Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [133]
We did make a misstep with one of these early “friends of Casey’s,” a woman named Maria Kissh. She was an acquaintance of Casey’s and the girlfriend of one of Tony’s roommates. She testified that she had been in the Pontiac at some point following Caylee’s disappearance, and that there had been no odor in the car. In her original statement, Maria had said that she had been in the car; however, she had not specified when. During her testimony, Frank asked her when she had been in the car anyway, and her response was June 16, which surprised us all. This left the door open for Jose to promote his theory that the body was never in the car.
Thankfully, her testimony was repaired through the testimony of Tony Lazzaro, who explained that Maria had been in the car before Caylee disappeared, not after. Problem solved, but it gave us all a bit of heartburn.
Tony’s testimony introduced another issue bigger than that of Maria Kissh, however. During the early investigation, we’d learned that before her arrest Casey had told Tony she’d been molested—although not by George, but by Lee. When Baez cross-examined Tony, he asked him questions about the confidences he’d shared with Casey. We knew exactly where he was going, and we also knew the dangers. By sharing the conversation that had passed between Tony and Casey, Baez was introducing hearsay by Casey. Doing so would mean that Casey’s past character was an addressable issue, and as a result, the prosecution would be able to bring up Casey’s criminal past—her prior convictions for check fraud against her friend Amy Huizenga.
For the time being, we stuck with our objection to Baez’s line of questioning as hearsay. Judge Perry sent the jury back to their hotel and met with us and the defense together. He wanted to decide for himself if what Tony had to say about Casey’s confidences was admissible to the jury. He began by asking him when Casey first told him about her brother’s alleged misconduct.
“It was either around June 30, 2008, or July 5, 2008,” Tony recalled.
Judge Perry asked him if he knew what Lee had done. Tony said Lee had tried to feel his sister’s breasts, but Casey said he was unsuccessful. Next, Judge Perry wanted to know if Casey mentioned anything inappropriate on her father’s part. “Could you relate to us what she said occurred in terms of abuse with Mr. Anthony, as in much detail as you can recall?”
“Hitting. That’s all I can remember,” Tony replied.
“What did you take that to mean or did she give you a more specific description of hitting?”
“I took it as discipline.” Tony answered.
Judge Perry continued, “Did she tell you . . . besides using the word ‘hitting,’ did she say anything else?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
The judge ultimately agreed that Tony’s information was hearsay and the jury was not allowed to hear the testimony.
ON DAY FOUR, GEORGE ANTHONY returned to the stand. His testimony this time had to do with the duct tape on the gas cans. Based on the unfortunate way that George had chosen to frame this story at the deposition, I knew this area would be problematic, but I was prepared.
At the time of his deposition, way back in the summer of 2009, George had been evasive about the duct tape. He’d claimed that some of the tape had been on the gas can for years, but that he hadn’t put that particular piece of tape over the vent hole, seemingly implying it must have been placed there by the police. In this statement, he had put his support behind Casey at great risk to his integrity as a witness.
Now, with Casey’s allegations against him fresh in everyone’s minds, he told a different story. On the stand, he said that when Casey brought the gas can back to him, it didn’t have a cap on the vent hole, the implication