Casey Anthony Trial Judge Threatens Lawyers With Mistrial; Recesses Court Early
No witnesses were called on Monday in the Casey Anthony trial after Chief Judge Belvin Perry reprimanded lawyers for their continual “gamesmanship” in court.
Recessing the court until Tuesday morning, Perry stated that he had enough with both the prosecution and the defense, who continually delayed the trial and wasted time with their lengthy arguments.
The judge even threatened issuing a possible exclusion order, not allowing some of the defense’s witnesses in the trial, if the violation of court rules continued, even if that meant starting the trial all over again.
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“Enough is enough,” he said.
Forensic anthropologist William Rodriguez was supposed to resume his testimony today, when he was interrupted on Saturday by the prosecution and accused of changing his initial deposition.
Perry accused Baez for intentionally withholding information from the court and the state, and allowed prosecution to depose Rodriguez as well.
The judge issued new rules requiring each expert witness to submit a report with their opinions to both the prosecution and the defense, giving each side enough information to prepare their cases in order to have no surprises in court.
Before trial began Monday morning, Prosecutor Jeff Ashton requested to delay the testimony of two forensic experts the defense planned to call today, one being Rodriguez.
Ashton stated that they did not have enough time to properly study Rodriguez’s deposition and also revealed plans to request sanctions against another witness whose report contained no opinions and insufficient information.
Defense attorney Jose Baez however accused Ashton of “gamesmanship” and believed that the state was intentionally refusing to take depositions and blaming the defense for it.
Baez also said that the prosecution had ample time to depose expert witnesses the weeks before the trial and further threatened the state with similar sanctions for previous witnesses that were called by the state who testified to opinions that were purportedly not in their reports.
Perry told both lawyers that both of them would never agree on anything, and pointed out the obvious “friction” between the attorneys.
“At the conclusion of this trial this court will deal with violations which may or may not have occurred,” the judge expressed, warning them of possible ramifications with the Florida Bar Association.
Perry also ordered lawyers to start their days at 8:30 a.m. each day so that both sides could take care of any issues before the jurors arrived at 9:00 a.m., not wasting the court’s time.
Saturdays were also changed to full days, instead of half days.
Casey Anthony, 25, faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
The state presented their case over the past weeks, charging the defendant of suffocating her daughter with duct tape, placing her in the trunk of her car, and dumping her body in the nearby woods.
Defense is setting to prove that Caylee accidentally drowned in her grandparents’ swimming pool.
