Caylee/Casey Anthony Case: Mark Nejame Fires Back at Baez for TES
Remains Site WAS UNDER WATER
Orlando, FL-Mark Nejame, counsel for Texas Equusearch, released this statement this afternoon:
Mark NeJame, counsel for Texas Equusearch (TES), is holding a press conference today at 2:00pm EST in our office, 189 S. Orange Avenue, Suite 1800, Orlando, FL 32801.
To further explain the attached letter sent to the Office of the State Attorney and to Counsel for Casey Anthony.
This establishes that the area where Caylee’s remains were found was indeed submerged in water a month prior to the discovery of her remains.
The actual photographs will be displayed and explained at the press conference.
Mr. NeJame represents Tim Miller and TES, who have provided the aerial photographs to him which were recently located.
This seems to clearly contradict any claims that the area was dry previous to Caylee’s discovery and the likelihood that Caylee was later brought to that location. 
In Addition, Mr. NeJame has attached Mr. Miller’s and TES’s response to the defendant’s, Casey Anthony, request for discovery of the searcher’s and Mr. Miller being designated as a material witness in this case.
The Response to Jose Baez Motion:
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Lily-
True that.
There are major “public policy” considerations of concern.
A Court Order in favor of such a broad request would, without a doubt, have a “chilling effect” on the volunteer/good Samaritan community in future cases.
And one last thing, Midwest Mom-
This request is not being made on behalf of CAYLEE.
Baez is not searching for justice/the “real” killer.
He is seeking to exonerate his client.
We DO know what is in the 91 page last minute motion filed today and quite frankly, I am in shock. Read here and I can’t wait to hear what our resident legal eagles think about this.
http://www.wftv.com/pdf/20483047/detail.html
The Defense is asking for an incredible amount of BROAD and audacious and impertinent information, IMO. They want 12 years of all government contracts, grants and communications between Oak Ridge Laboratories relating to Dr. Arpad Vass….12 YEARS!!! How do they even justify such a request as being relevant to this case??
That is just one example of the maladroit and malapropos requests being made.
Silverspnr…what in the world…yes, I know they plan to attack, attack, attack like wild impertinent dogs but to do so with such brazen floundering has kind of surprised me. Not talking about Baez but Lyons and Kenny Baden? I remember what you said a few days ago and it really stuck with me:
“A known criminal defense trial tactic (when the larger picture is horrific for your client) is to bog the case down with the small details. Point to little inconsistencies and get the jury members hung up on those, so that they lose sight of the obvious truth.”
You nailed that one, my friend.
Comment by Carolyn S from Maryland
I recieved an email from nejame that said the reason he quit as their attorney is because he didnt want any part of assisting casey!! that speaks volumes too me.
I think Brad Conway knew he was taking on notoriously difficult clients when he agreed to represent George and Cindy. On September 4, Mark NeJame, criminal defense lawyer and media veteran, began representing them, and he was upfront in saying he had accepted them as clients because they were caught in a public relations nightmare caused, in part, by a mishandling of the media. Of that, there could be no doubt since on the same day NeJame confirmed his intent to represent them, Cindy released a nasty statement about Tim Miller and Leonard Padilla, claiming both had come to her under false pretenses.
In the ensuing weeks, violent confrontations between the Anthonys and protesters continued, Cindy told a reporter that Florida State Attorney Lawson Lamar was only prosecuting Casey for political gain, George called Holly Bristow of Fox News for an exclusive interview during which he said the grand jury’s true bills were a travesty, WFTV claimed George and Cindy had been calling national media outlets to auction off interviews, George and Cindy announced that Michelle Bart would be taking over as their official spokesperson, Cindy granted an exclusive interview with Local 6 News, and George and Cindy announced a press conference for the purpose of presenting evidence that Caylee was alive. When NeJame announced on November 20 that he was quitting as their counsel, he was candid in saying they were not allowing him to do his job because they refused to follow his advice.
While Mark NeJame was representing George and Cindy, Brad Conway was running for an Orange County Judge position in the November 2008 election. Conway lost with 40% of the vote to a female candidate who was the incumbent and who outspent him two-to-one.
