Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [79]
After the interview, Jordan contacted Corporal Eric Edwards at the sheriff’s office, and during their discussion he volunteered the information that he had recorded the interview secretly. Realizing that Jordan had just confessed to a crime, Edwards told him to retain the tape and moved on to the content of the interview. Jordan told Edwards that at the meeting the investigator for the defense, Mortimer Smith, had shown Jordan a document purporting to be an EquuSearch form that supposedly demonstrated his participation in a search of the area off Suburban Drive near where Caylee was found. The document listed the team leader’s name as Laura Buchanan. Jordan informed Edwards that in his opinion the document was not genuine and that the search it purported to document never happened. He also related that he had received a phone call earlier from a woman claiming to be in law enforcement in Kentucky who identified herself as Laura Buchanan. She insisted to him that she had searched the area where Caylee was found and found nothing and that he had been involved with her in the search.
The recording complicated that case a bit for us. Since it was illegal, we were not permitted by law to listen to it or know its contents. The detective could listen to it as part of his investigation into that offense, but we did not feel that we could. Investigators wanted very badly to inform us of the contents of the tape or to have us review it, because they felt it revealed something important about the defense’s tactics, but we would not permit them to discuss it in our presence. To this day we have no idea what the tape contains. All parties involved in the conversation declined to prosecute Mr. Jordan, so the case was not pursued. The defense then took the position that they wanted to review the tape, but we informed them that if we let them do so, we would be committing a felony as well. They repeatedly attempted to get the court to order us to release it to them, but the judge read the statute the same way we did and it remained unheard.
As investigators and the defense moved on from Jordan, Laura Buchanan became the center of scrutiny. Buchanan was the Texas EquuSearch team leader who Jordan said had called him. At the time of the search, Buchanan, actually a housewife from Kentucky, had been in Orlando with her husband who was on a business trip, and she had volunteered with EquuSearch in the late August searches. She injected herself into the case having followed it on the news and not having much to do in Orlando while her husband was at his meetings. She said she was in possession of field documents proving that she had searched the Suburban Drive area on or around September 1, 2008. She had also searched Blanchard Park, where, according to Casey, Zanny and Caylee had been frequent visitors. Buchanan went so far as to say that she and Jordan had searched together. She claimed that they agreed that no one had sent them, but they decided to search there on their own. When Jordan was later shown a photograph of Buchanan, he did not recognize her.
With all of this back-and-forth, it was clear we needed to get Buchanan on the record. She was set for deposition in New Jersey, where she had recently moved. We were attempting to utilize some new technology that would enable us to take depositions over the Internet, so Buchanan was in the office of her attorney while the rest of us were in Florida. During the deposition the witness referenced the EquuSearch document that she claimed to have given to the defense’s investigator, which listed all the people who had searched the area off Suburban Drive. She also referred to a photograph on which the investigator claimed she’d marked the spot she searched.
As usual, the defense had not provided either the document or the photograph to us. Buchanan and her attorney tried to fax the document, but the copy was so poor it was illegible. Buchanan went on to make the