When The Law Fails You

By: Gaétane Borders, Ed.S 

Let me ask you a rhetorical question....How do you feel about the Casey Anthony verdict? To be honest, I have not met a person yet who isn't outraged by the findings, and the apparent slap on the hand of a mother, human, egg supplier who covered up the murder eh hem...accidental drowning of beautiful Caylee Anthony. Well let me share another story with you that may very well put you over the edge. Please make sure you're sitting down...sigh.

Weldon Marc Gilbert of Washington state is a wealthy commercial pilot acting as his own defense counsel, so he gets to personally review the evidence against him. Not such a big deal, right. But wait, there's more! Gilbert is accused of child rape and molestation and the "evidence" that he is allowed to view is the 100s of pornographic material seized from his home in 2007. Reports indicate that he lured children to his house. Once inside, he would get them drunk, tie them down and beat them, all with the camera rolling, detectives said.

According to ABC News, authorities found a stash of pornographic videotapes and DVDs depicting 250 scenes involving 40 individuals, including one of a boy who was 12 years old. Police also allegedly found a cassette tape on which Gilbert described his spanking fantasies in addition to a variety of sex toys, paddles, blindfolds, spanking devices and two handguns.

Apparently Gilbert will be put in a private room whenever he wants to watch the porn....to research. OUR legal system allows this obscenity! Imagine how the children and their parents must feel knowing that this pedophile gets to relive their rape and abuse as often as he wants. Sickening! The only rule is that he is not able to show the tapes to other inmates, and must have one person supervise him while he researches.

This travesty and the results of the Casey Anthony case are a blatant indication that we have to put pressure on lawmakers in order to protect our children. Because, clearly the laws that are in place are wishy washy, and reward the perpetrators instead of the victims. However, until these laws are changed we can also help our children from falling prey by teaching them critical safety skills.

1. Role play with your kids frequently in which you act out various scenarios where “tricky adults” attempt to lure them away. Have them take turn being both the adult and the child.

2. Come up with a password or phrase. Tell them that if a stranger says "Your mom said that you have to come with me," they should immediately ask "What's the password?" If the person knows it they can go. If they don't....they should NOT GO. Remember, for this to work...the password must be kept secret and shared upon your discretion.

3. In an emergency, a loud yell is one of the best things a child can do. Teach them to yell out "MOM, DAD", "STOP," "HELP", "THIS IS NOT MY DAD." A child calling attention to himself in public is a predator's worst nightmare. 4. Review your home address and phone number with children. All kids should know their parents' cell phone number. If necessary, you can write in on a slip of paper, and tuck it into their pocket. 

Gaetane Borders is the President of Peas In Their Pods

Casey Anthony is Free While Another Mom Serves Jail Time For Her Child’s Death Because She Did Not Use A Crosswalk

By Cynthia Caron

Amid security, Casey Anthony is a free woman. She was escorted into a black SUV by her lawyer Jose Baez and an armed guard and driven away from waiting reporters early this morning. I don’t believe I really have to go into details as to who Casey Anthony is because I believe the entire northern universe is aware that she is the young mom who did not report her daughter, Caylee, age 2 ½, as missing for 31 days back in 2008. However, for those who have been out of touch with the mass media news reporting, I will explain. Yes, a beautiful child is missing for 31 days and her mother was fully aware. Did she report her missing? No. Instead she partied with men, seductively danced the nights away, lied to her family, treated herself to a tattoo with stolen money from her best friends checkbook. Ironically her tattoo were the words “Bella Vita” which means “beautiful life” in Italian. Yes, I believe Casey felt she had a beautiful life now that she no longer had the responsibilities of being a mother and could party the nights away. Somewhere in her warped mind that was a “beautiful life.”
Lying, stealing money to make purchases of clothing, lingerie and grocery items to take to her overnight trysts with her “boyfriend” is what was utmost on Casey’s mind those 31 days and not reporting her daughter as “missing.” She will go down in history as the most “hated mother” in America. She makes “Mommy Dearest” look good.

