2011.01.24: Hearing Will Address Request For Investigative Hours

[sumbunny]

We should start a "Countdown to ICA Trial" thread to document milestones and highlights as we head into trial.

15 weeks to go!

Thats a brilliant idea! Day to day or week to week happenings with discussion!

Maybe Beach would be able to let us know if this would be ok?

 

[noonie]

Thats a brilliant idea! Day to day or week to week happenings with discussion!

Maybe Beach would be able to let us know if this would be ok?

I agree!!! Wow it will be here before we know it!!!!!! JP needs to make a deadline for this fishing!!! Hopefully by the next hearing he will announce something. :great: Her time is running OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :woohoo: Come on trial.

 

[TrialAddict]

I believe the trial will start in May, but not May 2011.

 

[Intermezzo]

We should start a "Countdown to ICA Trial" thread to document milestones and highlights as we head into trial.

15 weeks to go!

Thats a brilliant idea! Day to day or week to week happenings with discussion!

Maybe Beach would be able to let us know if this would be ok?

Or A Calendar Countdown widget on the main thread

 

[faefrost]

Since JB went through the $275,000 like a hot knife through butter do you think once they go over his records that someone will draft a law which would require the defense attorney to account for every dime of the client's money before allowing them to apply for State assistance.

It's very difficult to find the facts that favor your client when they are just not there. And it appears that Mr. Baez has had a plan all along to use up that photo money first then make the state pay for all the work he did not do. Look at the discovery. It appears they have done nothing, nothing. And from the looks of the motions that were filed by defense they appear to have been done by students. There seems to be two significant victims in the case against Casey Anthony. Caylee and the State of Florida. jmo

There is such a law on the books. Here's the kicker though. It only accounts for any active cases for which the attorney has a relationship with the client. They cannot go back and look at past cases that have been closed and the attorney is no longer the active representing council.

if I understand it correctly 30 days after sentencing the lawyer is no longer the attorney of record and the case is closed. Remember (and this is IMPORTANT) JB represented KC on two separate matters. The murder/Caylee related charges and the theft/fraud/checkstealing charges. These were different cases, trials and representation. So JB would have been paid separately for each.

Now if they were 2 ongoing cases involving the same lawyer, then yes the JAC can demand a full accounting regarding each. BUT!... they applied for indigent status EXACTLY 31 days after sentencing in the check fraud, and the day after JB was done and closed out of that case. So any payment records involving it were closed from examination at that time. So JB could have been paid $200k (wink wink nudge nudge) for defending her on the check fraud charges and virtually nothing put towards the murder trial. But the way they timed it means that would not be shown or accounted for.

 

[NoNameLeft]

wow......you guys are aswesome for being able to keep up with that!!....i thought there was some place else you guys were getting the info.....thank you so much for the play by play.....with all the chatting on there.....my eyes could not focus long enough to read it....

Next time if there is LiveWire event, just turn off visitor comments (under options, turn comments off and on). Much easier to read: Click here to see reporter's comments only.

 

[LambChop]

There is such a law on the books. Here's the kicker though. It only accounts for any active cases for which the attorney has a relationship with the client. They cannot go back and look at past cases that have been closed and the attorney is no longer the active representing council.

if I understand it correctly 30 days after sentencing the lawyer is no longer the attorney of record and the case is closed. Remember (and this is IMPORTANT) JB represented KC on two separate matters. The murder/Caylee related charges and the theft/fraud/checkstealing charges. These were different cases, trials and representation. So JB would have been paid separately for each.

Now if they were 2 ongoing cases involving the same lawyer, then yes the JAC can demand a full accounting regarding each. BUT!... they applied for indigent status EXACTLY 31 days after sentencing in the check fraud, and the day after JB was done and closed out of that case. So any payment records involving it were closed from examination at that time. So JB could have been paid $200k (wink wink nudge nudge) for defending her on the check fraud charges and virtually nothing put towards the murder trial. But the way they timed it means that would not be shown or accounted for.

No honor among thieves.

 

[sumbunny]

Next time if there is LiveWire event, just turn off visitor comments (under options, turn comments off and on). Much easier to read: Click here to see reporter's comments only.

I had no idea that we could turn visitor comments off!! Thank you so much!

 

[beach]

We should start a "Countdown to ICA Trial" thread to document milestones and highlights as we head into trial.

15 weeks to go!

Thats a brilliant idea! Day to day or week to week happenings with discussion!

Maybe Beach would be able to let us know if this would be ok?

Okay, let me make sure I understand...

y'all want to have a thread dedicated to discuss specific happenings (rulings, docs, motions, etc...) relevant to that day or week? (At this point I'm thinking weekly would be best...we can adjust if necessary.) Do I have that right?

Before I okay opening it, let me run it by the boss, BJB. I think there are probably a few details to work out so that it doesn't run parallell to other threads, iykwim.

 

[Snaz]

Not to fear, HHJP already gave a heads up that there are lawyers out there that make money chasing after fraudulently obtained JAC money.

~fingers crossed~

Just catching up on the thread... so please forgive me if this has already been asked.

I know HHJP made the comment at one of the hearings about this, but can the funds be considered fraudulently obtained if the judge keeps approving them?

TIA!

 

[Snaz]

Dear Florida,

I know how you feel. We went thru the same thing with Westerfield and his crony Feldman (like JB) charged San Diego 100's of thousands of dollars. We didn't know this until after the fact, as most hearings were behind closed doors.

IMHO if you hire a private attorney, you, the defendant, are responsible for ALL costs. Once you run out of said money, you should immediately be handed over to a public defender. The private attorney can bring the public defender up to speed in no time!

There are assets. The anthony's can sell their house. Baez can account for the 250K he rec'd. The anthony's can account for all the media money they received (oh that's right - dinners and cruises...forgot).

