Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [67]
Jose Baez had alerted us that Casey would be spending the day at his law office in Kissimmee. In order to waste no time taking Casey into custody, Melich was on his way to Baez’s office the minute the indictment was unsealed. Casey was reported to have been cool, polite, and calm when he arrived to arrest her. This outcome was no surprise; she always seemed to keep her emotions in check. Melich placed her in handcuffs and transported her to the sheriff’s office, where she was read her Miranda rights. Melich later reported that she declined to speak to anyone without her attorney present, but her mood was light and she engaged in chitchat with the officers processing her back into the system. She could have asked the court to have another bond hearing, but for some reason never made clear to us, she opted not to. By that evening, she was back at the Orange County Jail, charged with first-degree murder in the death of her darling two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie. Whether she was to face the ultimate penalty was an issue to be decided on another day.
IN SPITE OF THE GRAND jury indictment, Cindy Anthony was still convinced that Caylee was simply missing, not dead. As such, she spent the months of October, November, and December going on TV to say that Caylee was alive and to wonder why the police weren’t looking for her. Now that the indictment was in, our office started preparing for trial. The pretrial date, when you discuss if you are ready for trial, was set for December, abiding by the 180 days speedy trial statute. We figured the defense would try to push the case to trial before Caylee’s body could be found, thereby leaving open the argument that she was alive somewhere, so we had to be prepared for that. Although it would have been a herculean task, we were up for it. I was primarily dealing with requests from the defense about the forensic testing. We assumed that the defense would start taking depositions. They wanted the lab documents from Dr. Vass and the FBI. There was a great deal of litigation about getting the lab information. Many of the labs were out of state, so technically they didn’t have to comply, but everybody was fairly cooperative. The defense also made other requests, many of which seemed overboard to me, such as when Baez requested all the e-mails between the sheriff’s office and Dr. Vass. Technically we were not required to provide these, but in this digital age we had no problem providing it. Baez also wanted law enforcement to compile and copy each and every tip they had received concerning Caylee sightings. We again had no problem with providing that as long as the agency didn’t. The sheriff’s office had to spend time and effort to put together those tips—numbering about five thousand—and as a result, they had the right to expect reimbursement for the copying costs.
There was one particularly ridiculous hearing where Baez complained that the sheriff’s office was not filtering the tips that were being provided to the defense, and he accused them of giving him the worthless ones first—as if anyone had time to sort them that way. When the tips were all collected and Baez was informed that they were ready for pickup, he balked, claiming that Casey didn’t have the money to pay for them. We suspected this wasn’t true, since there were rumors floating about that Casey had sold videos and photographs of her daughter to ABC News for $200,000. But regardless of the money situation, the whole exercise just felt like an unnecessary waste of time, which it almost certainly was.
It wasn’t just the defense’s requests that appeared outrageous. In general I found their continued presence in the media to be questionable. Baez was on TV all the time, giving his opinions, making statements, all arguably inappropriate under the rules of the Florida Bar. On November 7 I filed a motion to have the court prohibit the defense attorneys from making