Last week, under a due date requirement required by Chief Justice Perry, some of the expert opinions to be offered in the capital murder trial against Casey Marie Anthony were released.

In a highly circumstantial case, it is common for the silent witnesses to be the ones who tell us the critical pieces to the puzzle we are working on, are under the chair.

Bugs and Plants do not lie.

Arguably the Entomology and Botany evidence and their respective expert evaluations of same will likely hold some of the heaviest weight in the mind of jurors who will be charged with reaching a verdict in the death penalty trial in the murder of  Caylee Anthony.

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.

~Bradley Millar

Lord of The Flies Part Deux

Dr. Neal Haskell, is largely considered the pioneer of Forensic Entomology in the United States.

In fact, he is the first individual in this country to earn Masters and Doctorate degrees in the field in 1989 and then 1993 respectively at Purdue University.

I have respectfully referred to him in earlier work as ‘The Bug Dude”.

Dr. Michael Baden and his co-author Marion Roach dedicated an entire chapter in their book, Dead Reckoning, to his work. Dr. Haskell was the “first call” choice expert of Linda Kenney Baden, former defense counsel to Casey Anthony, as stated by his former protégé and defense entomology expert, Dr. Timothy Huntington.

Dr. Haskell’s report filed October 6, 2009 contains the only peer-reviewed expert conclusions offered in the case against Casey Anthony.

In no way am I undermining it’s exhaustive and thorough contents. For the purposes of this article in order to remain respectful to the sensitivity that we are talking about medicolegal death investigation information that sadly comes from the homicide of a 34 month old child. I will largely be paraphrasing.

Dr. Timothy Huntington, the defense team’s expert witness, has been deposed by the State of Florida in this case three times to date. A final deposition has yet to be released.

(Editors Note: Although Linda Kenney Baden withdrew as co-counsel last October because she was not going to get her expenses approved and paid for by the state of Florida, she is most definitely working on this case in some consulting sort of capacity as she was present and noted in Huntington’s deposition in December)

Between his depositions dated December 28, 2010 and January 2011, Dr. Huntington produced a preliminary report that analyzed Dr. Haskell’s report and entomologic specimens. We know that he learned during the first deposition that several samples from the trunk vacuumings of the Pontiac Sunfire had not been sent for analysis to Dr. Haskell until a few days earlier. Dr. Huntington was not expected to prepare an opinion on that evidence until after it’s submission to him. (more…)

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“He has lulled himself into a false sense of competence.”

Hold The Hubris Pass The Humility

The saga begins as follows:

Aging local *legend in his own mind* defense attorney gets “defendant envy” when he sees the dude he thought was the busboy at all The Florida Bar functions, making more on his first big case, with more media face time, than Or lawn do has ever seen. Seasoned barrister signs on for his professional *see alice*, if you will.

Wait, kidding, not the saga in question, my bad.

Yesterday, on behalf of Casey Anthony, lead counsel with Jose Baez, J. Cheney Mason put to “motion” what undoubtedly was screaming inside his head as Mr. Baez bumbled, err, argued, against the States motion for contempt and sanctions last week.  The reconsideration request drafted by Attorney Mason will undoubtedly come as a surprise to Judge Perry.  When his Honor asked Mason why the deadline was not met at the State’s hearing:

..”Was there any particular reason that was not complied with?..”

Mason replied, “The answer to that is I don’t know.” 

Mr. Baez was found in contempt and fined less than the cost of his ipad.

I am not an attorney, but I do know that you cannot introduce new and different bullsh*it you neglected to bore the court with previously AND when you had the opportunity to respond and argue with a new tie and pocketsquare ensemble.

Apparently Judge Perry was not swayed by Baez “.. They say they will call but they never do..” argument, insinuating all Jeff Ashton had to do was call him to work out what his other previous 4 email requests could not.

Makes sense to me now that he put it like that, right?

Everyone knows you can trust what a defense attorney says on the phone who will not commit same information to writing. Duh.

Damn this traffic jam how I hate to be late.. It hurts my motor to go so slow.. 

I have this vision of Atty Slabaugh driving down the 4 with the top down and the 300 pages he threw in the back “loose”, are flying all over the freeway behind him. So that’s the problem.. the dang clerk’s office refusing to tie up their fax, dedicate 2 folks to replace toner and paper in the middle of the 300 page and 5 hour late response, while jamming every other case and function, for Casey Anthony. Missed the memo as well, I presume.

How insensitive. First word folks.. flash-drive. Second word.. GARMIN. It does not take 5 hours to get from Kissimme to Orlando, and that’s assuming he left when the filing was already past deadline.

Moving on to the defense’s whine list:

My fave- Dr. Lee found 17 hairs in a car that is believed to have transported the victim in this instant capital murder case and therefore he should not be expected to testify about it.