It’s my opinion that Conway’s decision to represent George and Cindy was at least partly motivated by a desire for greater name recognition in order to make him a stronger candidate in a future election. He has confirmed that he is representing them pro bono, but I don’t know if George and Cindy contacted him or if he approached them after NeJame quit. At any rate, he certainly knew he was taking on clients whose behavior had proven unmanageable for Mark NeJame, a likeable, seasoned, and professional attorney who sincerely wanted to help them out of the hole they had largely dug for themselves. And whereas Mark NeJame had no reason on September 4 to know that George and Cindy would refuse to restrain their disastrous media activities and let him handle the situation, Conway had every reason to know that their obstinacy was incorrigible.
On December 11, a few hours after the media reported the discovery of a child’s remains in the woods on Suburban Drive, Brad Conway was announced as George and Cindy’s new legal representative. I don’t know when Brad Conway formally agreed to represent George and Cindy or what understanding they reached. Whereas Mark NeJame made it clear from the start he would not comment on Casey’s legal situation, Conway has made statements in support of Casey’s defense. Perhaps George and Cindy made support for Casey, even muted support, a condition of representing them.
If public exposure was a motive for Conway’s decision to represent them, then he’s had lots of opportunity to reflect on the adage “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.” He started out fairly well (despite the typos) with a December 15 statement on behalf of George and Cindy that was released on his firm’s letterhead. He was gracious to LE for their assistance in January during George’s suicidal cry for help. He handled himself fairly well in pre- and post-memorial interviews in February, and IMO, he was very justified in asking the court to postpone the originally-scheduled December 22 civil depositions, to suppress George’s suicide note and to explore, on George and Cindy’s behalf, the possibility of having Casey participate in the February 10 memorial or a privately-arranged family meeting in the OC Jail. I think he was more than justified in the first two. He had to know that he wasn’t going to arrange a private meeting or get permission for Casey to leave the jail for a service, but that doesn’t mean he should be criticized for asking on behalf of George and Cindy.
However, has not, in my opinion, handled situations with credit since then. He should have anticipated legal and public pushback in filing a protective order on February 24 to prevent George and Cindy from being deposed two days later in the civil suit given that the Anthonys had participated in a publicized memorial service, the Anthonys had participated in a public Putnam County search for Haleigh Cummings, and George had appeared on Geraldo’s February 15 broadcast to discuss the Haleigh Cummings case. In a February 25 hearing with Judge Rodriguez, Conway argued that Cindy and George were too emotionally fragile to be deposed. A few weeks later, Judge Rodriquez noted that he had received many emails from outraged citizens pointing out that if George and Cindy were well enough to participate in the search for Haleigh Cummings, then they were not too emotionally fragile to participate in a deposition.
The April 9 civil suit depositions were a disgrace, and while we cannot know how well he attempted to prepare George and Cindy for the depositions, they certainly didn’t appear to have been prepared and he was taken to school for not preparing them. Conway gained some ground when George was allowed a break and returned with a much-improved attitude, but he lost it and much more after Cindy’s deposition. Moreover, he seemed to be struggling with the nature of the privilege, if any, that would protect George and Cindy from answering questions about Dominic Casey.
And I think Conway made a fool of himself during the May 13 Larry King Live interview with George and Cindy. During that interview, Conway claimed there was no hair on the duct tape (despite the fact that the December 20 search warrant spelled out the ME’s having needed to cut the hair to release the duct tape that was covering the mouth area of Caylee’s skull) and also claimed (in response to Larry’s question about heart-shaped sticker residue on the tape) that there was no sticker on the tape and people were drawing wrong assumptions from the discovery.
The derision that greeted news of the cancelled May 21 hearing due to Conway’s stated back problems is an indication that when the trial is finally over, Conway will have paid a high price for representing George and Cindy. The man is confined to a wheelchair and could very well have thrown out his back. But people online were not, for the most part, willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and believed Conway was in perfect health and merely claimed to be indisposed to force a delay. When Keith Mitnik was ordered to appear before Rodriquez and state for the record that he, Mitnik, had cancelled the second (Lee-Luka) part of the hearing himself for “strategic reasons,” Mitnik was given a pass.
