Andrea Lyons and Linda Baden with Tony Pipitone 11/23/09 11pm news

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/21706174/detail.html

http://www.clickorlando.com/video/21675305/index.html

Anthony Defense Team Explains Actions
Casey Anthony, 23, Charged With Murder In Death Of Daughter

POSTED: Monday, November 23, 2009
UPDATED: 11:30 pm EST November 23, 2009

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Two of Casey Anthony's nationally recognized defense attorneys said they were just doing their jobs -– and the state's -- as they made national television appearances naming the man who found Caylee Anthony's body as a suspect in the girl's death.

VIDEO: Tony Pipitone's Full Interview

"It's an attempt to do the state's job for them. We brought them evidence," said Linda Kenney Baden during an interview Friday with Local 6.

Others, though, wonder if it's not a calculated ploy to contaminate potential jurors with information that may never make it into their client’s murder trial.

Neither Kenney Baden nor co-counsel Andrea Lyon could cite any evidence that former meter reader Roy Kronk had any contact with Caylee while she was alive -– unlike their client, who was the last person seen with Caylee.

"The evidence we have is circumstantial in nature," said Lyon. "The evidence the prosecution has against this young woman who they are asking the state of Florida to kill is entirely circumstantial."

They also conceded they have no evidence of human decomposition in any of Kronk's vehicles, unlike what the state claims its experts will say was found in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car.

Last week, the defense team filed a motion asking the judge in Anthony's murder trial to let them introduce "prior bad acts" of Kronk, based on unsworn, videotaped interviews with former wives and estranged family members.

The women claim he has a history of using duct tape to perpetrate violence, and his son said he told him he had found Caylee's body about a month before he actually led police to the remains on Dec. 11.

Kronk tried three times in August 2008 to draw law enforcement's attention to what he thought may have the body in the woods, but a deputy who finally appeared failed to thoroughly check and was fired because of it, according to the sheriff's office.

From the beginning, defense attorneys have decried what they call law enforcement leaks about evidence purportedly against their client, and have moved for a change of venue from Central Florida because of the publicity those leaks have created in the local media. Yet they have repeatedly taken to a national audience -– including viewers in Miami, where they want the trial moved -– to comment on inflammatory, unchallenged assertions included in defense motions filed the day before they take to the national airwaves.

Asked if they're not doing the same thing they accused the state and detectives of doing, Kenney Baden said, "The local media, with the exception of some of the reporting that we have seen, ... has taken everything they've seen at face value or the leaks they saw early on and publicized them improperly against our client. Here we're at the national media because at least they will give Casey a fair shake."

But the national media has also left unchallenged some sweeping statements made by the defense, at least one of them inaccurate, according to some of more than 12,000 pages of information released to attorneys and the public in a legal process known as discovery.

In an interview last month with CBS News' 48 Hours, Kenney Baden and co-counsel Todd Macaluso focused on so-called mystery DNA found on the duct tape that was placed around Caylee’s skull.

"Another party that did not belong the FBI, did not belong to the law enforcement, did not belong to Casey or any of her family members (left DNA) on that duct tape," Kenney Baden said on 48 Hours, as Macaluso chimed in, "A stranger. There was a stranger involved."

But a DNA expert consulted by Local 6 said it is possible that a tiny fragment of DNA was deposited by an FBI fingerprint unit lab analyst. She would be the second analyst to have contaminated the tape during testing; the FBI found enough of a DNA sample elsewhere on the tape to confirm that material came from a DNA analyst.

But the so-called mystery DNA was so miniscule, only a partial profile could be produced. It is significant enough to exclude the Anthonys and other known subjects, but it does not exclude the FBI fingerprint analyst.

Still, Kenney Baden and Lyon continued to promote the mystery DNA theory during their media tour last week.

Asked if she was aware the one FBI employee could not be excluded as the source, Kenney Baden stated, "I am aware of exactly the alleles with regard to it, but there is no indication that that person contaminated the evidence."

But there is an e-mail, at page 8710 of the discovery, showing the analyst who could not be excluded did swab the duct tape in question.

The two attorneys are part of an impressive legal and forensic team assembled by Casey Anthony's original attorney, Jose Baez, prompting many to wonder if they're being paid and, if so, how. Asked if they're being paid by anything other than the publicity attached to the case, Kenney Baden said, "We don't think publicity is payment, but we don't discuss payment at all, but publicity isn't payment for any lawyers, all of us are not in this case for publicity."

When prosecutors questioned whether entertainment deals were funding the defense, Baez denied it or any other conflict of interest. After a closed-door meeting with the attorneys, Judge Stan Strickland said he was satisfied there was no conflict.

"We're doing our best to see to it that she gets a fair trial with real investigation and real hard work and real motions practice and challenging the evidence the way it ought to be done," said Lyon. "The idea that there's something shady or weird about actually interviewing witnesses and talking to people and digging deep and trying to find out what really happened as though that's somehow cheating – that’s what a good lawyer does."

Casey Anthony has admitted in a court paper that she has refused a plea agreement, but when asked if a plea were still possible, the attorneys balked.

"She did write that affidavit, she did make that statement," said Lyon, adding, "but as I said, that's something we cannot discuss. That would be inappropriate."

Asked how their client was holding up in the Orange County Jail, where she's been held without bond since her indictment on Oct. 14, 2008, Lyon said, "She's scared. I mean, wouldn't you be scared? She's scared. She's sad. She's grief-stricken and she's terrified."

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

Oh jeez! All I can say!

Even her lawyers would NOT say they want KC walking the streets. Watch the end of the interview for that little tidbit. TeeHee!

OMG... this is the most pathetic attempt at jury tampering I have ever seen. Tony Pipitone did a good job, though. He stumped them both SEVERAL times.... left them speechless momentarily!!!

I just love how LKB and AL throw around that the State of Florida is trying to kill this poor young girl who did something stupid by not reporting her child missing.....

As a side note, AL has certainly cleaned up her appearance.......

Thanks for posting, Tracey!

Snaz, Your welcome.

I thought the same thing you did. I loved when they sat there just speechless. Priceless!

I did get a strange vibe though from those two. I really got the feeling they KNOW KC did this. Sure they are defending her as it is their job. However, I really got the vibe a couple of times, they know she did it. I was wondering though, if anyone else got this feeling. I'll have to go back and watch it to see exactly where I felt this. I'll re post when I find my examples.

So, I'm guessing the defense is also going to include rush to judgment. I guess their theory is the police didn't investigate "everyone" in town. I don't think the police were willy nilly and negligent in investigating. The evidence just didn't point to the others that the defense wants to claim should have been investigated. I guess the police should have investigated each other too, based on the defense claims. I know it's just their strategy but come on, do they think maybe the police did do some of what they are talking about. Maybe we just hadn't seen it yet or the police just may have been smart enough, after years of doing this, to know a dead end when they see it.

The problem with the defense team going on national TV and stating these things about LE not investigating anyone by KC and how they rushed to judgment is that it is just not true. They DID investigate others.... but from day 31 when they were notified, all suspicions pointed right back to the one and only...CMA (the second). These are all seasoned professionals in they are dealing with Orange County.

The defense knows much of this won't fly in court... and the only way they have to get it out to the public to influence any potential jury pool is to put it into their motions and then go talk about it all over national TV.

I, too, understand they are doing their job.... trying to defend their client. But let's face it... when she's guilty, she's guilty.

And I agree with you, Tracey, I got those vibes, too. I think every time they speak on TV, they are a little less adamant that KC is INNOCENT.....