Did Casey Anthony’s Attorneys Just Get Caught With Their Hand In The Taxpayer Till?

Holy cow, the slimy defense team just got hoisted by their own petard and I’m thinking you folks in Florida need to start some major protesting!

Ann Finnell, herself, and JAC,  have outed her to be just as just as slimy as the rest of Casey Anthony’s defense team, but JAC ain’t buying their crap!

Let me explain some of my issues with Ann Finnell.

1. Cheney Mason delivered a glowing intro for his long-time friend

yeah I believe his verbal diarrhea which immediately made me suspicious!

2. All the freaking fawning over how Finnell is  an expert in death penalty cases and her claim to fame is getting a 15-year-old boy, Brenton Butler, off charges of murdering a Georgia tourist.   So brilliant was the defense strategy, HBO made the movie “A Murder on a Sunday Morning” about the case.

Watch the movie…Finnell was not the ‘pivotal’ character!  She was a

Finnell & McGuinness after Butler acquittal

part of the public defenders’ team. The HBO movie pretty much was about Patrick McGuinness, the other public defender working with Finnell.

Quickly on the heels of the glowing accolades  being offered up about her lawyering skills, the public was treated to and shocked that her first order of business was to file MOTION TO DETERMINE REASONABLE BUDGET FOR DUE PROCESS COSTS IN A CAPITAL CASE AND MOTION TO INCUR CERTAIN SPECIFIED COSTS in which Finnell lets Judge Perry know her expenses in preparing for a possible penalty phase in the case could cost taxpayers $20,000 or more!

Luckily, the Justice Administrative Commission, JAC, said, wait just a minute!

A few of some of the more questionable items are:

– costs for: a private investigator not to exceed $5,000

What the heck are Mort Smith and  Jeremiah Lyons?  Didn’t we just see a bunch of, IMHO, bogus billing for wrong addresses so no statements obtained for the case, etc? JAC would like to know how the heck Finnell arrived at $5k!

– a psychiatrist or psychologist at a “reasonable hourly rate” not to exceed $7,500

JAC wants to know if these folks are out-of-state and indicates psychological evaluations have a flat per-exam maximum rate of $350.  Haven’t we already had some of these?

– costs for copying medical and school records not to exceed $1,000

Say, doesn’t Baez already have a record copying budget established by JAC and didn’t this stuff get copied and paid for already?

– additional 100 hours for a mitigation specialist at a “previously approved rate.”

JAC notes the court previously approved a “cap” of 384 hours for mitigation specialist Jeanene Barrett.  How many are we up to?

Finnell’s estimates her travel expenses and lodging to be $4,000

JAC objects to reimbursement of travel expenses for any attorney in this case as lead counsel is privately retained. Such travel expenses are overhead expenses that should be paid for through counsel’s fee.”

Despite having been caught on numerous occasions filing bogus motions, it seems the new ‘golden girl’ is just as slimy as the rest of the group!  Glad someone at JAC has the ‘brass ones’ to call them out on it.

Now, don’t blink quick or you’ll miss it – no captions needed!

Boy oh boy…ya can’t make this crap up!  The Orlando Sentinel article pretty much nailed this one!

Orlando Sentinel

WESH