There are other things, but my conclusion is that Conway is stuck right now. He’s tried on many occasions to portray George and Cindy as reasonable people who want the truth and have not cut off any theories about Caylee’s demise. Almost as soon as he makes that claim, George or Cindy or both state in an interview that they want to know what happened but also know with 100% certainty that Casey is innocent of harming Caylee. As noted, Conway, unlike NeJame, had every reason to know that George and Cindy were going to do whatever they wanted to do, legal advice be damned, and what they choose to do usually requires damage control. He can’t cut himself free as NeJame did (without paying a price for either his representation or for quitting) because it will appear as if Conway very cynically grabbed the Caylee-case coattails only long enough to get a lot of national exposure.
I have a question re the standing water. Did they say that the water was there one month befor Caylee was found? The same water left by hurricane faye in July? If I am understanding this correctly what does this do to Kronks testimony about seeing the bag in Aug? Or did the water receed and the rise again?
#105 Maura. Did you just call conway an opportunistic ambulance chaser? LOL
provokingpoirot 103- I read the motion in its entirity and although some of this sounds like they are asking for an extreme amount of information(12 years of audits LOL) most of this is simple discovery that they should have access to. Particularly interesting is the portion regarding latent prints. The released discovery stated no latent prints however this request for information clearly states they want info on latent prints and that speaks volumns for the prosecution evidence.Blink has been letting that cat peek out of the bag for a while now. I want them to have all the information they feel is neseccary to defend Casey that way when she is convicted they cannot claim a mistrial or spend thoushand of dollars and man hours in appeals.
As I watched the video’s of today’s court room proceedings I actually came away saddened. We all know that if Casey was innocent and they had a “smoking gun” to lead to her exoneration of the crime, she would be out of jail. I gave Silver a high five when I realized they were probably going after Tony L. today. Just like she pointed out to us. But, to realize the depth of destruction of so many others lives, is so sad.
Tim Miller is an American icon, people, he has taken the tragic loss of his daughter and spent his life, not living in luxury, but going where few feared to tread. This man exemplifies what is good in mankind. Now the next missing person who needs to be found might not get found because Tim and his team cannot get the volunteers to step forward to help.
I can understand and appreciate the fact that Casey has a right to a fair trial. But, the victims she is leaving in the trail of her pursuit of this right is WRONG. Somewhere in our legal system when a group of lawyers get together and throw the rights of others is wrong. What did Amy do to deserve this? She was so trusting and kind to Casey. So was Jesse. I don’t think they will go with Tony. I doubt seriously the LE would have cleared him and allowed him to be a part in the taping with Lee if his record, whereabouts, ect had not been clean as a whistle.
One of the smartest people I have ever known was an oncologist who married an attorney and gave up teaching at an ivy league school to go into practice in hubby’s town. She had to have shop at the local goodwill store. She wore the same five wrinkled outfits that were so old they were almost tattered. She looked like a bag lady not a doctor. She was so good that it took months to get an office appointment with her. I loved to watch this woman work. She would even sit on the floor in a patients room. She could never talk as fast as she thought. Other than Lyons weight problem, Lyons reminded me of this doctor today. I think I glimpsed a mind that is brilliant. And that is what makes a good lawyer, not how she looks.
So, Silver, my feelings that brilliant minds (we’ll forget poor NoWayJose here), can to me callously throw innocent people under the bus as a stratigy to get their client free, leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
Silver, you got to help me with this one. It tears at my heart.
I think the defense has groomed Casey to look like the dejected waif in this saga. The greasy hair, no make up, unbecoming outfit that definitely showed that her waistline is not there anymore. Going to make the jury less inclined to see the preCasey. I did notice when Lyons was arguing her case and mentioning the enormity of her client could be put to death …the camera panned to Casey and Casey cringed and visibly was taken back.
If George had an eyejob it was botox and it’s time for another treatment. And another dip in the holy water, it didn’t work, and I am not being crass. You do not rededicate your life to God and tell such a blatant lie about he didn’t know…..
And no she did not acknowledge her parents. You can see Cindy reaching out her hand between the men in front of her. Casey never looked.
Maura you have such an analytical mind. I love reading your posts. I don’t think Conway will ever run for office again.
My question for the night is this. A judge channel surfing between Nancy Grace and Greta? Is this kosher for the judge responsible for this case to be admitting he’s watching news on TV about the case? I know from being a juror you are told not to watch TV or read or talk about anything about the case. Does this not apply to the sitting judge?
