"But the analysts on WOFL-Channel 35 were stunned that a defense witness had gone on television. “If I were the defense attorneys, I’d be doing back flips,” attorney Hal Uhrig said. “You just don’t go on TV and go through a preview of what your expected testimony is going to be.” Attorney Diana Tennis said the defense attorneys had to be “horrified” that a witness was talking on television, which she called “unseemly and unprofessional.”"
HAL BOEDEKER; THE ORLANDO SENTINEL;
A backgrounder on this high profile Florida case cane be found on Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Caylee_Anthony
Massive Orlando Sentinel coverage (including photographs and videos):
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/caylee-anthony/os-casey-anthony-trial-day-18-20110614,0,1950952.story
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"WKMG-Channel 6 this afternoon talked to Dr. Werner Spitz, a forensic pathologist who disagrees with Dr. Jan Garavaglia’s conclusion that Caylee Anthony’s manner of death was homicide," the Orlando Sentinel story by Hal Boedeker begins, under the heading, "Casey Anthony: Unfounded conclusion? Mystery man? What next?," and the sub-heading, "What’s coming from Casey Anthony’s defense team?"
"Spitz’s take on that finding? “Absolutely not,” Spitz told WKMG’s Tony Pipitone. “The determination of homicide is jumping to conclusions, because it is unfounded, I think,” the story continues.
"Pipitone conducted the first-rate interview, which showed his deep knowledge of the case.
But the analysts on WOFL-Channel 35 were stunned that a defense witness had gone on television. “If I were the defense attorneys, I’d be doing back flips,” attorney Hal Uhrig said. “You just don’t go on TV and go through a preview of what your expected testimony is going to be.” Attorney Diana Tennis said the defense attorneys had to be “horrified” that a witness was talking on television, which she called “unseemly and unprofessional.”
Spitz also told Pipitone: “I don’t know who put the duct tape on her. I don’t know the identity of that person. That would have been fine if somebody specifically had fingerprints on the duct tape. Well, that’s missing. I don’t know who did that. … The duct tape would have come off when the body decomposed, because there was no bond of the duct tape with the bone.”
Spitz said he will travel to Orlando on Thursday and could testify on Friday or Saturday. He said he had been working on the case for a year, had never submitted a bill and had never been paid by anyone.
The defense starts its case at 9 a.m. Thursday. Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee.
WKMG also reported that the defense wants to learn more about Vasco Thompson, who was sentenced to prison for kidnapping. “According to the defense, this man had an unexplained relationship with George Anthony, Casey Anthony’s father,” WKMG’s Mike DeForest reported. The defense says the two men communicated by cell phone in 2008, and DeForest said the defense wants to depose Thompson.
Mark Lippman, the attorney for George Anthony, said that his client had never heard of Thompson, Pipitone reported.
In its opening statement, the defense said George Anthony was aware his granddaughter had drowned and covered up the accident.
The Anthony case has always provided a lot of room for everyone, including the TV experts, to speculate. The start of the defense’s case on Thursday meant a good deal of speculating today.
WOFL-Channel 35 legal analyst Tennis talked about what the defense may be thinking after Chief Judge Belvin Perry denied an acquittal in the case today. “Now the defense is thinking the only way that we really preserve a good appellate argument is if our evidence doesn’t conflict with the state evidence,” she said. She wondered if the defense would “shift gears totally” and ignore its opening statement in favor a new argument that Anthony had checked out of reality.
“The defense is really going to need to spend the rest of day figuring this out so they’ve got some sort of coherent, cohesive story to start presenting to us,” Tennis said. “They probably shouldn’t have given that opening.”
WESH-Channel 2 legal analyst Richard Hornsby predicted that the defense team would put its forensic experts on first, then possibly former meter reader Roy Kronk and Anthony family members. Hornsby predicted that Casey Anthony, if she testifies, will go last, WESH’s Amanda Ober said. “But that is a big if,” Ober added."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The story can be found at:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/06/casey-anthony-unfounded-conclusion-mystery-man-what-next.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
