A Sneaking Suspicion

On Monday, I attended a hearing designed to give the defense and prosecution one final shot at summarizing the two motions discussed last Wednesday and Thursday regarding statements Casey gave law enforcement back in mid-July of 2008, and the statements she gave her parents and brother while she was sitting in jail. Were they unwitting agents of the state? If the judge agrees with the defense, it will be a damaging, but far from fatal blow, to the State of Florida. If the judge sides with the State, it will be business as usual - on with the show!
One of the things we must keep in mind is that if evidence is tossed, there's still plenty more the State will use against her. For instance, Casey's car is not in her name. The owner gave permission to have it examined. That's a nice chunk of evidence. Caylee's remains changed the playing field, too. When she was charged with first-degree murder on 14 October 2008, there was no death penalty. That came the following April, and of utmost importance was that her little bones and what surrounded them gave plenty of credibility to the old saying, "she's speaking from the grave."

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Either Way

While attending court on Wednesday, I noticed a big difference in how Casey's defense presented itself as opposed to past hearings. It was a dramatic improvement. It was also the first time I saw Dorothy Clay Sims, the Ocala attorney who specializes in aggressive cross-examinations of medical experts. She joined Casey's team in September of last year. We will be hearing much more from her as we approach the trial, I'm sure.
On Thursday, Judge Perry opened the hearing by admonishing the gallery. He reminded everyone he does not want to see any smirking or hear any snickering. This includes moans, sighs and any sort of reaction that deviates from quietly sitting still and behaving ourselves. One thing I admire about him is the manner in which he handles issues on the surface. He seems to be rather uncomfortable with singling any person or group out. I would imagine if and when it ever reaches that point, the person(s) on the receiving end won't be happy.

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Arresting Development?

There are two basic Miranda Warnings. One is quite minimal and the other is more verbose:

• You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense.

• You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand? Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand? You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. Do you understand? If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. Do you understand? If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you understand? Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?

The general rule is that the first one is just an announcement of your rights, whether under arrest or not, and the second one is primarily to cover all bases a detainee might encounter while in police custody.

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What a difference a sentence makes

In January of 2009, U.S. District Judge John Antoon II accepted Robyn Ann Adams plea agreement and sentenced her to 10 years in prison. Her husband, Clay, was sentenced to 17. He had been an Altamonte Springs police officer. He pleaded guilty in October of 2008 to multiple weapons charges and one count, along with his wife, of conspiring to grow more than 2,000 lbs. of marijuana.
Yesterday, Robyn was booked back into the Orange County Jail in order to testify at the hearings this week. I seriously doubt she and Casey will see one another until they look into each others eyes in the courtroom.

Booked Monday, February 28th, 2011 - Return Per Court Order from State Facility

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The Strange Tale of the Missing Deadlines

...OR, WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

Last month, Jose Baez was sanctioned and fined $583.73 for not complying with a court order. The Court had granted the State's request for additional defense discovery on December 3, 2010 nunc pro tunc (retroactive to) November 29, 2010. The order specified what information the defense was to provide regarding expert witnesses they planned to have testify during the trial. What the defense gave the State fell far short of the order and the prosecution filed the motion for sanctions. Ultimately, Judge Perry wrote that, "The Court finds that defense counsel Jose Baez has committed a willful violation of the Order to provide additional discovery...¹"
COMES NOW, a new motion was filed by the State requesting the judge to hold Jose in contempt of court for missing yet another deadline. Titled the MOTION FOR RULE TO SHOW CAUSE, it accuses him of failing to comply with paragraph five of the Court's February 7 order:

Frye Hearings: The motions addressing Frye issues pertaining to scientific evidence shall be held on March 23, 24, and 25, 2011. The court will provide a schedule to counsel as to the order in which each motion will be heard. ByFebruary 17, 2011 at 4:00 p.m., defense counsel shall submit to the Court and State in writing, the specific issues that will be objected to in accordance with Frye, including, but not limited to, those objections previously addressed in the motions.

What happened? While there's no doubt in my mind the defense has been rather flippant about orders and deadlines, why would Jose & Co. ignore this one and plead bewilderment as he did in his e-mail to the judge's judicial assistant? After all, the order is very clear, isn't it?

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From the FRYE pan into the FYRE? Part I

Next month, two motions filed by the defense will be heard by Judge Perry. Because they are very important Frye issues, and of extreme importance to the defense, this post will focus on the motion about chloroform evidence. It will be in two parts.

PART I - The Frye Pan

Casey Anthony's defense recently filed two Frye motions. The date reflects when they were filed with the Clerk of Courts. Both are stamped 12/30/2010. 

