rigorousintuition.ca

The Casey Anthony trial is happening one block away from where I work, and while I wasn't engaged in the hype a few summers ago, I'm pretty much riveted by the court proceedings, watching the stream at work.

If you're not familiar with the opening statements, the defense laid down a narrative asserting that Casey was sexually abused by her father since she was eight, and that her brother also molested her later, but that the brother's behavior didn't go as far or last as long. There's a question left hanging that perhaps George Anthony (Casey's father) is also the father of Caylee. Ostensibly the defense has a witness or two to testify to the abuse (that will be quite a day in court). The overarching theory is that the whole family suffers from dissociative disorder, which is offered as an explanation of Casey's outragous obfuscation b/c the entire family dynamic is "a lie." It's just what they do. (Possible trigger ahead) To illustrate this, the defense actually asked the jury to imagine you're 8 years old and one minute you have your father's penis in your mouth, and the next you're expected to be a normal school kid. Daring, shocking and quite effective.

I'm bringing this up for RI b/c my reading of the defense strategy is that the sexual abuse allegations are at the center of their theory. That, a woman who has been sexually abused by her father since she was 8 is going to have a long history of dissociative behavior -- and that this became a central reality construct of Casey's and the family's. This is evident when the father states that he didn't ask if Casey was pregnant (even though she was obviously showing at 6 months), and that he never asked who the father of the baby was. Or, he's not sure. I'm not sure, actually -- his testimony was a disjointed mess.

I'm also troubled by the mob mentality that I see in Orlando and on the "interwebs" regarding Casey Anthony. If you create a #caseyanthony feed on your Twitter account you'll see what I mean. The "hang her high" attitude is inescapable, as is the misogyny. Seems no one is willing to publicly entertain the sexual abuse allegation, and worse, the for those who believe that Casey is guilty (which seems to be everyone) these allegations are providing more fuel for the hatred. To paraphrase "that's what evil/guilty women do: allege sexual abuse." That's quite a cleaned-up paraphrase, actually.

So, I guess this is maybe just a heads-up...that there's likely going to be some stunning discussion of sexual abuse and dissociative disorder as this case proceeds.

If you're at all inclined, it's completely worth it to peruse the actual courtroom footage. I found a good youtube channel with the whole first day of opening statements and the first witness for the state, George Anthony (the cross-exam was astounding, especially if you're into Paul Ekman's facial expression analyses -- big dramatic moment when the defense surprised the prosecution with knowledge that the state was pursuing the drowning theory). Looks like they'll be carrying the whole archive as the case goes on.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/CaseyAnthonyCase

I was deeply involved in the case from the beginning (some private e-mail correspondence, AND my e-mail address, that was forwarded to the Anthony's PI ended up in official case documents) but it was all so draining I drifted away from it early last year. I was absolutely stunned at Baez's opening statement. I had considered this scenario but it doesn't go nearly far enough to explain all the facts in the case. Why, for instance, did they cover it up rather than calling the police if it was an accidental drowning?

Of interest is a posting I found on the Topix forum very early in the case before much was known about prominent players. Sorry I no longer have a working link:

