Deputies arrest Casey Anthony, take her to jail

Cool! Just like on Law & Order!

Amy L. Edwards, Sarah Lundy and Walter Pacheco
Sentinel Staff Writers
August 29, 2008

Orange County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the Anthony home shortly before 8:30 p.m. More than half dozen vehicles - some marked and some unmarked - pulled up to the house. The lead detective - Yuri Melich - got out and went inside the home.

Moments later, the door cracked open, showing Casey Anthony inside standing near Sgt. John Allen, who is supervising the investigation. The crowd who was gathered outside cheered. Someone yelled, "she's in handcuffs."

At 8:33 p.m., deputies escorted her out with her hands cuffed behind her back. She showed little emotion as detectives put her in the front of an unmarked patrol car. She was wearing a t-shirt with Caylee's picture on the front and read "Have you seen me?"

Some in the crowd yelled "murderer" and "baby killer." It's unclear on what charges deputies are taking in custody for.

Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, released a statement after his client's latest arrest. "This is nothing more than an attempt by law enforcement to play mind games with my client. They leaked the arrest to the media and deliberately avoided telling me so she could turn herself in in a dignified fashion. They clearly wanted the media to capture my client is the worse possible light. Coincidentally, I was on the phone with her when police arrived at her home to arrest her."

"What's clear is that law enforcement is more interested in making my client look bad than finding Caylee who's still missing and likely in danger."

EARLIER STORY: More than two dozen people tonight are milling around Hopespring Drive outside the home of Casey Anthony -- the mother of missing 3-year-old Caylee Marie. Some started yelling at the house. One woman who identified herself as Kittie Gonzalez walked by the house chanting "Casey is a murderer! She needs to go back to jail!"

Casey Anthony's mother, Cindy, came outside and spoke to Gonzalez for several minutes. As reporters swarmed the two, Anthony invited Gonzalez inside to sit down and talk. She asked her to calm down so her blood pressure would not rise. Gonzalez asked Cindy Anthony if she asked her daughter where Caylee is located. "Yes and she doesn't know," Cindy Anthony replied.

Other people began yelling at Anthony and eventually she went back inside. Two women in a Ford Explorer drove by with "Rot in jail Casey Anthony" written on the window. Two teenagers and a 23-year-old from Christmas showed up carrying signs that read "Casey Anthony is a baby murderer and Rot in Jail" and "Who is the bigger liar? Cindy Anthony or Killer Casey? May God have mercy on you. God knows the truth and so does detectives. Baby killer!"

"She deserves to go in jail," said Ashley Griffin, 23, as she stood on the sidewalk in front of the Anthony house. James Harris, 15, who was there with his sister and mother, agreed."The baby is dead," he said.

Harris's mother, Cathy, said they plan to be out there every night at 7 p.m. She was there when members of Texas-based EquuSearch, a group of volunteers that help search for missing people, arrived in and went inside the house. When Cindy Anthony opened the door for the volunteers, Cathy Harris yelled "liar!" Not everyone had a sign. One woman said she showed up to represent the good babysitters out there.

A Texas group of volunteers plans to join the search for Caylee Marie and has set up a command center in the Lee Vista area. The group, EquuSearch, will start sending volunteers out to search areas on Saturday morning. The locations are being figured out tonight, said the director Mandy Albritton. They use horses, dogs, choppers, divers and other resources to search for missing people. One of their tools is a remote-controlled plane that shoots pictures over wooded areas and bodies of water.

"We came in at the request of the Anthonys and in cooperation with the Orange County sheriff's office," Albritton said. "Our mission is search and rescue and we are still hoping that we will find Caylee alive." The group met with Caylee's grandmother, Cindy Anthony, today. More than a dozen volunteers have been arriving in Orlando this week to help search for the missing toddler.

Volunteers must be at least 18 years old and must bring a driver's license. They will register and be briefed before being sent out in groups of 7 to 10 people. Officials suggest volunteers who plan to do ground searches should wear long pants and sun screen, Albritton said. Joining in the search for Caylee is Beth Holloway, whose daughter Natalee Holloway was reported missing during a high school trip to Aruba in 2005...

Albritton and others set up the command center in the parking lot behind the Holiday Inn, off T.G. Lee Boulevard, near the Orlando International Airport. More volunteers are expected over the weekend from Miami-Dade County. She said the search will be costly - possibly more than $20,000 - and will accept donations, including ice, water, food and even a copy machine.

