Casey Anthony: Cheney Mason is writing a book

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Can Cheney Mason write a best seller?

We could soon find out. The defense attorney is writing a book about the Casey Anthony trial, he revealed today at a seminar of the Orange County Bar Association.

“I can assure you that part and parcel of it is going to reveal the reasons why the jury verdict was not only the right verdict, but it was the only legal verdict they could have got,” Mason told reporters outside the seminar. Anthony was acquitted in July of murder in the 2008 death of her daughter, Caylee.

The private seminar was titled ”Lessons in Ethics & Professionalism from the Casey Anthony Trial.”

WKMG-Channel 6 anchor Lauren Rowe introduced the station’s report on Mason: “Tonight he says he’ll be cashing in … with his own tell-all book.”

Mason said the book should be out by year’s end and will reveal many behind-the-scenes secrets, WKMG’s Mike DeForest reported. “My intentions are to, in fact, let the world know about things that they don’t know and that many of you don’t know,” he told reporters who covered the case.

Mason said he is writing the book by himself without help from any defense team members, DeForest added. “He has repeatedly said that he worked on this case for free,” DeForest noted.

Mason also criticized the defense attorneys who left the team before the trial. ”I’m saying, ‘Huh? You do this now? Three weeks before trial,’ ” Mason said.

In response to a question from WOFL-Channel 35’s Holly Bristow, Mason said the underlying motive for their departure could be they felt the defense would lose.

Mason cited death threats against his family in explaining why Anthony remains in hiding somewhere in Florida. She is serving a year’s probation for check fraud.

At the seminar, WESH-Channel 2’s Bob Kealing reported, Jeff Ashton and Linda Drane Burdick of the prosecution were asked if they still thought that the Anthony case was a death penalty case. Neither would comment, Kealing reported.

Burdick revealed that she lost 17 pounds from the stress of the trial and that she found it difficult to be away from her young daughter, Kealing reported. Ashton said he won’t comment on whether he’ll run for state attorney until his book about the Anthony case comes out, Kealing added. Ashton’s “Imperfect Justice” is due in bookstores Nov. 15.

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