BTW, get on your virtual juror suits and come on over to the house on Suburban on Secret Life. Last night Angela was teaching me how to use the group chat and a CSI expert was there and the group chat was amazing. I went and bought my headphones and mike today as my fingers couldn’t type fast enough!
Isnt she/they awesome?
B
# 105
There you are Maura. I was looking for you on the newer thread.
I agree with your points here. Come to the newer thread and take a stab at the”substantial evidence” that proves Casey is innocent.
“My question for the night is this. A judge channel surfing between Nancy Grace and Greta? Is this kosher for the judge responsible for this case to be admitting he’s watching news on TV about the case? I know from being a juror you are told not to watch TV or read or talk about anything about the case. Does this not apply to the sitting judge?”
# 109 Shelly
I would guess, why not? The judge is privy to EVERYTHING and decides what gets entered. He already knows more than jurors, right?
karen657, Fay blew into Orlando on Aug 19 or 20, so after kronk was there on Aug 11, 12, 13. But May, June, and July had higher than average rainfall.
whoops, karen657, misread your question. You were wondering about rain closer to December 11, 2008. Just checked the Florida Department Agriculture Division of Forestry daily rainfall reports for Orlando. Nov 2008 had a total of 0.00 inches (just trace amounts on some days), and there were 0.80 inches on Dec 1 and none thru Dec. 11. October had 3.02 inches. September had 3.70 total (“recorded at Division of Forestry observing sites”).
And Fay brought like 10 inches or so over the 19-24.
106
Tropical Storm Fay did not drop any water on Orlando until August 18.
Orlando is a geographically large city, and rainfall in one area can be higher or lower than rainfall in another area. For instance, for August 2008 rainfall, the Orlando International Airport (OIA) total was 10.71 inches while the Orlando Public Works (OPW) rainfall average was 12.98 inches. The difference is that the OIA 10.71 inches only measured the rainfall at the airport weather station whereas the OPW 12.98 inches was the average rainfall for all areas in Orlando (obviously some areas of Orlando received more rain than OIA did).
The Suburban Drive lot where the remains were found is located in southeast Orlando, about two miles as the crow flies from the national weather station at OIA, so that is the data to use for the wooded lot. There is, I believe, an Orlando Public Works rain gauge located on Lee Vista Blvd. that is only about one mile from the wooded lot, but rainfall totals for that municipal station were not available online. Those Lee Vista rainfall totals would be better totals to use for the wooded lot (if they differed from the OIA totals), but I couldn’t find them.
The woods on the section of Suburban Drive between Hopespring Drive and Hidden Oaks Elementary school are several acres in size, but the land is not perfectly flat. The specific wooded lot where the remains were found is depressed relative to the surrounding area. The land slopes downward from Suburban Drive as is clear in the animated videos recently released by the SAO. That means that the specific location where the remains were found would collect water from the surrounding areas and would remain flooded long after the woods only a few hundred feet away had dried up.
It is therefore of no evidentiary weight that the videotape shot by Jim Hoover on November 15 and 16 shows dry land because that specific area was not as low as the specific area in which the remains were found. It doesn’t matter whether the area in the Hoover video was 50 feet away or 200 yards away (estimates have varied greatly) since the exact location of Caylee’s skull was in a depressed spot that was only feet away from the higher ground close to the curb on Suburban Drive.
The 2008 monthly OIA rainfall totals in inches were:
January: 4.10
February: 1.65
March: 5.15
April 1-30: 3.20
May 1-31: 3.48
June 1-30: 9.73 (4.23 by June 18)
July 1-31: 7.35
August 1-31: 10.71 (8.17 from TS Fay August 18-23)
September 1-30: 4.02 (1.06 by September 7)
October 1-31: 2.61 (1.74 by October 13)
November 1-30: 1.09 (0.44 by November 7)
December 1-11: 0.61**
In the six weeks prior to June 18 (when Casey dumped the body in the woods IMO), OIA had received 7.71 inches of rain. The Suburban Drive woods would have been getting wet at that point, and there may have been minimal standing water in the depressed area where the remains were ultimately found.