During the 31 days Casey continually lied to her family and made excuses that Caylee was with her “nanny” at Disney World and other places, or she was sleeping. Whatever excuses she could think to “put off” her family in thinking Caylee was alive and well and that she and Caylee were having a “wonderful time” and would be home to visit soon. Meanwhile, her daughter lay in the hot Florida heat double bagged in rubbish liners with duct tape on her face and securely fastened into her families laundry bag tossed into the hot watery swamp. A beautiful child was dead and nothing remained on her little body except tattered moldy clothing and skeletal remains when she was found 6 months later. Anthony’s defense in court was that her daughter drowned, her father molested her, her brother groped her under the covers at night and the jury found her not guilty of Murder in the 1st degree, which could have brought her to the death chambers, but instead found her guilty of lying to police.

Somewhere in this mess I cannot get past the fact that the jury’s reasoning was because the prosecution couldn’t prove HOW little Caylee died. Doesn’t matter that she was dead and that lies and partying covered up her death, but because the prosecution couldn’t say exactly HOW Caylee died they set her mother free. Apparently the prosecution didn’t explain clearly enough that complete decomposition of a human body, with all tissues and organs gone, and just the mere framework of a beautiful child left wasn’t good enough for the jury. They wanted specifics from a body that could never show exactly what happened. Just too many long hot days went by and any physical evidence was gone. I guess it never occurred to the jury that between the hot Florida sun that little Caylee’s earthly body basically cooked away any evidence as she lay dead and decomposing in her coffin of garbage bags. I guess that was not good enough to charge her mother with manslaughter or even child abuse. Nope. She was found guilty only of lying to the police.

Meanwhile, in Marietta, GA, another young mother named Raquel Nelson, aged 30, busy with trying to keep control of her three children, decided to cross the middle of a street when her four year old son was struck and killed by an under-the-influence driver when he darted out into the traffic. Raquel along with another of her children were also injured and the third child escaped physical injury. Raquel was charged, and convicted, of “homicide by vehicle” in the second degree, “crossing roadway elsewhere than at crosswalk “ and “reckless conduct” for making the choice to not use a crosswalk to get to their bus stop.

Photo courtesy of 11 Alive News

Ironically, Jerry L. Guy, the driver who admitted hitting and killing the child, leaving the scene and hitting two more people, pled guilty to hit-and-run and served only a 6-month sentence. He was released Oct. 29, 2010, and will serve the remainder of a 5-year sentence on probation, according to Cobb court records. He will essentially serve less time than the mother whose child was killed because she did not utilize a crosswalk. Oh, and Casey Anthony is free. A scary judicial system, isn’t it?

Cynthia Caron is Founder of LostNMissing, Inc

The Casey Anthony Trial: Final Thoughts

By Dennis Griffin

Slightly over three years after her death, Caylee Anthony had her chance to get justice, to have the person complicit in her death held accountable.

But on July 5, 2011, in a courtroom in Orlando, Florida, the justice system failed Caylee in my opinion.

To be fair, I have to make an admission. After the story of Caylee’s disappearance broke in July 2008, and during the next several months as Casey’s falsehoods and bizarre behavior were exposed night after night on the cable shows, I came to despise her as a person. Her seemingly never ending lies, her failure to cooperate with police by giving them an honest account as to the circumstances under which she had last seen her daughter, and stealing from friends and her own family, were all contributing factors in my anti-Casey attitude.

And during that same time frame I learned a lot about the rest of the Anthonys and developed a dislike for them as well. Cindy was at the top of my list, followed by George and then Lee.

So as the trial began, Casey was guilty in my mind. For me, the burden had shifted from the prosecution proving guilt to the defense proving innocence. And in order for them to convince me, they’d have to address three facts in the case:

• Caylee Anthony was dead;
• Casey Anthony was the last person known to have had custody of Caylee; and
• Casey had refused from July 15, 2008 to the present day to provide an honest explanation as to what happened to her daughter on or about June 16, 2008.

Obviously the fact that Caylee was dead couldn’t be changed. But the other two could. Casey, directly or through her lawyers, could place a live Caylee in someone else’s hands and explain who that person was and why or how he/she gained control of the little girl.

