Archives

 

MISSING

MISSING - Lauren Spierer
Sierra LaMar

MISSING - Tiffany Sessions

MISSING - Michelle Parker


MISSING - Tracie Ocasio

MISSING - Jennifer Kesse

 

 

Contact Me!
This form does not yet contain any fields.
    Life is short. Words linger.
    ORBBIE Winner

    Comments

    RSS Feeds

     

    Buy.com

    Powered by Squarespace

     

     

     

     

    Entries in Mark NeJame (3)

    Monday
    Aug162010

    Another One Bites The Dust

    "With regret, I am forced to resign as George and Cindy Anthony's attorney. The defense motion filed on Aug. 9, 2010, contains allegations that are not, in fact, true. As an officer of the court, I cannot stand idly by knowing allegations involving me have been misstated. I am now a witness to an inaccurate legal pleading filed in our court system. As such, I cannot continue in good conscience as a legal representative. George and Cindy Anthony have done nothing improper, it is the failure of the defense to verify the facts alleged in their motion that forces my withdrawal. I will continue to support the Anthonys, will continue to attend hearings and the eventual trial, and most importantly, I will continue to search for the full truth regarding the killing of Caylee Marie Anthony."

    - Brad Conway wrote in his  letter of resignation

    George and Cindy Anthony's attorney, Brad Conway, will no longer represent them. The move is a result of a motion filed by Jose Baez & Company in the never ending dispute with Texas EquuSearch.

    First reported on the WESH-TV Web site, Conway appeared on the NBC Today Show to make his announcement. Regrettably, he said, he had to withdraw as the attorney for Casey's parents. On the network program, he claimed that the defense made false claims and he denied that he was granted full access to TES files. There were several misrepresentations, he added. He said he was given the same treatment as Baez and Cheney Mason regarding the roughly 4,000 pages of documents from TES volunteer searchers. Now, he feels he may be called as a witness for the defense

    Brad Conway has been a good friend and trusted counsel to George and Cindy. I've had several talks with him and he's an all-around good guy. I understand the defense fighting for their client, but this is one more glitch in the case. This team of attorneys has taken out one of the best judges in the Ninth Circuit Court, and now, Brad Conway. Believe me, I know precisely how they sting.

    There is much bad blood between the defense and Mark Nejame. To try to put things in some sort of perspective, New York City is big enough to handle lots of high-powered attorneys. Orlando is not. While Jose Baez is way out of their league, Cheney Mason and Mark NeJame are, next to John Morgan, two of the most powerful attorneys in this citified town we call Orlando. I am beginning to think there isn't enough room for both of them, and neither one is going to budge. Shades of Tombstone, this one may turn out to be a verbal gunfight in the courtroom. Call it the O'Casey Corral. Unfortunately, Brad Conway just got caught in the crossfire, and the bullets haven't even begun to fly yet. Who's next?

    Friday
    Jul232010

    Foot-in-mouth disease

    Motion to Quash The Court's Order on Defendant's Application For Subpoena Duces Tecum For the documents in the Possession of Texas Equusearch Based on Bad Faith

    On June 22, I wrote this:

    304 days ago, Todd Macaluso stood before the Ninth Circuit Court of Florida, in front of Judge Stan Strickland, and made this blanket statement:

    “There is substantial evidence that we’ve found … that the body or remains of Caylee Anthony were placed there after Casey Anthony was locked up. It proves that somebody else placed the remains in the area.”

    For ten months, we were led to believe this would be the tack the defense would take at trial, based on statements made by TES searchers, off-record, who said the land where Caylee was found three months later was not flooded in September when they searched. What made this so senseless was the undisputed fact regarding summer weather in Central Florida. Roy Kronk said under oath that the woods were too flooded to enter in mid-August of 2008. Soon after he reported his sighting, T.S. Fay rolled into town, adding over 12" of rain to an already flooded and low-lying location. Come September, no one could go in there to search, and TES leader Tim Miller instructed his teams to keep away from areas under water; that it may destroy evidence.

    I believe Cheney Mason was smart enough to recognize that, because yesterday, he did an abrupt about-face. Huh? What's this all about? In a post-hearing press conference, Mason said:

    "They did not search the exact areas where the body was found. So everything they said before that is not relevant."

    Did Brother Cheney speak out of school? Is he spanking the numero uno defense attorney, Jose Baez, by taking the lead, or is it part of an orchestrated effort because of one simple truth - the area was too flooded to search and the State has the proof to back it up? I think the answer is yes. The area WAS flooded and the statement of Macaluso past must be erased from the memory bank of future defense maneuvers. Of course, we won't discuss plant and insect forensic evidence at the moment. That comes later.

    On July 16 of 2009, Jose Baez and Andrea D. Lyon filed two motions. One was to certify Tim Miller as a material witness and/or to subpoena him for documents in the possession of TES. The motion makes several claims:

    1. "This area [8750 block of Suburban Drive] was searched by several individuals, including Orange County law enforcement and TES volunteers, between July and December 2008."
    2. "Several searchers have made statements to Orange County law enforcement and to the media stating either that they searched the 8750 block of Suburban Drive with TES, or they encountered TES searchers in that area."
    3. "... that Orange County law enforcement provided TES with documents identifying the area in question as an area of interest; that witnesses have made various statements (including in a sworn interview) to the effect that they searched the area in question on behalf of TES or saw TES searchers in that area..."

    In another defense motion filed November 23 of 2009, the defense had this to say:

    "The Defense, through its own independent investigation, has interviewed several TES searchers who not only searched the area where the remains were found, but who were not among the thirty-two (32) identified by TES."

