Judge Won't Seal Casey's Defense Spending Records

Judge Won't Seal Casey's Defense Spending Records

Posted: 4:37 pm EDT May 5, 2010
Updated: 10:03 am EDT May 6, 2010

Excerpt:

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- The case against Casey was back in court Thursday, but Casey didn't want to be. Her attorneys asked a judge to let her stay in jail during her court hearings. They also laid out their plans to spend thousands more of your tax dollars.

The judge said no to several of their requests, including their motion to seal spending records.

A judge has already declared Casey indigent, who is accused of killing her young daughter Caylee nearly two years ago, so taxpayers will now pick up the tab for her expenses. Her attorneys wanted all of the information, which would normally be public, kept secret.

CASEY IN COURT: See Images | Raw Video
BILL SHEAFFER: Analysis Of Thursday's Hearing
IMAGES IN COURT: Baez, Judge, Others In Court
05/06/10 HEARING: Pt.1 | Pt.2 | Pt.3 | Pt.4 | Pt.5 | Pt.6
RAW INTERVIEW: Baez Talks To WFTV
VIDEO REPORT: Casey In Court For Hearing
MOTIONS: Seal Spending | Pay For Experts
VIDEO REPORT: Defense Wants Spending Sealed

READ MORE: http://www.wftv.com/news/23465730/detail.html

http://www.wftv.com/news/23465730/detail.html

Posted: 4:37 pm EDT
May 5, 2010Updated: 12:28 pm EDT May 6, 2010
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- At a hearing Thursday, Casey Anthony's
attorneys
asked Judge Belvin Perry to prevent the public from seeing how
much
tax money they're spending on Casey's defense, but the defense
request
was denied.A judge has already declared Casey indigent,
who is
accused of killing her young daughter Caylee, so taxpayers will
now
pick up the tab for her expenses. Her attorneys wanted all of the
information,
which would normally be public, kept secret.CASEY
IN
COURT: See Images | Raw
Video
IMAGES
IN COURT: Baez, Judge, Others In Court
05/06/10
HEARING: Part
1 | Part 2| Part
3
MOTIONS:Seal
Spending | Pay For Experts
VIDEO REPORT:Defense
Wants Spending Sealed
Casey Anthony walked into the courtroom
around 8:50am, wearing a
frilly, short-sleeve, white button down shirt
with blue stripes and
with her hair pulled back in a bun (images
| raw
video). She sat alone at the defense table and waited for her
attorneys
to arrive. Jose Baez walked into the courtroom around 8:55am
and
took a seat next to Casey.“First matter is a budget hearing.
There’s
also been notice for the date the defense request for the state
to
file written responses to defendant’s motions,” Judge Belvin Perry
said
in court as the hearing got underway.Baez than asked for
them to
first discuss the motion to seal all Justice Administration
Commission
(JAC) documents (read
it).
The JAC is the body that will set forth the defense
team's spending,
because Casey is considered indigent and taxes will
pay for much of her
defense. Baez says the defense doesn't want to
reveal who their expert
witnesses are out of fear it will disclose
their court strategy and
didn't want to release the amount they're
spending.When Casey was
first arrested, she had no money that was
legitimately earned; she
couldn't even pay Baez's $5,000 retainer.
But, instead of opting for a
public defender back then, only two
months after Caylee had disappeared,
Casey sold all of her own
videos and photos of Caylee to ABC for
$200,000 and two of her
attorneys, one of whom has since left the case,
raised another
$140,000. That money is gone now and taxpayers have no
idea where
all of it went.Judge Perry agreed to begin with the
motion to seal
the records and gave Baez an opportunity to speak first.Baez
argued
that the media, "leeches" and "pseudo news media" are most
interested
in having access to the documents but, while there's a public
right
to know, it could damage her right to a fair trial. In its
motion,
the defense wrote, "Documents and requests for funding will lead
to
endless speculation as to the defense strategy for defending Miss
Anthony
and could ultimately affect her right to a fair trial."“Quite

frankly, the Orlando Sentinel is going to have to find another way to
sell
newspapers,” Baez told Judge Perry on Thursday.Baez made
further
arguments to support the defense motion and then Judge Perry
responded
by pointing out Florida Statute 119 (read
statute), which deals with access to
public records.“One
more question, Mr. Baez, before you take your
seat. The JAC is a state
agency,” Judge Perry said. “Are there any
particular statutory
exceptions under [statute] 119 that you’re
relying on or are you just
relying on what you just told me?”“I’m
relying on my previous
arguments,” Baez said.Judge Perry thanked
Baez and then called
the Orlando Sentinel's attorney, who is arguing
against the motion and
wants access to the records, to speak.“The
request is just too
broad,” attorney Rachel Fugate, with the Orlando
Sentinel, argued. "At
this point, I think it’s premature and it’s
simply too broad."An
attorney for the JAC also spoke, briefly, but
took no specific stand on
the actual request and instead pointed out
that the JAC does have to
comply with Statute 119, unless a judge
orders otherwise, and that
sealing the records does put an
administrative burden on their agency.The
state declined to speak on
the matter, saying that they have no stand
on the issue, and Judge
Perry gave Baez an opportunity to respond to the
arguments made.“I
disagree with Ms. Fugate where the public
should know, should know
what’s going on in the inner workings of the
defense,” Baez argued.
“It’s not the Sentinel’s life that’s on the line,
it’s Casey
Antony’s.”Baez continued: “As to the JAC’s arguments,
I would argue
they don’t have standing to make an objection. This is a
state
agency and they will do what your honor orders."Baez said
that
having the records sealed should actually reduce the burden on the
JAC,
suggesting that they wouldn't have to deal with all the media
requests
for documents if they weren't available."So the argument
that this
is an administrative burden falls on its face," Baez said.After