I am so glad I found you guys.
I am Cindy's illegitame son, Robert. I hope someone here will listen to my story. I can't get the police or the media to listen to me.
Cindy hung out with a wild crowd in her early twenties back in Ohio. It was a religious cult of some kind that had it's own ideas. There was a lot of drinking, drugs and sex. She kept up her relationship with the crowd after she married George. She moved the whole family to Orlando to follow the leader of that crowd, my father.
I hate to say it but my real father is a super nut case. He terrifies me. Luckily, I lived with a foster family in Ohio since I was 5 and moved with them to Orlando in 1989. I see Cindy about 3x a year. Usually, at a local Starbucks. She really is a nice person, but her addiction to prescription drugs is getting worse.
Most of Casey's/Anthony's problems come from Cindy's ongoing relationship with my father, his problems, and associates. Things got real messy in Florida when Casey met my father about four years ago. Casey got involved intimately with my father, and that was the reason for all the fights in the Anthony home with her mother. I can't be sure of this, but Caylee looks a lot like me.
It will take me days to tell this whole story.

~~~~

Richard Grund is a gun-toting right-wing fundie preacher, 'paranormal investigator', believer in the Aliens are actually demons Nephilim mythology, father of Casey's former fiancee Jesse:

Hello again! In time for Halloween, I wanted to share with you an interview I did last year about my testimony of a 30-year bondage to the occult. I hope that it opens your eyes and causes you to take a good look at what is going on today regarding the superanatural and paranormal. If you have an interest in the paranormal from a Christian perspecitve go to http://www.myspace.com/supernaturalresponseteam and take a look.

Listen Now:
http://www.podbean.com/wp...ugins/podpress/player.swf>
(mp3 at link)

Grund's response to the release of docs with our names and e-mails attached:

FOR THE RECORD - what you are reading in these documented emails exchanged between the Anthony family, their private investigator and their online "support" is what my family and I have been enduring for the last 16-months. There has been an online effort to harass, defame and destroy our family name, our personal reputation and all for the purpose, in my opinion, to taint the jury pool in the Casey Anthony trial by fabricating reasonable doubt. ( ) If you want to know who I have been referring to in my blogs over the last year just read these emails and you will have full names, email addresses and, in some cases, personal home addresses and phone numbers. Some of the names listed are personally responsible for the web sites, forums, blogs and profiles set up to attack Jesse and me. I would never have been able to legally post their information but now that they are a matter of public record online I do not have to. Reread my previous blogs, refer to the initials given and compare. Have at it. As they claimed on Topix when they attack us "it's a matter of public record".

Not the first or the last time he threatened us with varying degrees of subtlety. Siccing the slavering mobs on us is a favorite of his.

Pages with these statements by Grund have been removed btw.

Prior thread:

http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/view ... =8&t=22571

Sunny! I'm so glad you posted. I'm really curious to see what anyone thinks of this. I can absolutely see how you'd get burned out with it. The high emotion of the spectators is enough to make me want a nap and a cookie.

I don't have a grand theory, but I know for damn sure that the received "wisdom" isn't the truth. So, I was also floored with the opening statement from the defense. Was also impressed with Baez's overall delivery in contrast to the state's opening statement. Things haven't gone so well for Baez during the state's witness testimony.

A very good friend is a lawyer practicing in Orange County for more than a decade, so I've been getting his input on the proceedings. He's been able to deconstruct it for me, and is really good at pointing out the subtext.

One subtext is that we get the feeling that there's a hometown bias happening in the court. Belvin Perry is a wheel here, and he seems to be playing to the local powers that be. Law enforcement in Orlando and Orange County would like to come out of this without having to air any dirty laundry, which I think will prove to be difficult without assistance. At the very least, Belvin is not going to make it easy for the defense to impugn the investigation. But this is just one facet of the whole fascinating mess.

I totally forgot the bit about the half-brother and right-wing, paranormal ex of Cindy's. Do you know anything about why George left his old job to come to Orlando? Have you seen any of his testimony? He was called back to the stand today, and there was some insinuation that he's changing testimony.

nashvillebrook, there is no proof that Grund is Cindy's ex. It just seemed exceedingly weird how Grund's history and personality meshed with the information given by that early Topix poster before anything was widely known about Grund. We tried to find "Robert" without any success. (we did find a young male Pleasea, Cindy's maiden name, who was adopted in Ohio and who was the right age but he never responded to our inquiries.)

You are so right about Judge Perry acting as gatekeeper to protect Law Enforcement. Their conduct of this case left a lot to be desired, STARTING with the total failure to look for Caylee, alive or dead, in the early days of the investigation. I get that they thought she was dead but it took them over a month to initiate official cadaver searches! Just imagine IF Caylee was where they found her in December how easy it should have been to find her in July. LE acted downright bizarrely in many cases and completely failed to follow investigative procedures and common sense the rest of the time.

As for a grand theory--there is so much, so many tributaries, prominent people, (including a billionaire and an employee of Lockheed Martin) strange statements, weird behaviors, suspect orphanages, 'children's advocates', and 'missing children' orgs, one wealthy character at the edge of Casey's circle who was never questioned or his statement has been 'lost' or sealed take your pick, a girl who was murdered at Blanchard Park just a few days before Caylee went missing who was connected to a robbery at the office of one Zaneida Gonzales...I could go on but you get the picture. It's just impossible to form a viable theory with so many missing pieces. Maybe one day we'll know the truth.

sunny wrote:nashvillebrook, there is no proof that Grund is Cindy's ex. It just seemed exceedingly weird how Grund's history and personality meshed with the information given by that early Topix poster before anything was widely known about Grund. We tried to find "Robert" without any success. (we did find a young male Pleasea, Cindy's maiden name, who was adopted in Ohio and who was the right age but he never responded to our inquiries.)

You are so right about Judge Perry acting as gatekeeper to protect Law Enforcement. Their conduct of this case left a lot to be desired, STARTING with the total failure to look for Caylee, alive or dead, in the early days of the investigation. I get that they thought she was dead but it took them over a month to initiate official cadaver searches! Just imagine IF Caylee was where they found her in December how easy it should have been to find her in July. LE acted downright bizarrely in many cases and completely failed to follow investigative procedures and common sense the rest of the time.

As for a grand theory--there is so much, so many tributaries, prominent people, (including a billionaire and an employee of Lockheed Martin) strange statements, weird behaviors, suspect orphanages, 'children's advocates', and 'missing children' orgs, one wealthy character at the edge of Casey's circle who was never questioned or his statement has been 'lost' or sealed take your pick, a girl who was murdered at Blanchard Park just a few days before Caylee went missing who was connected to a robbery at the office of one Zaneida Gonzales...I could go on but you get the picture. It's just impossible to form a viable theory with so many missing pieces. Maybe one day we'll know the truth.

Ah -- thanks for clearing that up about Grund.

You're right about the bizarre behavior of LE. If the family wasn't acting so strangely, there might have been more discussion of that in the beginning.

What's with the orphanages? I missed that yarn. Also I had no idea about the murdered girl having a connection to a Zanelda Gonzales. They also thought for sure that Caylee's body was in the Econ River at Blanchard Park -- there was wall-to-wall news coverage of the dragging.

I'd have to go back in archives at our [private] forum to dig up the info on the orphanage. A connection was made because of a converstion an eyewitness who sighted Caylee on a flight to Atlanta in JULY had with the lady who was 'transporting' her for lack of a better word. it had something to do with North Carolina IIRC but the details are very fuzzy. [this eyewitness doesn't believe Caylee is dead btw, and she believes the Anthony's, with whom she has struck up something of a relationship, feel the same way]

Nicole Ganguzza was murdered in Blanchard Park on June 9 of that year, the same date Casey originally claimed Caylee went missing. Nicole worked as a family counselor and was a graduate student at UCF. Zenaida Gonzalez worked as a counselor at UCF and her office there was burglarized 1 day after the murder. Only her computer was stolen. She denied being THE ZG, and there is no proof that she is but the weird thing is three composite sketches of suspects in the Ganguzza murder from eyewitness accounts strongly resembled players in the Anthony case. There are many more strange connections to that case but again, I'd have to go back and refresh my memory.

In fact, here's your grand conspiracy: Caylee isn't really dead and the remains were those of a much younger child who had a skull condition that Caylee was never known to have. (the hair mass found with the remains was TAPED to the skull and was quote 'not a suitable specimen for comparison' unquote) Casey sent Caylee away with this lady to hide her from some bad guys she was involved with through her apparent connection to a shady escort service. She witnessed something--the murder of Nicole?--and Caylee's life was threatened as well as the lives of her brother and parents if she didn't keep her mouth shut.

Casey Anthony found not guilty of murder of daughter Link

Cheney Mason blasts 'media assassination':

ORLANDO, Fla. -- One of the members of Casey Anthony's defense team took a moment to blast the culture surrounding the murder trial of his client that ended with a not guilty verdict this afternoon.

Orlando attorney Cheney Mason began a news conference after Casey Anthony's acquittal on murder and other charges against her stemming from the 2008 disappearance and death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

"Well, I hope that this is a lesson," Mason began, "to those of you having indulged in media assassination for three years."

PICTURES: Casey Anthony Reaction

"Well, I hope that this is a lesson," Mason began, "to those of you having indulged in media assassination for three years."

Mason went on to say the events outside the courtroom were filled with "bias and prejudice and incompetent talking heads."

MORE: Analyst: Casey Anthony Verdicts 'Historic Rejection' of Prosecution's Case

He said he is "disgusted" by seeing lawyers "getting on television and talking about cases that they don't know a damn thing about."

MORE: Casey Anthony Verdict: Not Guilty of Murder

He concluded his remarks on a positive note. "We appreciate the jury and those of you who have been objective and professional; we like it."

Mason did, however, point out that those who didn't meet that standard, "We're going to be talking to again."

First Coast News

Mason went on to say the events outside the courtroom were filled with "bias and prejudice and incompetent talking heads." Link

