Casey Anthony Hearing – ‘Tempest in a Teapot’

In what had probably been the most anticipated hearing to date, the defense didn’t fail to deliver a mountain of bull manure for the court to dig through!

Much of what led to the high anticipation were the baffling antics of the defense.

Take for instance Cheney Mason’s very public and childish meltdown over Kathi Belich.  Couple that with Mark NeJame’s blistering response to the TES motion by the defense that contains the very descriptive bad behavior of Mason and what have you got?

An embarrassing portrait of a rude, arrogant, egotistical person who, for lack of a better description, has the maturity level of a spoiled two-year-old! 

But wait!  We aren’t done yet!  Mason again went beyond the pale with his nonsensical motion to keep the evidence reviewed by defense experts from being released to the public.  Ok, it wasn’t so much the public…his diatribe was really just railing against the media and had no legal precedence behind it.

Just what is up with Mason?

So, the entire ‘happy family’ is in court today however, even though they are sitting together the emotional distance amongst them is huge.  George basically kept his focus on the ground and the scowl never left his face.

Judge Perry wants to deal with The TES issue first and Baez asks for a quick sidebar.  That ‘quick’ sidebar lasted about 15 minutes during which Judge Perry was rather animated.

Ultimately, the defense withdrew the motion and Judge Perry ruled they may review the documents again and Mark NeJame and Jose Baez must work together.

Perry said he would appoint a special magistrate to oversee the review and in what came as a surprise to me, the defense may take notes!

Next on the docket are the infamous 911 calls. Cindy was called to the stand and Judge Perry sent Lee out of the courtroom for the duration of her testimony.

It seemed to me that the past few weeks were busy for Cindy as she came off as well rehearsed and she was able to remain calm and in control of her anger.

Baez took Cindy through all three 911 calls before Linda Drane Burdick took over on cross.

There were no explosions, but several things really struck me.  During the entire time Cindy was on the stand Casey just stared at her.  Casey attempted to remain stone-faced, but the stare was beyond icy and her disdain for Cindy was all over her face!  Several times Casey wrote notes to Mason and Baez and while she was writing quickly, it was with anger and fury.

Cindy totally threw everybody for a loop when she announced from the stand that, till this day, she believes Caylee is alive!  A lot of folks want to know why then did they have the memorial?

“Smells Like a Dead Body in the Damn Car.”  Burdick led Cindy through her experiences as a nurse as well as George’s experience in law enforcement and whether they could recognize the smell of decomposition.

Next, an older looking Lee took the stand and mouthed, “I love you” to his sister which made Casey go into her crying (but where are the actual tears) routine.  What was humorous was Linda Drane Burdick’s reaction!  She said, “I assume you aren’t talking to me,” to which Lee replied, “absolutely not!”

The only really remarkable facet to Lee being on the stand was Cheney Mason’s cross.  Now, don’t forget that Burdick had already taken Lee through the events of the 911 calls.

Mason’s questioning goes along the lines of Lee arriving at the house and (paraphrasing) what George was saying, and there wasn’t excited activity going on…. Lee had to correct Mason by saying when he arrived at the house, he was the only one there.  So, Mason is pretty clueless as to the facts in this case, he apparently hasn’t reviewed much of anything.  Heck, we all know more about this case!

All of this is moot because ultimately the State only wants the calls in to show how Casey progressively manufactured the Zanny story over a period of time.

Judge Perry ruled call #3 was an excited utterance – and all the calls come in!

The defense won one, as Perry will keep the evidence review list sealed. The discussion focuses on whether the two-dozen or so items the defense really reviewed, out of hundreds, are work-product. No biggie, the entire evidence logs have already been disclosed.

While I have pages of notes, this is a pretty quick wrap-up of the highlights of the day – the hearing went on for over 3 hours, the feed from the court had to be chased around because different sites would drop it at different times, but we really didn’t see the ‘Tempest in a Teapot’ that was expected.

What is incredibly sad is the hearing occurred on the two-year anniversary of little Caylee Anthony being reported as missing and she has yet to see justice.