speaking briefly on the rules governing the release of such documents,
Judge
Perry quickly responded with his decision on the defense request.“The
court finds that the defense, at this time, has not met its burden to
show
that a serious and imminent threat to a fair, impartial trial has
been
met," Judge Perry said.Judge Perry, though, did offer some
flexibility
and suggested that there could be some JAC documents that
are
sealed.“Basically, we’ll have to do this on a case by case
basis, or
expert by expert basis,” Judge Perry said and quickly moved
the
hearing forward. “That takes care of the issue of the motion to
seal.
I guess the next thing to take care of is setting a budget.”Baez

began the budget discussion with Dr. Henry Lee, one of the forensic
experts
the defense has used throughout the case. However, Dr. Lee is
out
of state, something the defense filed a motion to seek coverage for
despite
the JAC's hesitation to pay for out of state witnesses (read
it).Baez
argued for Dr. Lee's future costs to be covered by
the JAC, but the JAC
argued that it doesn't support the use of out
of state experts because
of the increased cost. Baez was then
invited to speak again, laying out
the amount of work Dr. Lee had
already done for the case, including
inspecting Casey's car,
inspecting the site where Caylee's remains were
found, as well as
inspecting the crime scene analyst photographs and
much of the
discovery."While the JAC has this rule to encourage
people to use
instate experts, in this case the work Dr. Lee has done
can't be
replicated by anyone at this late state in the trial," Judge
Perry
said, authorizing the defense to continue to use Dr. Lee as an
expert
in their case.Judge Perry also approved the defense's use
of an out
of state mitigation expert, but was clear that that expert and
Dr.
Lee are bound by the rates set by the JAC.The JAC then asked
the
judge to set a spending cap on investigation spending. When asked
by
the judge what they suggested, the JAC suggested 30-50 hours, but
Judge
Perry immediately said that wouldn't be enough and, after
discussion,
allowed for 300 hours, despite Baez's request for 480 hours.After
a
lengthy debate over the other experts the defense wants to continue
using,
but doesn't want to disclose in open court, Judge Perry asked for

them to do a little more work before any further discussion.“We’re

going to be in recess until 10:45am,” Judge Perry said.The judge

wants to go over the defense list of experts one by one with the JAC
and
the defense to decide on what will be allowed and learn how much
work
they’ve already done.Casey Anthony returned to the court
room at
10:43am and the hearing quickly resumed as all parties involved
began
discussing the many experts the defense wants permission to use,
despite
them being out of state.Judge Perry granted the defense
request to
use the following experts: forensic entomologist,
anthropologist,
forensic botanist, forensic pathologist, digital
forensics expert, a
DNA expert, two forensic chemist experts and a
canine expert (up to
20 hours of work). Judge Perry was very specific
that each approved
expert must stick by the guidelines set forth by the
JAC. He also
granted up to $3,500 for public records requests.However,
Judge
Perry denied without prejudice (meaning the defense can file a
motion
for a hearing) a taphonomy expert, a cell phone expert, and money

to purchase two Pontiac Sunfires (approx $6,000) for testing. He also
denied
with prejudice (meaning it won't be heard again) the defense
request
for a jury consultant.Around 12:05pm, the judge and Jose
Baez went
behind closed doors to discuss the remaining experts and
requests
Baez has that he doesn't want disclosed publicly or to the
prosecution.
They emerged less than 10 minutes later.“Miss
Anthony has requested
to waive her appearances at these type of things,”
Mason told the
judge as the hearing was coming to a close. “She’s
rather stay where
she is.”The judge, however, said that in death
penalty cases things
could come up where she may be needed for a
response.“It has been
my experience that, in capital cases, that
defendants need to be
present during the preceding,” Judge Perry said.
“If Ms. Anthony is
found guilty of anything, it will lead to a post
conviction relief
proceedings, maybe ... and it always gets back to ‘my
lawyer didn’t
tell me this’ and ‘if I would have been there I would have
done A,
B, C, D.’”Judge Perry, however, did say she did not have
to attend
status hearings that simply check on the progress on the
case, but
don’t argue motions.The hearing ended at 12:30pm, over
three hours
after it began.