BBBBBBBBAAAAAHHHHHHHAAAAAA. Seriously?

To date, this is absolutely the most laughable attempt to publicly excuse a witness who Mr. Baez apparently does not consider important enough to pay his dang expenses out of pocket for.

I hear this in my head:

Dr. Lee is not going to be called to testify OR be available for a deposition, cause, like, maybe the harsh weather will not produce that case of luscious oranges, but we are not sure yet, so please wait while we ask the plant lady, who will of course be testifying about plants, but you knew that already. Please tell me you knew that already.

Not to be confused with p-l-a-n-t-i-n-g, as we plan to move to strike or suppress any appearance of the words ” Dr. Henry Lee” and the word “planting” that appear on the same page of any document or media article, as well as within the silent thoughts of any of them-there bloggin’ types.

Lest we forget, Mr. Lee, who will not be testifying anyway if his expenses are not going to be paid, was denied access to an active homicide recovery scene while CST’s were still removing the tiny bones of Caylee Anthony from her swamp tomb.. the nerve of OCSO.

I mean, who knows what Dr. Lee could have come up with in that cornucopia of specimens.

Maybe even Kronk’s Oscar Meyer weenie whistle from the third grade perhaps.

(more…)

Make sure to listen tonight to Blink discuss updates on the “tot” mom Casey Anthony case in the death of Caylee Anthony. Tune in later tonight for Blink’s crime analysis …

LISTEN TO THE DANA PRETZER SHOW ON SCARED MONKEYS RADIO

Tonight Dana welcomes special guests:

• Author Marlin Marynick discussing his new book  “Charles Manson Now “
• Mike Mcintyre  - True Crime Author, Crime Reporter and Radio Host discussing recent high profile cases like Robert Latimer, convicted of second degree murder in the death of his daughter Tracy is to receive full parole, and former hockey coach Graham James awaiting trial on sex-abuse charges of three  former players.
• Robin Sax - Former ADA, author, victims advocate and NBC Crime Analyst  discussing the Ronni Chasen murder and other high profile cases.
• Blink from Blink on Crime - Crime blogger discussing recent events in the Casey Anthony case in the death of Caylee Anthony.

As previously reported on blinkoncrime.com, the hearing last week ordering Jose Baez and his defense team to submit specific information regarding their expert witnesses, has gone to the dogs.

Woof!

Dr. Fairgrieve, a forensic anthropologist and expert witness listed for the defense, intends to testify that Casey Anthony should have the right to confront her accuser.

Novel, appropriate, good news.

In this instance, one of her accusers with fur, according to her defense attorney, is named Gerus. The other, Bones. 

For starters, if the summary of Dr. Fairgrieve’s findings is accurate as presented in this filing, I recommend as a practical matter, he identify exactly what “alerts” he is seeking to debunk.

There are several, all of which are well documented.

Evidence Bay with a closed car:

Casey Anthony’s Car: Detectives reported a different dog alerted to the same strong smell in the trunk after the white Pontiac had been abandoned in a parking lot.

“They have a hypothesis that the child may have somehow passed away,” Dr. Richard Weinblatt told Eyewitness News.

The ole probative vs. prejudicial argument is not unexpected in this case, I get it.

However, two different cadaver dogs, from two different counties, hit in the same area under or near Caylee’s playhouse. This was AFTER the alerts in the evidence bay on the car trunk, and both searches were conducted with permission from the Anthonys.

That would be the car trunk that produced one latent lift from the accused in this case, Casey Anthony.

Under Dr. Fairgrieve’s theory of “necessary corroboration”, we, in fact, have exactly that.

The hairs that were found in the trunk, including the hair with the “signs of decomposition” corroborate the canine’s alert as well as the report from Oak Ridge Labs.

Let us not forget, that a statement from the car’s owner and material witness in this case, concurs with the presence of decomposition in the damn car.

Reached late this afternoon prior to his Canine Christmas Mixer, www.blinkoncrime.com caught up with Gerus:

Seriously, that dude has my dander up daily. He needs to stay out from under my collar.

I know what I am doing at my job. And by the way, who is calling who a TOOL?

You tell that *My Cousin Vinny wanna be* that he should take his unearned legal hubris and shove it, where in my line of work, I don’t have to sniff.

Unlike him.

Speaking of hubris, a message to George-

The headline is not going to read ” Casey Anthony Not Guilty of Murder By Hereditary Hubris”

It is going to read..

“Apparent Shared Hubris Defect Cause for Casey Anthony to Blame Father in Caylee’s Death.”

Be like a burger and flip already. It’s all you got.

ps. “Shared Hubris Defect” is mine, J to the B.

