Judge Belvin Perry slammed Jose Baez last December for having a cavalier attitude toward deadlines imposed by the court. Baez demonstrated that his attitude still hadn’t changed in the intervening months.
This week, he objected to the admission of un-redacted video tapes of Casey Anthony’s jailhouse conversations with family members. The judge pointed to the long-past deadline of December 31, 2010, and Baez pleaded other priorities. It seems Baez has not learned his lesson: the priorities of the court are more important than any of his own.
Baez moved twice for a mistrial because of these tapes. Watching them, it was obvious that Baez would have served his client better if he had made Perry’s priorities his own. The videos served to undermine every point he made in his opening statement. No wonder he did not want the jury to see them. Flashes of contempt, self-absorption and even laughter at her attorney’s expense may go further toward convincing the jurors of Casey’s guilt on a visceral level than any of the scientific forensic evidence could.
They show his client as a person who can fabricate stories on the spot, spinning a non-stop web of deceit without breaking a sweat. Baez’s motions for a mistrial only highlights his incompetence perhaps giving a post-conviction appeal more chance for success at the expense of his professional reputation.
And while the audio and video tapes played, the jurors had to have glimpsed over at the defendant and been appalled. During the sound-only interview with lead investigator Yuri Melich and his supervisor John Allen, Casey looked as if it was the first time she ever heard that conversation. At times, she shook her head in denial. Did she think she could convince the jurors that they couldn’t believe their own ears?
When the videotapes played, Casey shed tears and wiped a reddened nose when she viiewed her own crying on the tape–a stark contrast to the cold tone of her voice when fatal possibilities about the fate of Caylee were described in the law enforcement interview. And endless prevarication, spewing out over and over from her own mouth. Baez acknowledged many of her lies saying that it was the psychological response of a sexually abused child.
I wonder, though, is that what the jurors are thinking? Or are they sharing my thought: when Casey’s mouth is moving, she’s lying. And by extension, do they begin to feel the same way about her defense team? Has Casey destroyed their credibility along with her own?
They have to be contemplating the fact that Jose Baez has only one thing to back up his wild accusations and illogical theories and that is the word of his client, a known championship liar. When he repeats her lies about the events of June 16th and about her childhood, does he really expect to be believed? Sorry, Baez, two lies do not make a truth.
And hopefully, truth will prevail and bring justice for Caylee.
The book trailer for Mommy’s Little Girl by Diane Fanning focused in on the multitude of lies that governed this story from the beginning.