I promised myself that I’d listen as long as the evidence was credible. It couldn’t be another version of the Zanny the Nanny story. And it certainly couldn’t just be Casey’s word or that of her lawyers. That was my mindset as testimony began.

Jose Baez actually addressed those issues in his opening statement when he announced that Caylee had never really been missing. She died as the result of an accidental drowning in the family pool on June 16, 2008, when only Casey and George were present.

He further said that Casey and her father entered into a conspiracy to cover up the accident and that Casey’s ability to act as though nothing was wrong was the result of George having sexually abused her from the time she was eight years old.

And then Baez added yet another villain to the mix in the form of meter reader Roy Kronk, the man who reported finding Caylee’s remains in August and again in December, 2008. According to Baez, Kronk was a morally bankrupt individual who had somehow gained control of Caylee’s remains. He planted them at the location they were found in an attempt to collect reward money.

To me, this was a trial about Caylee’s death and Casey’s involvement in it. In that regard, whether George was an abuser or not didn’t concern me. What George and Kronk did or didn’t do were peripheral issues that could be addressed after the death itself was resolved.

So my focus was on who was with Caylee when she died and under what circumstances. In order for me to change my mind about Casey’s guilt, Baez had to produce credible evidence to support his claim of an accidental drowning. I looked forward to the defense presentation, wondering what proof he’d present, who his witnesses would be, and whether prosecutors would be able to impeach them.   

But the defense’s case came and went without providing any evidence to show there was an accidental drowning. My opinion was unchanged. It was clear to me that Casey Anthony was complicit in her daughter’s death. As the trial wrapped up I had doubts as to whether there would be a finding of guilt on the charge of premeditated first degree murder with a possible sentence of death. However, I felt a conviction of manslaughter was likely and would be appropriate.

On the afternoon of July 5 as I heard the final “Not Guilty” on the death-related charges, I was surprised and disappointed. I hadn’t believed the jury would be able to reach a unanimous decision of not guilty on each and every major charge in so short a time, and without asking a single question of the judge or requesting to have any testimony read back.

Almost immediately analysts and trial followers brought up comparisons between this and the OJ Simpson criminal case. Both had seemingly overwhelming evidence. And yet the prosecutors in each case apparently were unable to convince even a single juror that the defendant was guilty.

So when was the case lost? One possibility is that it happened when Baez made his drowning and sexual abuse claims during his opening. Under this theory, Baez never had any intention of calling Casey to the stand or putting on any other supporting evidence. He simply used his opening to get those ideas into the minds of the jurors. To plant the seed if you will and make the prosecution play defense. If true, what many thought was a major error on his part could actually have been a brilliant strategy.

Or maybe the jurors related better to the defense team than to the prosecutors. Jeff Ashton may have come across to them as a bully during what I thought were his skillful and highly effective cross examinations of defense witnesses. And his laughing during the closing by Baez may have turned some jurors off.

Could it be that when the jurors looked at Casey Anthony sitting only feet from them day after day, they came to see her as an innocent young mother incapable of harming her own daughter?

Or are we now in the CSI era where jurors expect every case to be solved conclusively in 40 minutes plus commercials? And is it now unacceptable for any question to remain unanswered or unproved?

The answer could be one of the above, none of them, or a combination.

The bottom line is that we may never know for sure what happened to Caylee Anthony or what took place in the minds of the jurors. The verdict is in and must be accepted.

During the closing by Jeff Ashton, he said that the defense was asking the jurors to go down a rabbit hole and accept their outrageous theories that had no basis in fact, and made no sense. And Ms. Burdick said her biggest fear was that common sense would become lost during deliberations.

In my opinion, the jury did accept the defense invitation to go down that rabbit hole into Wonderland. And when they did, they in fact left their common sense on the surface, just as Ms. Burdick feared. And in doing so they deprived Caylee Anthony of her one shot at justice.

The Casey Anthony Trial: Where's the Fat Lady?

 By Dennis Griffin

The long-awaited trial of Casey Anthony is finally underway. Like many others, while waiting for the court action to begin I had wondered and speculated on what the defense strategy would be. Mr. Baez seemed to put that issue to rest in his opening: Caylee Anthony drowned in the family pool on June 16, 2008 when only Casey and her father George were at home. The pair decided not to report the incident, but rather to cover it up. Although Caylee’s death was tragic, it was an accident and involved no criminal activity on the part of Casey or anyone else. How the incident was handled – or mishandled – afterward was the problem.