Between June 18 and August 11, OIA received 13.93 inches of rain. August 11 is when Kronk called in his first tip. When he met with Deputy Richard Cain on August 13, Kronk said there was standing water in the area where the remains were ultimately found. There was so much water that Cain wouldn’t go very far into the area. Moreover, on August 11, Gale St. John and her crew (The Body Hunters) were in that same area. On the videotape she shot, her daughter can be seen walking up to the tree line and can be heard on the tape (as she looked at the ground) saying (paraphrasing), “The water starts here.” That is perfectly consistent with the animated video released by the SAO because the slope begins right at the tree line. St. John said the water was high enough that it would have come to about mid-shin had anyone waded into it on August 11. Tropical Storm Fay had not moved into the Orlando area yet, but in the previous 10 weeks, nearly 18 inches of rain had fallen in that area, so Kronk and St. John were likely accurately reporting the existence of substantial standing water at the remains site on August 11.
The total rainfall for June, July, August, and the first week of September 2008 in the area of the Suburban woods was 28.85 inches. That is the amount of summer rainfall that had fallen at OIA when Tim Miller of Texas EquuSearch (TES) conducted his initial search for Caylee. A lot of rain fell within the previous 90 days (more than one-third of that rain within the previous three weeks), so it was rain that accumulated. It didn’t have time to evaporate, and Orlando ground is so wet and close to sea level that the water sinks into the ground very slowly.
FYI – On September 6, David Lohr of Investigation Discovery (affiliated with the Discovery Channel) was participating in the search for Caylee. Lohr was with a TES K9 unit: One K9 handler told Lohr that they would have had an easier time during the search if Casey or her family had provided them with an item with Caylee Anthony’s scent on it. According to the handler, an item was requested from the family but they refused to provide one. That certainly should be brought up in the trial when the defense is arguing that areas had been “cleared” by TES prior to the finding of the remains.
By September 7, after 10 days of searching, Tim Miller said the tropical storm water was too high in many areas OCSO wanted searched, so the TES search was being suspended until those waters receded.
On October 13, Tim Miller returned to Orlando for a look at the ground in areas TES had not been able to search in early September because of standing water. He said the water was still too high. Not only was the summer water still high in many places, but in the five weeks between September 7 and October 13, an additional 4.7 inches of rain had fallen on OIA. Miller nevertheless said TES would return on November 8 to resume the search.
From October 13 to November 7, only an additional 1.31 inches of rain had fallen at OIA. The total rainfall in the two-month period between September 7 (when TES suspended searches) and November 7 (when TES resumed searches) was 6.1 inches. The extra rain kept the ground water from completely evaporating, but it was low enough (3 inches per month) that the groundwater had been able to recede.
Between November 7 and December 11, only 0.73 inches of rain fell, which greatly enabled the evaporation of the remaining standing water in the Suburban Drive wooded lot.
**It was raining on December 11 when LE responding to Kronk’s 911 call regarding the discovery of a child’s skull. The rainfall for December 11 was 0.53 inches, which was 87% of the rainfall for the month of December 2008. Only 0.08 inches of rain had fallen between December 1 and December 10.
OIA data was gathered from the Weather Underground website.
Outstanding Maura, thank you
B
How does knowing the water levels correlate with the plant life and insect presence found involved with the remains? In other words, Would having the remains submerged in water be in sync with or cause doubt about what the scientists concluded about the length of time the body had been at the location based on the insects and plants growing in and through it?
# 109 Shelly
IMO, there are many good reasons why he should keep tabs on the coverage of this particular case. I say that because Strickland has to make decisions in this case relative to Florida’s extremely liberal sunshine laws that he probably rarely or never must make in other criminal cases.
This case is highly unusual for the fact that the media has gone to the trouble of gathering the discovery and making it public. While the law permits the public to seek pre-trial discovery for every criminal case, the public doesn’t care about Joe Shmoe’s trial so the media doesn’t bother getting it. I don’t know of any trial like this one in which every scrap of discovery is sought and made public by media outlets and in which virtually everything the defendant does is reported on. There was a time when every stick of deoderant and every granola bar Casey ordered from the jail commissary was considered news-worthy.