MOTION TO EXCLUDE UNRELIABLE EVIDENCE PURSUANT TO FRYE, OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE, MOTION IN LIMINE TO EXCLUDE (CHLOROFORM)

and

MOTION TO EXCLUDE UNRELIABLE EVIDENCE (Plant or root growth evidence)

The state filed motions to strike, but today, I will just focus on the issue over chloroform. The other motions (defense and state) will come later, because in this particular one, there's much to discern, including a few errors. I will get to them, but first of all, what, exactly, is a Frye motion/hearing? Frye motions are generally held in limine, which means they are made before a trial starts. The judge then decides whether certain evidence may or may not be introduced to the jury. The Frye standard is a test to determine the admissibility of scientific evidence in legal proceedings. This standard comes from the case Frye v. United States (293 F. 1013 (DC Cir 1923) District of Columbia Circuit Court in 1923. Frye v. U.S. was a groundbreaking case that argueded the admissibility of polygraph tests as evidence in a trial. Today, it's designed to prevent both sides from unfairly exploiting expert testimony. Its intent is to assure that expert evidence is reliable.

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The Teflon Judge

During the closing remarks of the final presidential debate between then candidate Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter, the GOP hopeful asked the nation a simple question, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" As simple as it was, the query was powerful and poignant enough to resonate deeply within the minds of the American people, who went on to elect Reagan as our 40th president. The rest, they say, is history.
Today, just over 30 years later, I'd like to ask Casey Anthony's defense team, particularly Jose Baez and Cheney Mason, a similar question. Are you better off now than you were one year ago? Actually, by the time Casey goes to trial, by that I mean sitting in the courtroom facing a jury, precisely 2 years and 11 months will have passed since Caylee was last seen alive. For the first month, Casey was living la bella vita, although it was probably more la vida loco, until she was stopped dead in her tracks by her own flesh and blood; her mother. From there, it quickly plummeted from a lofty peak to the depth of the deepest ocean. I'm only interested in the past year, though. A lot of serious changes have taken place. One year ago today, Judge Stan Strickland sat firmly on the bench. Did the defense do the right thing by filing the motion for his recusal?

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When people throw lemons your way, make lemonade

A young friend associated with the Casey Anthony case has been out of commission for some time now. That's because she had been "with child" and wanted a lengthy break, which is still ongoing. She lives in Mississippi with her husband and two children. Check that... three children now. The closest I ever got to her was in June of 2009, when my lifelong best friend and I took ascenic road trip through Enterprise, Alabama en route to Natchez, Mississippi. I wrote about our adventure, but to be honest, Natchez is 180 miles from where she lives, and Stew and I were in no mood to hang around screaming children. Besides, I didn't know her then. Heck, I didn't go to my first hearing on the Anthony case until four months later, in October of that year, when the most Honorable Judge Stan Strickland called me up to the bench, six full months before the defense filed that senseless motion against him. What a crying shame.

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The Tale of Laura and the Barbarian Princess

If any of you are familiar with Florence Virginia King, you are aware that she is an American novelist, essayist and columnist from Mississippi. Born in 1936, alas, she put down her pen in 2002. Almost all of her works written under her real name have been non-fiction. You may recall 1975's Southern Ladies and Gentlemen. You may also recognize her from the historical romance novel, Barbarian Princess, written under the pseudonym Laura Buchanan. Ironically, she's not the only writer of fiction with that name. Another Laura Buchanan entered the fray more recently; one who seemingly attempted to parlay her name into the bright lights of stardom, tossing good judgment to the wind. She failed miserably and turned out to be the Clifford Irving of the Casey Anthony saga. Irving, in case you don't know or remember, became famous  - infamous is more like it - for using forged handwritten letters from reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes in order to convince his publisher into accepting a counterfeit "autobiography" in the early 1970s. Hughes came out of the woodwork to prove it was nothing more than an elaborate hoax. Irving spent several years in prison, but later managed to publish some best sellers, including two aptly titled books, Final Argument and Daddy's Girl.

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Casey Anthony must die! REVISITED

As things are gearing up for the trial, I want to reflect on some of the issues that transpired during the past two-and-a-half years. On April 20, 2009, I published Casey Anthony must die! on my old WordPress blog. Four days short of one year later, Casey's defense team filed a motion demanding that the Honorable Judge Stan Strickland step down from presiding over the murder case. This article was cited by the defense as the primary reason why Judge Strickland would not be able to judge fairly. Poppycock! The judge never read that post or any of the others the motion cited. Also, had Jose Baez and, particularly, Cheney Mason fully read what I wrote, they would have discovered that the title had nothing to do with delivering Casey's head on a platter of any kind.
Here is the defense motion, and here is Judge Strickland's order granting the motion. Incidentally, the date I was called up in front of the judge was October 16, 2009, a FULL SIX MONTHS before the recusal motion was filed.

