Jose Baez Wants To Stiff Florida For Half Million Dollars

State Of Florida vs. Casey Anthony - Costs Of Investigation Sought

The state of Florida got off to a late start at 10:45 a.m. after scheduling a hearing Friday morning for 10 a.m. seeking a half million dollars in costs associated with the prosecution's investigation of the Casey Marie Anthony murder case.

Anthony was found guilty only of lying to law enforcement officers, but the state is arguing that as a result of her lies, huge law enforcement activities took place from December 2008, until the trial two year later, for which Florida laws make Anthony responsible for paying back.

Three different Florida government agencies were involved in the investigation, the primary expenses paid by the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Orlando, Florida. The FBI declined to participate in cost recovery.

Linda Drane Burdick before bringing witnesses to the stand, argued case law that covers the recovery of costs against convicted offenders. All costs can be recovered she said except salary costs of the court, county clerk, and state attorney. The cost of sheriff's personnel was to be included, except for costs in aiding private search companies in attempts to locate Caylee Anthony.

Chief Judge Belvin Perry must decide if the "cutoff" date for costs is in October when Anthony was indicted for murder or in December when 2-year old Caylee Anthony's body was found in the woods near the Anthony home.

She called Randy Means a representative of the state attorneys office as the first witness who identified invoices for costs of his office, including court reporter costs and expert witnesses. The defense attacked Means about his non-knowledge of the specific charges against Anthony and dates involved in the case.

William Moore testified about phone record searches and electronic surveillance by the Metropolitan (Orlando) Bureau of Investigation, aiding the Orange County Sheriff from July 2008 to October 2008.  The defense attacked overlapping times of case fact discoveries by the Sheriff and his office, insinuating unneeded time was expended by his office.

Jack Massey of the Florida Department Of Law Enforcement testified about agents in all seven Florida regions involved in finding what was believed to be a missing Caylee Anthony. He was attacked for not knowing dates occurring during the investigations. 

Leona Kaylene Talamas of the Sheriff's department answered questions about employee payroll costs during the investigation.

At noon, the Judge recessed the court until 1:30 p.m. The prosecution has one more witness and the defense will then present it's arguments.

Update: In the afternoon session, no witnesses were produced by the defense and only an argument that costs should only be assessed until the end of September 2008 when detectives were convinced the case was no longer a missing persons case, but one of murder. The prosecution believes costs should run until December when the body was found.

Judge Perry, after hearing there was really no case law on the subject, asked what the intent of the Florida legislature was when writing the statute dealing with restitution costs, and suggested the attorneys present briefs on the subject by next Friday, September 9. Perry will most likely rule on the costs by September 23rd.