No way, no how, should these costs fall under the taxpayers umbrella. Been there done that - and it's not right!

MOO

Mel

BBM

IIRC, the Anthonys owe more on their home than they could ever sell it for. Probably the same with their cars. And since KC is an adult, they would never be held liable for her defense, anyway.

However, I completely agree with you that once KC was declared indigent, it just seems right that she should have been turned over to a public defender. I mean, let's be honest about it.... a PD would probably be doing a much better job for her anyway than her current representation.

It will be interesting to see what they do with these 300 hours now..... or since they were already over 106 hours, does that mean they have 194 left to work with?

 

[BlOnDe_GuRrL]

i'm not understanding this either.. if you hire an attorney.. then it's your responsibility to PAY for that attorney.
if you're indigent.. you get a PD.
why in the world are they paying Baez??? if that was any of us, we'd be told to apply for a pd.

why is he even sticking around? didn't she initially give him a bad check for $4000 to retain him? could've sworn i read that somewhere

 

[watergirl]

What drug do they use to sedate pets before putting them to sleep?

In Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, the Department of Criminal Justice said Friday it is exploring the use of another anesthetic. The state has four executions scheduled between now and July but has enough sodium thiopental to carry out only two February executions, spokesman Jason Clark said.


Oklahoma has gone a different route, switching to pentobarbital, an anesthetic commonly used to put cats and dogs to sleep. The state has conducted two executions with that drug.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas...ty-drug-1200270.html?cxtype=rss_ece_frontpage

 

[elementary]

History repeats itself and I expect we will see it a few more times before May. HHJP is in a tenuous position; what can he say? "Hey, Baez, you are so dumb that you wasted all the time and money I already gave you and came up with nothing. So that's it. Who cares if there's exculpatory evidence waiting in the wings? You used up all your resources. . . Get the needle and fill the syringe."

IMO, there will be a few more calls like these.

All I can think of is the promise of "fine toothed comb". I haven't seen any evidence here. Was it an empty promise?

 

[faefrost]

i'm not understanding this either.. if you hire an attorney.. then it's your responsibility to PAY for that attorney.
if you're indigent.. you get a PD.
why in the world are they paying Baez??? if that was any of us, we'd be told to apply for a pd.

why is he even sticking around? didn't she initially give him a bad check for $4000 to retain him? could've sworn i read that somewhere

They are not paying Baez. Baez was paid by KC prior to going indigent. Because he cashed that check and accepted reasonable payment for his services, he is in for the duration. He gets no money from the state. There was actually a Florida law put in place last year that prevents an attorney from bailing on a client once paid, if the money runs out and the client is declared indigent. The KC case and JB were the major inspirations for the lawmakers at the time.

And yeah while she did give him the bad $4k check. There is also about $90k of "licensing deal" monies from ABC that seem to have found their way into his pocket as payment for services.

 

[elementary]

Funny thing about getting money from the government. They can audit the records and demand it back pretty much any time. In the name of a fair and expeditious trial HHJP approved these expenses for today. These are meerly increases to the defense budget for investigations. All proper record keeping, invoicing and paperwork must still be followed. And may be dealt with by the JAC at their leisure. HHJP does not want financial squabbles muddying things before trial, when the JAC can just as easily slam them all for shoddy records afterwards, when it wont have any impact on the defendants "right to a fair trial". (and yes it will mean that KC has once again managed to scam someone else either the taxpayers or her own defense team out of paying for her messes).

I see your reasoning. My question is, will the government actually audit afterwards? Is that a given?

 

[elementary]

*sigh*...I'm really not ok with this one. They are not investigating anything and they are going to try to keep stalling. Finnell needs to BACK OFF of people who do not want to support Casey. It is so disrespectful to keep badgering people like this. Judge Perry was wrong today imo. Seems like the investigation time should be over with by now anyway.

I second what you said. Decisions happen in court and to the primary participants, but what about the fallout? Is everyone else just collateral damage?

 

[faefrost]

I see your reasoning. My question is, will the government actually audit afterwards? Is that a given?

I believe it has already started. Didn't the JAC have some questions about the billing very recently? And for the state money folks. Once they start looking, or get the smell of sloppiness. They won't stop.

 

[Macushla]

I was really disappointed today when HHJP granted the defense the 300 hours they asked for. Thank you to the poster who pointed out that since they were already in the red, they didn't actually get 300 MORE hours.

However, after reading all your posts, I am feeling a little better and think that HHJP is a wise man. It will be more cost effective in the long run to give the defense their hours so they can not appeal on that issue. If he can keep this trial on track AND make sure it goes smoothly with no bumps, then he will be saving us tax paying Floridans the cost of battling future appeals. So spend a little now and save a lot later does make sense to me.

(But I am still going to pout for awhile.)

 

[denjet]

*sigh*...I'm really not ok with this one. They are not investigating anything and they are going to try to keep stalling. Finnell needs to BACK OFF of people who do not want to support Casey. It is so disrespectful to keep badgering people like this. Judge Perry was wrong today imo. Seems like the investigation time should be over with by now anyway.

I'm really not OK with this either .... background checks on Dr G and the ME's office ???
"Investigating" (Googling) media stories they don't like and putting them on flash drive as discovery ????
Finding more TES searchers who say they did NOT search the exact area ???
"Interviewing" (harassing) people they're chasing down who don't want to talk to them or get involved ????

I was really surprised that Judge Perry OK'd the whole amount they asked for ... seems like back peddling after his decision last time

I thought Judge Perry was going to go over JAC requests with a fine-toothed comb ... what happened to that ? JAC even filed a motion questioning the billing and whether the hours were investigative hours ...

I just don't understand ....