Disclaimer– exclusive original content copyright and property of Internet Network News, LLC and Blinkoncrime.com. Reproduction of this article , ANY OF IT’S Theories, Conclusions, comments or CONTENT, in whole or in part, without proper attribution and source link is strictly prohibited without prior written permission.

“I quite frankly don’t know why we are here..– Jose Baez”

In a rare 5 P.M. Friday afternoon court appearance, after attempting to gain compliance from Jose Baez, State’s Attorney Jeff Ashton successfully convinced The Honorable Belvin Perry that the defense team for Casey Anthony has been holding out. While unavailable at the time of this articles publication, the new order in essence says Jose Baez’s proffer of an entomologist “will be talking about bugs”, is not going to fly. Pun Intended.

Chief Judge Perry, after reminding the parties that discovery has been ongoing for over 2 years and the May 2011 trial date is rapidly approaching, verbally dictated a new order on the record.

As a specific example of the defense’s non-compliance, Ashton references Dr. Michael Freeman, a forensic epidemiologist who intends to charge the state $575/hr to depose him, when the application of his area of expertise to the case against Casey Anthony for murdering her daughter Caylee is questionable at best.

Or Is It?

Admittedly, Dr. Freeman’s addition to the defense expert witness list has been on my mind for over a week. His curriculum vitae, as impressive as it is, is heavy with publications about neck injuries following various impact ratio vehicle accidents, vertebrae -spinal cord compression and roller coaster whiplash.

What is he going to testify to? Was THE BAEZ LAW FIRM really going to go with the nanny was in a car accident with Caylee and Casey was following her and they accidentally smothered her with duct tape which was meant to act as some sort of neck brace? Maddening, yes. Plausible, No.

After examining the email’s included in Ashton’s motion for the umpteenth time, I finally realized what was bugging me more than the absence of what was already ordered by the court in it’s content, or the juvenile response from the lead counsel in a murder defense and sworn officer of the court.

It was the fact that in both email’s from Jose Baez to Jeff Ashton there was only one expert witness whose name was not bolded and seemed to be sandwiched in, almost as if to demonstrate it’s lack of importance. Moreover, Jose Baez suggests to Ashton that the state depose him last, as his reports are incomplete.

$575 an hour rate to tell the court at trial what the statistical and probable likelihood is of a public outbreak of unemployed, Caucasian, Target-loving party girls suddenly murdering their toddlers is?

Methinks the nut is under Freeman’s shell, but how is that possible?

Chiari Malformation Type I

Almost conveniently, Chiari 1 complications contributing to the sudden death of a child, was profiled in an episode of Dr. G Medical Examiner. Jan Garavaligia, MD who performed the autopsy on Caylee Anthony is the Medical Examiner in District 9, Orange County, Florida and an expert witness listed by the prosecution in this case. Garion Barber is an 8 year old Orlando boy who passed away in his sleep in March 2008 with only a minor history with seizures. Dr. G’s office investigated his death for over 4 months before she was able to conclude Garion died from an un diagnosed Chiari 1 malformation/sleep apnea. Dr . G also had the benefit of reaching her findings on a recently deceased child, unlike 34 month old Caylee, whose remains were tossed in a swamp off Suburban Drive and were completely skeletonized at the time of their discovery two years ago today.

(more…)

“You can pretty well predict there’s going to be a life sentence, either a plea and get it over with or have a circus trial and then be convicted and get life,”

– J.Cheney Mason, counsel for Casey Anthony

Well now, there you have it. Words from J. Cheney Mason, co-counsel of the defense team via THE BAEZ LAW FIRM.  Was he co-counsel when he said it? No.  All the more reason to wonder why he would sign on to this case. Yet bet Ms. Simms is happy she did not have a TV when these aired.

Cheney’s prediction of Casey’s trial outcome comments were made the day after Caylee’s remains were located, and OCSO was still onscene, December 12, 2008.

Casey Anthony’s parents were still guests of the THE RITZ CARLTON thanks to ABC, and their Hopespring Drive home was being turned upside down by OCSO ater finding Caylee’s Winnie the Pooh blanket her grandmother conveniently forgot to mention was missing from her room.

“Hopespring” - now there is the boss of all oxymorons in this case.

Tuesday, in the news-less press conference, Mr. Mason forgot his former comments as an “analyst” for local 6 as invited by reporterTony Pipitone.

WFTV Reporter Kathi Belich asked Mason if he recalled being a commentator on the case and concluding that Casey would be convicted.

His Response In pertinent part:

“… I Don’t recall making any such statement..”

O No? We DO.

 AFTER Caylee Anthony’s remains were recovered

…” All that talking and the press interviews.. the parents going on this show and that show, the lawyer (Baez) going on different shows established they have no credibility whatsoever..”