Meanwhile, bounty hunter Leonard Padilla has apparently changed his mind and told the Orlando Sentinel he no longer plans to revoke Casey Anthony's bond on Saturday and send her back to jail. On Thursday, Padilla told the Sentinel he feared for Anthony and her family's safety, and that's why he planned to put her back in jail. He said he and the bondsmen responsible for posting Anthony's $500,200 bond last week would revoke it on Saturday.

But at noon Friday, Padilla told th e Sentinel he spoke with Anthony's defense attorney, Jose Baez, about the security concerns.Padilla said he told Baez, "I want these changed because I don't feel comfortable." "If he takes care of those by this afternoon or by tomorrow we won't revoke [the bond]," Padilla said.

Padilla said people have called and e-mailed threatening to kill Anthony. He would not say what the safety concerns are and referred those questions to Baez. A telephone message and e-mail sent to Baez have not been returned. Meanwhile, e-mails released Friday morning by the State Attorney's Office shows that Baez approached Orange County investigators on July 25 about meeting with prosecutors about a possible limited immunity.

Prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick e-mailed Baez on July 29, saying she had not heard from him about what information Anthony could provide. As part of the deal, Anthony would have to waive - in writing - any evidence obtained as a result of her statements to investigators, Drane Burdick wrote.

On August 25, Drane Burdick sent another e-mail to Baez about the immunity they discussed on Aug. 12 and how it will expire on Thursday, Aug. 28."By that date, you will have had sufficient 'private time' with you client to determine if she wishes to participate in locating her child," she wrote. Since then, that deadline has been extended to Tuesday at 9 a.m.

"If you would like to attend to this matter over the Labor Day weekend, please send an e-mail to my work e-mail address and I will be able to retrieve it immediately on my Blackberry," Drane Burdick said. There was little activity outside Anthony's home this morning as the 22-year-old headed to Baez's office for yet another afternoon. Baez's office is one of the few places the mother of missing 3-year-old Caylee Marie is allowed to go. No reporters saw Anthony get into the minivan to go to Baez's office because the vehicle was in the closed garage.

Anthony's mother Cindy briefly opened her garage door this morning and stepped outside, but said nothing to reporters. The family recently posted "no trespassing" signs in their front yard. A woman, who only identified herself as a "friend," left the Anthony's Lee Vista-area home this morning and said they will find Caylee."

A lot of departments that are supposed to be trying to search with the tips they've received that are very -- the tips are right on target to where Caylee could be," the woman said before driving away. "No one's helping them. No one is helping them."

Meanwhile, State Attorney Lawson Lamar spoke Friday morning about the limited immunity offered to Anthony. He said prosecutors offered the immunity - which would only include her direct statements but other evidence generated from her information can be used at trial - weeks ago when they hoped Anthony may lead them to a live child. But that "hope is diminishing" with recent test results that prove a dead body was in the back of Anthony's car.

The limited immunity deal is off the table by 9 a.m. Tuesday. The lead prosecutor - Linda Drane-Burdick - is in daily contact with sheriff's investigators. An Orange County sheriff's official disclosed earlier this week that air-sample tests from Anthony's abandoned car showed the vehicle once held a decomposing human body."I think [Caylee's] dead," Padilla said Thursday. "I can't figure anybody else that would be in the trunk deceased."

At the same time, Anthony has made no effort to help him find Caylee, he said. Investigative findings detailed in 431 pages of legal documents released this week also made him question the mother's innocence. "You add all three of those up, and you're headed in one direction," Padilla said. Anthony was placed on home confinement after leaving the Orange County Jail on Aug. 21. Anthony spent more than a month behind bars before her bond was posted...

During a bail hearing in July, a sheriff's detective said investigators found strands of hair, a mysterious stain and dirt in the trunk of Anthony's Pontiac, which had been abandoned in a parking lot. A cadaver dog also alerted on the trunk, indicating the presence of human-decomposition odor.

That evidence led investigators to suggest that Caylee could be dead and her mother might be involved. On Thursday, tight-lipped sheriff's officials said they were continuing to look for Caylee as they receive analyses of the evidence by FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratories. "We do not deal in assumptions," Capt. Angelo Nieves said. "We deal in factual information."

Larry Garrison, an Anthony family spokesman based in Los Angeles, refused to comment on the developments Thursday. He said he and the Anthony family are "outraged" at the Sentinel and would not speak to its reporters.