get a lot of speaking objections into the trial to taint the jury pool. However, Judge Perry runs quite a tight ship. You can bet that the instant the defense tries to play games with objections, Perry will shut him down fast and scoot the jury out if necessary.
In trial, he rules quickly and firmly. He will brook no nonsense. (BTW, InSession recently aired a trial of Perry's, it was a good view of what this case may look like.) These hearings are much more "loosy-goosey" than the actual trial.
Anonymous, there was never any signs in the Anthony back yard that Caylee was ever buried there. The cadaver dogs did hit in a couple of places, but no major disturbed earth was found, just one small area which was too small to be a grave.
Casey may have tried to bury her, but it apparently was too much heavy work. This is pure speculation on my point, based on the fact she borrowed the shovel.
JB can counter the issue of Casey’s lies simply by putting her mother on the stand. She’s already cleared this up for us: No lies…just “mis-truths” and “half truths.” (Wonder where Casey learned her behavior?) This entire camp does nothing but talk in circles.
I noticed a few things in no particular order.
Mason left a signature line for Baez which was BLANK.
The dogs hit on the yard. George was so proud he poured 27(?) 80 pound bags of concrete himself in the first week of July... almost hottest time of year... thick slab. Maybe they didn't need to dig it up as the dogs (2 independently hit on other places in the yard) Poor bad kneed, worker's comp George to make that much cement and mix it himself. What a hard task.
It was also said Casey was moving out.. how kind of Casey to go and borrow a shovel for a troublesome bamboo root. You believe that and I have a bridge to sell you twice.
Casey's lies not coming into court. I doubt it since she wove lies in all she did including a Nanny that didn't exist, nobody is still looking for.
Besides Cindy doesn't really believe after the DNA identification, the memorial service, the jewelry, the memorial tatoos (don't forget those) that Caylee is alive.
I can't wait till the the Anthony's are held accountable for their dasterdly deeds in the coverup and misdirection in the case. I hope the prosecution does not treat them like grieving grandparents (The Anthony's RUINED that by their lies and money grubbing) and treats them like the dysfunctional criminals that they are. I want charges on the Anthony family members. They knew and impeded.
Also they reserve the right if these motions are denied to argue them in court again in front of the judge.... isn't that another bite of the apple.
Mason could file all these ad liminie motions but not one if they were going to go ahead and request a hearing on the Roy Kronk motion that they already filed. Seems like a waste of time. Oh I forgot.. the Defense has NOTHING to prove Casey innocent... not even her own statements because there is very little truth in her own sworn depos.
The Defense is up a creek with no boat, no paddles, and the creekbed is dry.
Merry Christmas Casey.... no green bean cassarole and spam for you.
Ritanita,
Thanks!
That sounds wonderful, doesn't it? At least we will have time to read the Prosecution's response to those Motions, I think... will they "have" to answer these motions, right?
Can't wait to watch it! Mrs. Linda Drane-Burdick and Mr. Jeff Ashton rock!!!
Nothing as of now on Dr. Lee's paperwork, but maybe JB sent to JP and it won't be in KC's docket. I am not sure how JAC works.
Since there will be a hearing on the motions, the State won't file a written response. I have a feeling Cheney Mason popped that little cut-and-past from an old motion. They used to do that and he perhaps "forgot" all about that.
Not sure what's going on with Dr. Lee. Baez even said at the last hearing that he would have it to the judge if the judge "didn't already have it" and then said he was working on "a lot of things".
If Baez doesn't get the mess straightened out and Lee refuses to be depositioned... bye-bye! He won't be able to testify at the trial.
It's all some kind of a game to the defense.
I have been busy with the grandkids, christmas etc and didn't get a chance to read this completely until now. Thank you once again for a succinct view of this case!
How can Baez request no testimony about lying and stealing when he stood next to Casey while she admitted to both and was sentenced? What a joke. A sad joke.
Happy New Year everyone
Tob
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