It’s my opinion that the Florida lawmakers who voted to liberalize Florida’s open records laws to the extent that they did never anticipated that the discovery of any particular case would be used in the way that discovery has been used in the Anthony case. IIRC, the laws were liberalized in the late 70′s, long before personal computers and Internet culture. Because the laws are what they are, Judge Strickland is forced to release most of the discovery, so the fact that millions of people have read discovery material that is highly prejudicial to Casey (including material that may not be allowed into evidence at trial) is not something that Strickland can control for the most part.
But I won’t be surprised if this trial forces modifications of Florida’s open records laws, modifications that would strictly limit the scope of discovery that may be released prior to the trial. Transparency in government does not require the pre-trial release of discovery. It’s not at all on the same level as public access to the doings of legislative committees. I love reading and discussing the discovery in this case, but I’d never claim my rights as a citizen would be harmed if I had to wait until the trial to hear it or until after the trial to have full access to it.
Many rulings Strickland makes are all-but-required rulings relative to Florida law (such as his decision to release the autopsy report over the objections of George and Cindy). In a criminal investigation, the autopsy report is a key piece of evidence that will (without question) be introduced at trial, and the arguments to seal it until trial, while personally understandable, were not even close to being strong enough to allow him to override Florida’s sunshine laws regarding that particular piece of discovery. As he noted when he made the ruling, the autopsy report was very dry and clinical – just the facts, no editorializing. There was nothing inherently prejudicial about the report and nothing sensationalistic in it other than the gruesome content.
But on other rulings, he has more discretion (such as his decision not to release the medical-station videotape of Casey watching the news on December 11). That tape could be interpreted by the defense as Casey’s natural reaction to the news that a child’s skeleton had been found around the corner from her house, the location alone suggesting (as it did to everyone who heard the news) that the remains were those of Caylee Anthony or could be interpreted by the prosecution as indicating Casey’s guilty knowledge that LE had discovered where she dumped the body and Casey’s fear that the discovery of remains along with other evidence at the scene would expose Casey’s lie that she did not know what had happened to Caylee.
Judge Strickland’s decision to seal the December 11 videotape was made 1) because there was no indication that either party would seek to introduce the tape into evidence at trial and 2) because Strickland believed that the content of the tape was likely to be interpreted by most viewers as indicative of Casey’s guilt. He could well have drawn that conclusion (the correct one IMO) because he had been keeping tabs on coverage of the case and knew that widely-followed talk shows (Nancy Grace) don’t even try to maintain neutrality or objectivity when discussing released discovery.
I greatly respect Strickland and the rulings he’s made to date, and I appreciate that the publicity this case has generated is publicity – in great part – fueled by the discovery release. He understands that as well, and the combination of discovery and publicity in this case has required him to be aware of the discussion that the discovery fuels, hence the channel-surfing IMO.
Look at it this way – can you think of any other current murder case in central Florida (or anywhere) about which you know the names of the defendant, family members of defendant, witnesses, judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, lead detectives, and expert witnesses? About which you can give a timeline of events? About which you can summarize the forensic evidence? Could you have defined forensic air sampling and cell pings before you started reading about this trial? I can answer NO to those questions.
You just reminded me of a discussion I had on CSO late last year after the defense announced on December 12 the names of the well-known forensic experts who had joined Casey’s defense team. The CSO member said she didn’t think it was right that all those experts were volunteering to help Casey when the defendants in virtually unknown murder cases did not get similar free help. But the way I see it is that those experts were drawn by the publicity, publicity that has grown and been fed by the discovery. To me, there’s a karmic balance going on there.
Granted, Casey’s own actions are what triggered public interest in the case (nightclubbing for a month after her baby daughter’s disappearance, a disappearance she apparently never intended to report to authorities), but the discovery is what has kept this case alive in the public’s awareness and created obsessive followers like me. I mean, look at the Melissa Huckaby-Sandra Cantu case. That was in March, and it very quickly faded from discussion after Huckaby’s arraignment because the authorities are making a mighty effort to keep the details quiet (and they were likely looking at the Anthony case as an example of what they wanted to avoid).
Very Interesting and insightful post Maura-
I concur in total with one exception. I dont think the state has ever indicated they would not use the video in trial, they did not fight the bjection imo, because the county really was at issue, and they would rather duck as a strategy manuver because everybody knew there was no way it was coming in prior to trial.
