Casey Anthony: Cost warning seen as ‘alarmist,’ ‘outrageous’ - Hal

Casey Anthony: Cost warning seen as ‘alarmist,’ ‘outrageous’
Caylee and Casey Anthony, WESH, WFTV — posted by halboedeker on March, 17 2011 5:52 PM

WESH-Channel 2 put the story at the top of its 4 p.m. news today, and WFTV-Channel 9 placed it first on its 5 p.m. news.

The story was a warning from Lydia Gardner, the Orange County clerk of courts, that budget concerns might mean the Casey Anthony murder trial could be canceled or suspended.

WESH’s Bob Kealing called that warning “this rather alarmist scenario.” Kealing then relayed Chief Judge Belvin Perry’s statement that the trial is “moving forward” and is still set to start May 9. And Kealing quoted a legislative spokesman who described Gardner’s “bleak” scenario as “not accurate.”

WFTV-Channel 9 anchor Bob Opsahl said, “Gardner has no authority to cancel a trial and she knows it.”

WFTV anchor Martie Salt added, “Now there’s a showdown brewing between Gardner and the chief judge because of the outrageous statements.”

WFTV’s Jeff Deal said Gardner was backing off the statement that the trial was in serious jeopardy. “But she says the state does want to cut her costs by about 20 percent in the fourth quarter of this year and she’s concerned that she couldn’t afford jury costs,” Deal added.

What’s going on with Gardner? “It appears she is trying to use her leverage in the county’s biggest case to tell lawmakers not to touch her budget,” Deal said. But Deal added that Gardner said she wasn’t playing politics but just laying out her concerns.

At 5, WESH’s Kealing described Gardner’s statement as “doomsday.” Then he quoted state Sen. Mike Fasano that if any trials needed to be suspended, civil cases would be first, not criminal trials like Anthony’s.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/03/casey-anthony-cost-warning-seen-as-alarmist-outrageous.html