~~~~


Vid at the second link is the only one I've found posted anywhere of the post-verdict press conference held by the defense.

It's probably very difficult to prove a murder when you don't know how the victim died.

Por qua?

They threw the baby out with the wrath water.

I approve of the humour of peartreed.

I had barely heard of this trial, and avoid the typical 90's era media hoopla surrounding these types of things.

But lemme get this straight...the 2 year old goes missing, and for months her mom is involved in trying to win nite club dance contests, shopping, going on dates and going about her business.
Yet the day after the girl is last scene, Anthony borrows a shovel from a neighbor, and after her car is reclaimed after being towed...a strong odor is reported from within the car.
The remains of the girl are found months later...

Yet, she is found not just not guilty, but people don't seem to offer any alternate explanation...many saying the girl simply died as the result of an accident? If the girl drowned from an accident, why werent the cops called immediately? If she was abducted, why werent cops called immediately to report a missing person? Why did Casey act like nothing was wrong, as well as completely deceive law enforcement?

I mean these cases are rather strange. You have that Van Der Sloot killing that girl on the one year anniversary of the other girl he alleged to have killed while he's vacationing in another tourist hot spot, and is even seen on video leading the girl to the room where she's found dead...yet he claims to be innocent.

Probably good I don't follow this crap, had my fill in the mid 90's with OJ

IMHO, this case illustrates the lack of RIGOROUS INTUITION in matters concerning major issues of discerning the TRUTH. I really don't give a rat's ass about the Anthonys, except that I am saddened about the death of a very young and innocent child. BUT I fear that that juries of future cases will be filled with people who simply cannot fucking think!!!!!

Not just using RI, but analytical thinking. USING ONE'S BRAINS kind of thinking.

The lesson here:

If you want to commit a crime, go to Florida. Lie your ass off, leave no DNA, don't be seen, leave the body in the Okeefenokee Swamp, walk away. And continue to tell the most outrageous lies.

Justice may not have been served but Due Process was. Even though for me I probably would have voted guilty, they didnt really PROVE shit and for that I am thankful that those Jurors didn't find her guilty. It give me a little bit of hope that some things are still working.