    This was the now famous motion containing the statements of Joseph Jordanand Laura Buchanan, in which the bold claim was made that:

    "The signed statements from Joe Jordan and Laura Buchanan, included with this Memorandum of Law, indicate that there were several people who searched the Suburban Drive neighborhood but were not among the thirty-two (32) names disclosed by TES.

    Why did the defense decide to run diametrically opposed to previous statements and motions? Clearly, this is something Cheney Mason conjured up because Jose Baez and Andrea Lyon filed motions that are contrary to this new revelation. They are also motions this defense did not win, and there lies the crux. Since this didn't work, let's try something else. Gone with the old, in with the new, and most certainly, Mason is not naive to the ins and outs of criminal defense strategies. Here's the brand new slant:

    “What do you have that shows she was not there in June?” WFTV reporter Kathi Belich asked him.

    “That's when Caylee was missing. We don't know when she disappeared,” he replied.

    AHA! The linguistic switch! No one knows when Caylee disappeared. As President Clinton once responded, "It all depends on what your definition of isis," there are discrepancies in the meanings of missing and disappearing. I guess we could establish the fact that my keys may be missing if I lost them, but they certainly didn't disappear because they would have to be where I left them, unless, of course, they were taken by someone else. Then, they would have disappeared and they are missing. Got that? You see, it's all in the semantics. Instead of admitting it can't win the flooding argument, the defense concedes by manipulating the verbiage. What it will attempt to prove in court is that Casey lost Caylee, but she didn't disappear. It was precisely like losing a set of keys, only she wasn't where Casey last left her. Let's see... was that at Sawgrass, or was it at Jay Blanchard Park? Oh. She lost her at Sawgrass, but she disappeared from Blanchard. Today, Casey misses her more than anything else. Gotcha!

    Last night, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Mark NeJame, the attorney representing Texas EquuSearch, argued that the defense team had "earlier opportunities to review Texas EquuSearch records, as directed under court orders, but failed to follow through."

    "The defense is clearly operating under bad faith and looking to harass the volunteers," he stated in a motion filed yesterday to invalidate an earlier court order regarding the issue. In this new motion, NeJame noted that Mason stated publicly last month that the area where Caylee's remains were found "was impassible at the time." This is precisely my argument today as it was a month ago.

    Let me reiterate what Mason declared last month: "They did not search the exact areas where the body was found. So everything they said before that is not relevant." The 'they' in this case is Texas EquuSearch and its teams of volunteer searchers.

    Because of Mason's statement, NeJame threw it back in the defense's face, "It is patently obvious and apparent that the defense knows the conditions of the area, and that they are no longer in need of the names of any searchers to verify this information."

    According to the Sentinel report, NeJame further suggested "the defense 'is filing these motions, requesting irrelevant documents all to create seemingly bogus appellate issues that do not exist.' He calls the pursuit of the records 'a ploy to harass volunteers of TES who donated their free time to search for the remains of the innocent Caylee Anthony.'"

    I couldn't agree with Mark NeJame more. Not to dismiss or make a mockery of Casey's defense team's request, but if TES searchers never stepped into the flooded woods, which Mason acknowledged no one did, what's the point of interviewing any more searchers? Why seek out anyone who wasn't there to begin with?

    Cheney Mason defended astronaut Lisa Nowak. If I told him that John Glenn never set foot on the moon, would he want to interview him anyway? Would he expect Glenn to have knowledge of what gravity feels like on the lunar surface? Would he have learned something incriminating from his fellow astronauts - that the moon is made of Swiss cheese? If none of that made any sense, that's precisely my point.

    Anticipating such a bad faith motion as the one filed by NeJame yesterday, Judge Perry announced in court last Thursday, and wrote in his order, that a new hearing would have to be set to present arguments from both sides. I didn't think a visit to NeJame's office by Casey's defense would be an easy stroll in the park. I get the distinct impression that he and Mason have never been colleagues or friends. No love will be lost as this spills out and into the awaiting hands of a thirsty public. Meanwhile, did someone stick their foot in their mouth or was last month's statement meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek? Either way, this one is full of holes.

    Speaking of holes, on a final note, records from the Orange County Corrections Department show Casey's jail account is $41.51 in the hole as of yesterday. George stopped adding funds after she insinuated that he may have sexually molested her. I don't blame him one tiny bit.

    Monday
    Apr262010

    EquuSearch: Running out of patience before us?

    As soon as members of the media showed up at Mark NeJame’s office this past Friday, Casey Anthony’s defense team ran out the door, tails between their legs. They had arrived only minutes earlier to look over records belonging to Texas EquuSearch.

    Now, TES officials say they want to try to break the standoff with Casey’s team in court. One source said that, with Chief Judge Belvin Perry now in charge, they want him to decide when enough is enough. They are fed up with playing the waiting game. For more than eight months TES has waged a large legal battle over keeping most of the searchers’ records private.

    In August of 2009, Casey’s defense team won the right to pore over records of 32 searchers who looked closest to the location where Caylee’s remains were eventually found. The defense later filed a motion to copy all of the records of roughly 4,000 people who looked for the toddler at all other locations, including south of OIA. Judge Stan Strickland denied that motion.

    The defense made claims that at least two of the searchers looked in the very spot where Caylee rested and found nothing. Texas EquuSearch is getting fed up with the defense and is planning on filing legal paperwork to have the new judge order Mason & Co. to review the records and be done with it. Mark NeJame declined to comment.

    In one other bit of news, and if my source is correct, Baez will stand behind the shadow of Cheney Mason because Mason has tried a number of cases before Judge Perry. Mason is also known to be a one man band with lots of attorneys he can turn to for assistance. He has surrounded himself with an excellent blend of specialists, all independent and all within the immediate vicinity of his office. In other words, he rents them space.