Casey Anthony: Are you ready for fireworks in May? - Hal

Casey Anthony: Are you ready for fireworks in May?
posted by halboedeker on April, 1 2011 1:08 PM

The word today in the Casey Anthony case: fireworks. And if this is what’s ahead in the trial, we’re going to have fireworks in Orlando long before the Fourth of July.

The hearing on sniff tests of Anthony’s car provided dramatic footage that the stations played at noon today.

“Just a second. Everyone be quiet,” Chief Judge Belvin Perry yelled in an oft-played clip.

“Shouting & Sniping in Court,” WKMG-Channel 6 headlined its story. ”Things got a little bit testy in there,” reporter Tony Pipitone said.

WESH-Channel 2’s Bob Kealing described a “contentious” hearing, an “outraged” prosecutor (Jeff Ashton), a defense attorney (Jose Baez) “on thin ice” and a fed-up judge.

“Time and time again this morning, Judge Perry expressed exasperation really with Jose Baez’s failure to share information,” Kealing said.

Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee. The trial is scheduled to start in May.

Asthon complained that Baez had failed to tell the prosecution that an expert’s testimony had changed, but Kealing noted that Baez argued successfully that the expert’s opinion hadn’t changed.

“This is all about what the jury will eventually hear in the Casey Anthony murder trial, whether there are signs of human decomposition in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car,” Pipitone said. “Whether there were so-called high levels of chloroform found in the trunk of that car. Scientific issues, a lot at stake.”

WFTV-Channel 9’s Kathi Belich observed: “Chief Judge Belvin Perry sharply warned the defense against trying to ambush prosecutors with never-before-heard opinions from experts, which would violate the rules of procedure. And the judge lectured Jose Baez on his poor trial techniques.”

Belich described “all the fireworks” today, and WKMG anchor Laura Diaz also referred to “fireworks.” One the of most dramatic moments came just before the lunch break. Kealing described ”a very stern warning from Judge Perry to both sides: Stop the sniping or I’ll fine you.”

Piptione said: “Perry lost patience today with sparring attorneys threatening to find them $100 for each time they spoke to each other instead of only to him, as court decorum requires.”

Belich’s take: “The lawyers got into it again. The judge warned them again, he told them to go to the ATM machine during their lunch break, cause if they come back and keep up with what they’ve been doing — interrupting each other, talking to one another — that he just might be fining them or even citing them for contempt.”

It’s all very dramatic, but does it give you hope or make you despair about the judicial system?

Kealing highlighted that Cindy Anthony said she put fabric softener strips in the car to mask the bad smell. “At that time it was the worst thing I had ever smelled in my life,” Casey Anthony’s mother told prosecutor Ashton.

And what of Casey Anthony? Kealing said she ”one time actually winced and shook her head” when Ashton asked Cindy Anthony whether there had been chloroform in the home or car.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/04/casey-anthony-are-you-ready-for-fireworks-in-may.html