Casey Anthony: Hearing set for today in defamation case filed by Zenaida Gonzalez

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-casey-anthony-zenaida-hearing-20100504,0,5781966.story


Zenaida Gonzalez says Casey Anthony damaged her reputation.

By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel

8:34 a.m. EDT, May 4, 2010
Attorneys for Casey Anthony are expected in court this afternoon to defend her in a
defamation suit.

Anthony is being sued in circuit court in Orange County by Zenaida
Gonzalez, a Kissimmee woman who accuses Anthony of damaging her
reputation.

Anthony told investigators a baby sitter named Zenaida
Fernandez-Gonzalez abducted her daughter, 2-year-old Caylee Marie, in
2008.

Anthony is accused of killing her daughter that year. The baby sitter
was never found.

Gonzalez is seeking unspecified damages. She filed suit two years ago,
saying she was harmed by Anthony's statement about the baby sitter.

After investigating that claim and many others, authorities charged
Anthony with murder. The child's body was found several months later in a
patch of woods not far from Anthony's home.

Anthony is now in the Orange County Jail, awaiting trial on a
first-degree murder charge. The state is seeking the death penalty.

It's not clear what will happen at the 1:30 p.m. hearing, a routine
pretrial conference.

In September, Anthony's attorney, Jonathan Kasen, asked the judge to
delay or throw out the civil suit. Anthony shouldn't be placed under
oath and required to say whether or not she murdered her child, he
argued.

But Gonzalez's attorney later agreed not to ask that question, and
Circuit Judge Jose Rodriguez ruled that the case should move forward.