Charges for Lee, Casey Anthony's Brother?

Megyn Kelly sat in for Greta VanSusteren last night as host for On the Record, foxnews.com. A quick search this morning found nothing in cyberspace on the topic except for the transcript, which I am posting here.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," December 29, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS GUEST HOST: Well, could Casey Anthony's brother Lee soon be joining her behind bars? Casey has been charged with the murder of her daughter Caylee, and now her brother Lee might be charged with obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting Casey.
Lee Anthony's lawyer Thomas Luka joins me now. Tom, good evening to you.

THOMAS LUKA, ATTORNEY: Good evening, Megyn.

KELLY: What do you make of these charges, these potential charges? What are you hearing is the possibly basis behind them?

LUKA: Well, first of all, there has been no announcement, formal or otherwise, that there are charges pending against Lee Anthony. This is all speculation and rumor at this time.

What I can tell you is that there has been speculation that he may be charged as an accessory after the fact for some sort of obstruction of justice charge.

The law in Florida, the statue in Florida dealing with obstruction of justice is very broad and gives prosecutors a wide latitude to use that power to charge individuals in order to motivate them to testify against other defendants.

KELLY: Right--in other words, this could be an effort to try to get them to tell them what they want to here with respect to Casey, or it could be that they think he actually did obstruct their investigation.

Did they give you any clue, Tom, what they may be thinking, what act think might be looking at that amount to obstruction of justice?

LUKA: I do not know. I can tell me that Mr. Anthony has been extremely cooperative with the police. Anything and everything, he has done. If there is anything that might throw a shadow or might conflict with any of the police evidence, it is that he has from the beginning has asserted his sister's innocence and has also asserted that this is a missing-person case and not a homicide case.

Now that the dynamic of the case has changed, obviously that is no longer the case.

Watch the interview

KELLY: How does he deal with that, Tom? Because we all watched him so many times come to his sister's defense and say, as we heard the grandparents say, they believe they would find little Caylee, and now we know, of course, they have, but she was found dead. How is he now, how does he deal with that news?

LUKA: Well, he, like the Anthonys and the rest of the community here in Orlando, are grieving. There are many broken hearts in our community right now. It was not just the Anthonys who thought that Caylee would be coming home safe.
There were many people not only here in Florida but all over the country who were hoping and praying that she would be found safe. Obviously, that is not the case, and we have to more forward from there.
He is grieving along with his family. He is trying to support his family as best as he can. But he is continuing to cooperate with the investigation and wherever it leads now.

KELLY: Does he still believe in the innocence of his sister?

LUKA: At this point, he has not made a determination as to that fact right now. That fact has yet to even be determined--that fact can only be determined by a court of law.
I can tell you that he is wanting to find truth in this case, just like everyone else is, both prosecution and defense, wherever that may lead. And I can tell you that Mr. Anthony, that is all he cares about at this point.
Whether it leads to the innocence of his sister or her guilt, he cares about the truth, and that is what is most important to him as far as it concerns his niece Caylee.

KELLY: Tom, thanks for being here.

LUKA: Thank you.

KELLY: All the best.

It was fairly obvious the first night the Anthony's found out that Caylee was "missing". Cindy's statement to Casey, "what have you done?" and later Lee's conversation with Casey on the phone when he advises her, "the truth doesn't hurt."

Although I have had the urge to slap Cindy a few times, my heart really does go out to the Pleasea's and Anthony's. I've tried to put myself in Cindy's shoes, but only one shoe fits. On the one foot, if my daughter murdered my grandchild, as much as I love each one of them, I could not leave her twisting in the wind alone. No matter what she's done, even if it is the worst thing in the world, she's my daughter and has my unconditional love. On the other foot, I wouldn't be in front of cameras every day making up excuses and running my mouth, lying and blaming everyone around her, except her daughter.

Undoubtedly this is not the life George and Cindy (or Lee)

had envisioned for themselves or their family, but it is what they have left. Hiding or destroying evidence was/is either extreme stupidity, or intentional, making it a crime.

Particularly memorable was the candlelight vigil where Cindy lost it and started yelling at law enforcement, the media and the vigil attendees that they should "get out there and find her granddaughter." The irony was not lost on me that during the last five months, if she had taken a short walk through and around her neighborhood, she may have found Caylee herself.