According to Baez, his client’s odd - and often infuriating – behavior after the fact had a reasonable explanation: Casey was in fact a victim. The Anthony family was dysfunctional. Her father George had sexually abused her starting when she was eight years old. Brother Lee even acted inappropriately with her on occasion. In that environment, young Casey was forced to become an accomplished liar in order to protect those dark family secrets. It was so bad that after performing oral sex on her father in the morning, she then had to attend school and act as though everything was normal in her life. Although Casey’s series of lies, going on the party circuit and concealing Caylee’s disappearance/death from her mother and friends may seem abnormal to most people, Baez contended that her conduct was that of a sexual abuse survivor, not a murderer.

The lawyer’s contentions took many observers aback. Even those who claimed they had seen the accident/victim defense coming said they were shocked when they heard the words actually come out of Baez’s mouth. The case was all but over, some said. The State, lacking a definitive manner of death, would not be able to convince each and every juror that Casey had acted with intent and premeditation in causing the death of her daughter, they opined. Baez had introduced reasonable doubt and Casey Anthony was well on her way to becoming a free woman.

My initial reaction was that those commentators were probably right. Surely at least one juror would want to give Casey – the alleged victim of an evil father - the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was all over for the prosecution except for the fat lady singing.

But now, having had a few days to more closely analyze what Baez said, listen to other analysts and hear additional testimony, I’m not so sure that the defense delivered the knockout blow that some thought. I’m not on the jury. But if I were, there are some issues that bother me and that I’d want resolved before I voted not guilty. Perhaps the real jurors have some of the same concerns.

For example, I’m in no way an expert on the effects sexual abuse has on a victim. Maybe Baez’s claims about Casey’s conduct are valid, and maybe not. But I’d need to have this whole matter of Casey’s post event actions explained in more detail prior to accepting the defense argument.

In specific, Baez stated that when Casey saw her father carrying Caylee’s body from the pool area on June 16, “she cried, and cried, and cried.” I consider that to be a demonstration of emotion. Yet within a matter of hours after going through this trauma – and for the next 31 days - Casey’s friends and acquaintances have testified that she exhibited absolutely no signs of grief, distress, anger or depression. And the courtroom cameras have caught Casey crying and showing emotion in her facial expressions and gestures – such as shaking her head as she listens to testimony.

I see contradictions between Baez’s portrayal of Casey as the highly upset mother of a daughter who has just been found dead, and the happy-go-lucky party girl described by others. Can they both be true?

Baez admits that his client is a liar. In my opinion she is also a manipulator and shows or hides her emotions as fits her needs. It will take more than Baez’s words to convince me that I need to look at Casey as a victim rather than the master manipulator I believe her to be.

I also find the sexual abuse allegations troubling in this regard. It’s one thing for incidents of sexual abuse to not be reported to authorities. Unfortunately, that often happens. But if the victim – in this case Casey – has a daughter she truly loves, would she leave her alone with the abuser?

And in my opinion, the jail video recording I’ve seen of a visit between Casey and her parents doesn’t serve to support the sex abuse allegations. In that video Casey compliments George for being an excellent father, and both George and Cindy for being great grandparents to Caylee.

I need to see credible evidence indicating sexual abuse before I accept the allegations as true. Baez’s statements simply aren’t sufficient.

Opening statements are not evidence. Mr. Baez put the allegations out there. That’s fine. Creating reasonable doubt falls under his job description. If as the trial moves forward he can produce credible supporting evidence I’m willing to listen. But his claims, or any unsupported allegations made by Casey, fall far short of proof for me.

This trial has a long way to go. There will no doubt be twists and turns, conflicting statements and testimony, and experts will offer differing interpretations of the same set of facts. I make no prediction as to what the verdict will be. But I don’t think either side is in a position to put the champagne on ice just yet. The fat lady is far from ready to sing. In fact, I doubt that she’s even made her way to Orlando yet.