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A wealth of misconduct

Time and a Word by Yes
In the morning when you rise,
Do you open up your eyes, see what I see?
Do you see the same things ev'ry day?
Do you think of a way to start the day
Getting things in proportion?
Spread the news and help the world go 'round.
Have you heard of a time that will help us get it together again?
Have you heard of the word that will stop us going wrong?
Well, the time is near and the word you'll hear
When you get things in perspective.
Spread the news and help the word go round.
There's a time and the time is now and it's right for me,
It's right for me, and the time is now.

- Jon Anderson & David Foster

To be quite honest, I had no idea my brain would smash into a brick wall, causing my writing skills to atrophy. My word! Or lack thereof.  To say my life was a bit topsy turvy the past two weeks is an understatement. Generally, when I sit down to write, I like to do it with nothing in my way. I like my mind free from clutter. My mind has been anything but that lately. Even today, I can't sit still. Too many responsibilities. I anticipate this post will take hours to write - hours to focus, too. To give you an idea, here's how I began my post last week before sickness and death took it all away...

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Ruth Landis Kyle

It is with great sadness and much difficulty that I must announce to the world of Science Fiction the passing of my Aunt Ruthie. She slipped away in her sleep last night. Yesterday was her 81st birthday. To tell you I have so many fond memories of her as I was growing up is a huge understatement. She and my Uncle David used to fly me from Newark, New Jersey, to Potsdam, New York, on Mohawk Airlines, then Allegheny, then US Air, to live with them during the summer months of school recess. A lot of my childhood and formative years were spent reading Sci Fi books in bed at night. The cool evening winds of the North Country breezed lightly through my open window. Aunt Ruthie and Uncle David had a veritable library that overflowed the myriad shelves of books in many of the rooms of their spacious and well appointed home. As a young man, my mind was filled with fantastic fantasies that sprang to life with each passing page. It was time spent there that my fascination with the genre blossomed. My uncle is 91-years-old now, soon to be 92, and retired from writing, but they were equally instrumental in helping develop my keen imagination and avid interest in writing. It was not unusual to have dinner guests like Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. Back then, they were just ordinary people to me. 

Aunt Ruthie was an exceptional cook, too. Every meal was a gourmet adventure through Europe; England, Spain, Italy and beyond. As a matter of fact, they lived in England for several years, on the Thames River, while my uncle wrote books. 

I will be talking to Uncle David later today, but I must be strong. That will prove to be rather difficult at the moment. God knows how much I love my aunt. My cousins, AC and Kerry, have lost their mother. Today, she belongs to God and the stars - the stars I used to visit every night in my own vivid space odysseys in upstate New York and beyond. The sci fi world has lost one of their most cherished fans.

God Bless You, Aunt Ruthie. Thank you.

PLEASE VISIT MY MAIN BLOG AT
marinadedave.com

 

Ruth & David Kyle at a Sci Fi convention - year unknown

To a very good year!

Monday Monday

The Honorable Belvin Perry, Jr. publish.d a NOTICE OF HEARING on Thursday of last year. It is set to begin on Monday at 1:30 PM and it is going to be a long one. Twenty-Two motions will be heard in Courtroom 23A...

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The theory of relative equality

For Debbie

When I was young, we lived on the Margolin farm in Ringoes, New Jersey. It was a dairy farm. I still have fond memories of calling the cows over from the open field in our back yard. Of course, I gave names to some of them. A few of them would slowly meander over to the white wooden fence where I stood on the other side. I would talk to them, pet them, and give them some treats to eat. Cows can be such docile creatures.
Mr. & Mrs. Margolin were very nice people. They had two sons and a daughter. Debbie was my sister's age and they got to be pretty good friends. I don't remember how long we lived there, but by the time I got to high school, we had already moved to the big town of Flemington, population around 2,000 back then, and still the home of the county seat.
As a coming of age young man, I recall Debbie walking around the farm wearing a small bikini and how she affected me then. This was a normal thing for a boy my age. It's called growing up at a time of raging hormones, and it's just a part of the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. Most boys my age would have had the same thoughts running around in our heads, but that's got nothing to do with my point. My point is this: How Debbie dressed did nothing to invite trouble, and what happened to her should never be an excuse to commit murder.

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Suburban Drive - Two Years Later

I shot a new video of the site where Caylee was discovered on December 11, 2008. It's hard to believe it was two years ago. I really wanted to get this published earlier, but it takes time to edit and upload to YouTube. I hope it's worth the wait.

I Swear

I have done my best to head to the courthouse early so I don't have to rush once I arrive. Sometimes, going through security can be very time-consuming. Fortunately, Monday wasn't all that bad. I never have to park in the parking garage, either, and that generally saves me $6-10 per hearing; not much, but in this tight economy, every bit helps. Because of where I park, I walk by the television trucks with their high microwave towers extending from the roofs. It's interesting because they are filled with very expensive electronic equipment. On most days, that's where the reporters put their well choreographed on air segments together. That in itself is a real talent. The trucks are all parked in an area designed for them, in front of the courthouse, in a nook off Orange Avenue.

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