It was Macaluso (Hubolt) that argued to His Honor that he did not see any set of circumstances where that video comes into evidence. The actual probative vs. Prejudicial or innflammatory arguments have yet to happen
I am SSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOO impressed by Mark NeJame. I have always just really appreciated Tim Miller. I am so thrilled that Mark went to bat for Tim. A HUGE high five to you both!!!!!!!!!
Anthonys should have listened to Mark Long ago but A’s are SSSSSSSTTTTTUUUUPPPPPIIIIIDDDDD
Thanks, Blink!
I spoke too strongly above when I wrote, “1) because there was no indication that either party would seek to introduce the tape into evidence at trial.”
I didn’t recall that Macaluso was even at that hearing. I was thinking of the motion hearing in in terms of Strickland’s statement that he wanted to talk to both parties and the media before making a decision about the December 11 videotape and also to Strickland’s ruling to seal the videotape. He wrote in the ruling that was released on June 17, “It is at least a possibility that the video in question will never be shown to the jury that decides this matter.”
http://www.wftv.com/pdf/19779284/detail.html
I didn’t remember his exact wording when I wrote my comment, but the impression I took away from the ruling (going from memory) was that neither side had indicated an intention to introduce the video into evidence.
You certainly could be right that it was simply a strategic decision of the SAO to let the tape be sealed for now.
It also occurred to me that there are underlying issues/problems regarding the situation in which Casey was brought to the medical station that the SAO wanted to back away from (and they might avoid using that tape at trial because of those issues).
Within the last few months I read that the OCSO official who ordered the jail personnel to take Casey to the medical station, put her where she could watch the TV, and take notes regarding her reaction to the news of the remains discovered on Suburban Drive had been demoted. No reason was given for the demotion, but I suspect he was punished for poor judgment in the matter of the December 11 videotape. The taping does reek of a set-up to “catch” Casey, maybe even to capture her on tape blurting out something incriminating.
Got it. The state did not have a dog in the fight at that time, imo, purposefully. They released the tape to the defense, which in turn doing so forces the PI access to kick in. They let the media take the helm, and let it ride. It is my personal opinion that tape will never come in. HOWEVER, I think Baez is just dumb enough to open the door to that parlor with the impugning of the County staff at the jail. The option would be for some sort of mutual stipulation on the evidence.
B
This was 1,000 pages ago … but …To the poster who surmised that the photos on the internet of the area where Calee’s remains were found probably lack the detail of the originals: Good call. You are most likely correct. Almost EVERY photo on the internet is a “J-PEG.” A JPEG is compressed to save transmission time over the internet. This is a “lossy” type of compresion. That means some of the original data is lost during compression, but it should still look “ok” when your computer reconstructs the photo on your screen … as long as you don’t try to “blow it up.” When you blow up a JPEG you get to see all the little “errors” and the image will look really grainy and pixelated. Some jpegs are higher quality-lower compression than others, but generally pictures you pull off the internet are pretty heavily compressed and do not blow up well at all.
As for the jailhouse video when Casey saw “the news” … they don’t really need it. Her story has so many holes in it already a few more or a few less won’t make much diff.
to Blink’s comment (last sentence) to Maura’s post 120– well, he’s gone and done it before!!! He wanted the jailhouse video of August 14th revealed, even made a motion to get it released, because he believed there was something damning about police on it– more Casey accusations and he swallowed that, hook line and two-tonne sinker.
(and btw, Baez’s insistence on release of that final visit video, showed lack of communication with the family and his client, but especially the family, where they should have told Baez there was a problem with showing Casey’s behavior in the visit– don’t do it! Because Baez was on a one-track plan for these videos and the families specific questions that were designed to ‘prove’ that the family believed in the kidnapper and to ‘prove’ that the kidnapper(s) existed for the media, he figured that the police misconduct accusations by Casey (they aren’t listening to me! they didn’t show me a photo of that girl, etc), he really stepped in it big time.)
‘… he figured that the police misconduct accusations by Casey were the reason the video was not released… (sorry missed the last part of that thought before finishing the sentence)….’
Baez better have more than ‘police misconduct’ on his slate, more than TES ‘misconduct’, more than some misconduct by Scott Bolin and the FBI, and all those FBI lab scientists, technicians, for some ‘misconduct’– that seems to be Baez’s weak spot, well, one of them.