Casey Anthony must serve one year of probation, judge says

By Amy Pavuk, Orlando Sentinel

Posted: 7:17 a.m. Monday, Aug. 15, 2011

Casey Anthony has spent her first four weeks of freedom living in secrecy, but that obscurity is going to come to an end soon — and so are some of her liberties.

Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry ruled Friday that Anthony has until Aug. 26 to turn herself in to the Florida Department of Corrections, which will monitor her for one year while she serves probation.

There was confusion last month, when Anthony was released from the Orange County Jail, about whether she would have to serve probation resulting from check-fraud convictions in 2010. The Department of Corrections allowed her to serve while in jail, but that was not what the judge who sentenced her had intended.

“To permit the Defendant, whose counsel was well aware that the probation was to begin upon the Defendant’s release from jail, to avoid serving probation now, would take a lawfully imposed sentence and make it a mockery of justice,” Perry wrote in his order.

Anthony will have to provide her address to a probation officer, though Perry took her safety into consideration and told the Department of Corrections it has discretion to keep Anthony’s location confidential and not subject to public record.

However, if and when she returns to Orange County, Anthony will not be back at her parents’ home on Hopespring Drive, their attorney said in a statement Friday evening.

“Regardless of what happens George and Cindy Anthony do not have any idea where Casey Anthony currently is or where she will be living while she is on Probation,” attorney Mark Lippman said.

It’s unknown when Anthony will report to probation, but as part of the sentence, she:

•Must work a lawful occupation and support any dependents to the best of her ability.

•Must not consume alcoholic beverages to the extent her normal faculties are impaired.

•Must allow her probation officer to visit her home, employment location or elsewhere.

•Will not change her residence or employment or leave the county of her residence without getting consent from her probation officer.

In January 2010, Anthony pleaded guilty to 13 charges in the check-fraud case, and Judge Stan Strickland found her guilty on six of the charges: one count of grand theft, four counts of check forgery, and fraudulent use of personal identification. Strickland sentenced her to time served in jail followed by one year of probation.

But, the Department of Corrections began Anthony’s probation while she was an inmate at the Orange County Jail awaiting her first-degree murder trial, and it ended Jan. 24. When Anthony was acquitted on the murder and other serious charges last month, she walked out of the jail a free woman.

Soon after, Strickland said he intended for Anthony to serve her probation after she got out of jail — intentions that were clear in video and transcripts from the January 2010 sentencing — and the judge amended his original order.

Perry heard arguments last week from Anthony’s defense team, who said she already served probation and shouldn’t have to serve it again.

In his order, Perry said it is clear Anthony’s probation was to start once she was released from jail. He said Strickland had the ability to correct what amounted to a clerical error.

“This would allow a defendant to take advantage of a scrivener’s error and be rewarded. This is not the message the courts want to send to the public or defendants,” Perry wrote.

Anthony’s lead defense attorney, José Baez, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

During last week’s hearing, Perry asked Anthony’s defense attorneys if they knew that the probation was served in jail. Defense attorney Lisabeth Fryer admitted they did, but said it wasn’t the defense’s burden to notify the court about it.

Perry took up that issue in his order as well, stating that attorneys have “a duty of candor.”

“While ignorance of the contents of a court order is one thing, the failure to abide by that order and the failure to notify the court of a known scrivener’s error in the order may be a violation of an attorney’s duty of candor,” Perry wrote. “To additionally seek to use a scrivener’s error to achieve an end that was against the court’s intent, especially where both parties had argued the issue of when probation should commence, strikes at the very foundation of our justice system.”

Perry continued, “No attorney should conduct himself or herself in a way that impedes an order of the court. …Our system of justice should never be in the position of rewarding someone who willfully hides the ball.”

Anthony’s whereabouts remain unknown publicly. She did not have to attend last week’s hearing.

Perry noted in his order that Anthony’s safety is a concern, and referenced an Orlando Sentinel article about a poll that referred to Anthony as America’s most-hated person.

“This Court is very mindful that it is a high probability that there are many that would like to see physical harm visited upon the Defendant,” Perry wrote.

Perry ordered Anthony to report to the Department of Corrections no later than 12 p.m. Aug. 26, but she could report earlier. Her probation will begin the day she reports.

Local defense attorney Richard Hornsby, a legal commentator on the Anthony case for WESH-Channel 2, said he expected Perry would order Anthony to serve probation, though it was somewhat surprising it was traditional probation and not administrative, which is much less restrictive.

“At the end of the day, the law was always on Judge Strickland’s side on this,” he said.

That much was clear from Perry’s order.

“It is very clear that the Defendant and her attorney knew she was to start her probation upon release from the Orange County Jail. Despite this fact, they took advantage of a scrivener’s error which started the probation while she was being held in the jail pending trial,” Perry wrote. “The defense should not be able to claim that they are now harmed by having the Defendant serve probation at this time.”

Hornsby said the impacts of probation will be minimal for Anthony.

“Every day, people are released from jail or prison mistakenly and they’re required to return and finish their sentences,” Hornsby said. “She’s being treated exactly like everybody else.”