Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [132]
The tattoo was the one thing I wanted to take out of order. I wanted to save that for last. I felt it was a verification of our theory and Casey’s most vivid expression of life without Caylee.
After we had learned about Casey’s newest accusations and Baez’s newest plan of attack, we’d debated changing the order of our witnesses, but ultimately we decided to still call George first. Our thinking was, if the defense was going to accuse George of molestation and covering up Caylee’s death, then opening with George was a perfect plan. It would allow him to refute the accusations right off. Although we would lose the mystery of Caylee’s whereabouts, we’d gain the jury’s savvy that everything it was hearing was thirty-one days of lies. They’d know for certain that these were lies, because they’d know Caylee was dead.
The trial was still in Day One when George, tense but ready, neatly dressed in a white button-down shirt, sat down in the witness box. I asked him a series of questions about the events leading up to June 16, and he did well. George said everything he’d said all along, and he said it with a great deal of feeling. His emotions were real—both his joy when he talked about Caylee and his sadness when he talked about never seeing her again. Now I had to address the defense’s bombshell, the alleged molestation of Casey.
Whereas my initial questions were asked in a conversational tone with appropriate pauses for the emotional moments, the next questions were very deliberate and emphasized every word. I asked him if Caylee had drowned, and he had gotten rid of the body. He choked up when he answered that he would never do such a thing. Meanwhile, Casey was shaking her head and rolling her eyes, directing her theatrics at the jury. She glanced at her father only long enough to cast him a glare, although he never made eye contact with her.
Painful as it was, I next had to bring up the allegations of sexual abuse. If Baez’s opening was any indication, the defense was going to use this claim to justify Casey’s thirty-one days of silence. They’d say she hadn’t told anyone about her daughter’s death or her father’s role in its cover-up because she was a master secret-keeper; she’d been keeping them since the age of eight, when her father supposedly began to molest her.
I asked George right out, “Have you ever molested your daughter?” He got kind of quiet. I could tell it hurt him, but he emphatically said no. As for all the other allegations, he very, very adamantly denied them all.
Day One was over, and George had done a great job under fire. He hadn’t lost his cool, which was sometimes a problem, and he’d been honest and believable. Linda, Frank, and I left the courthouse feeling very good about the first day of what would certainly be a long trial.
DAY TWO WAS FRANK’S TURN to take the floor. He was our “friends of Casey” prosecutor, and the day was filled with them. He had the unenviable job of trying to coordinate all the twentysomethings who, by this time, had scattered all over the country. Many weren’t happy to be connected to Casey, so in terms of witness management, Frank’s list was the most challenging.
His medley of witnesses started out with testimony from Tony Lazzaro’s roommates: Cameron Campana, Nathan Lezniewicz, and Roy “Clint” House. Frank did a terrific job of showing how freely Casey’s lies flowed by using these three young men to confirm the stories she’d been telling to justify Caylee’s absence.
Next on the stand was Brian Burner, the Anthonys’ next-door neighbor. Casey had borrowed a shovel from him on June 17, 2008, and we considered his testimony additional evidence that Casey had tried to dispose of Caylee’s body. Two