Casey Anthony's defense team label Judge Strickland as a "media hound" has he remains stagnant with his order of 1 year of probation in Orlando for Anthony over an older case of check fraud.
Anthony's defense team argues that they simply want the entire matter "thrown out."
Earlier this week Casey Anthony's defense team had filed out a motion for an emergency hearing with the intentions to "quash and vacate" Judge Stan Strickland's order that Anthony must serve a year of probation for check fraud.
Court records reveal that if she is to serve this term of probation it would then be classified as double jeopardy.
They argued that Florida law stated that a "judge cannot amend his sentence more than 60 days after it was signed," which is true, but the original document sentencing Anthony to probation had been misinterpreted by officials to believe that Anthony would be permitted to serve her term while she was in jail awaiting her trial for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
Florida law also states that inmates are not allowed to serve probation terms while they are jailed, so Judge Strickland has ample authority to correct an illegally administrated sentence despite 60 days having already passed.
However, Anthony's defense attorneys are also accusing Judge Strickland of filing the probation order fraudulently. They claim that he did it out of spite against her due to prejudice feelings.
Her attorneys tenaciously argue that Anthony has done her time in jail and it would be fairly "dangerous for her to return to Orlando" due to barrages of death threats and hatred toward her.
The vast majority of the public feels that Anthony "got away with murder" after the shocking not guilty verdict regarding the murder and abuse of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
"She's done her probation. If you all will go read the motion we just filed, you will see how blatantly clear it is, and how blatantly wrong Mr. Strickland was," Cheney Mason, one of Anthony’s defense attorneys, told reporters.
Casey had admitted to stealing a check from her friend, Amy Huizenga, in July 2008 and then fraudulently cashing it.
According to court records, Casey used over $400 of her friend's money in order to buy clothes and groceries from Target and Winn-Dixie stores.
Also, according to reports from an Orlando radio station, Chief Judge Belvin Perry will grant Anthony a stay, which will then put Strickland's order on hold.
"We are still in contact with her attorneys, and they have been very cooperative," Gretl Plessinger, director for the Florida Department of Corrections, told reporters in a press conference on Wednesday.
“We do not know when Anthony will report, but the Department of Corrections is ready for her. We told her attorney that she needs to be here by no later than 10 a.m. Thursday morning and if she does not check in by 10 o'clock tomorrow, we will notify the court."
Plessinger also said that even though Strickland recused himself Anthony must still report for her probation.
"Right now we have not received any threats. If we get to the point where we do, we will begin working with local law enforcement and take any precautions that we need, depending on the threat," Plessinger told reporters at the press conference today.
Plessenger added that the Department of Corrections does not offer protection for offenders.
Judge Perry's order of a stay does not necessarily mean he disagrees with Strickland, only that he feels that there is a valid legal argument against the sentence.
Anthony's defense team proceeds to worry about their client's safety. Even though Anthony herself had been spotted in Columbus, Ohio just yesterday.
"This thing is over and done. And for some reason things seem to keep coming up again for no apparent reason, for absolutely no apparent reason, other than let’s just keep this thing going, let’s just keep this madness going and engage in the circus-like atmosphere that is called the Casey Anthony case," Baez told the Today Show this morning.
Before Anthony's rather high-profile murder case, she had been found guilty of 6 of the 13 filed check fraud charges against her in 2008 as Judge Strickland withheld adjudication on the other 7.
She had been given credit for 412 days in jail and and 1 year of probation.
Casey Anthony was also ordered to pay $348 in court fees and $5,517.75 in investigative fees.
"I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm sorry for what I did," Casey Anthony told the judge in court last year.
"I take complete and full responsibility for my actions, and I'd like to apologize to Amy. I wish I'd been a better friend.”
Reportedly, under the terms of her probation, Anthony would have to get a job, she would not be permitted to leave Orlando without her probation officer's say-so, avoid drugs, avoid association with criminals, and would not be permitted to own a firearm without first asking her probation officer.
Notwithstanding the fact that Florida law states that one who is guilty of intentional check fraud will receive $1,000 worth in fines and a 5 year jail sentence.
Comments