Casey Anthony photos, videos should not be released, her lawyer tells judge

Sarah Lundy Sentinel Staff Writer
February 27, 2009

Casey Anthony's defense lawyer asked a judge Thursday to block release of personal photos he says could embarrass the 22-year-old murder suspect.

Attorney José Baez filed the request to keep the pictures from being released with other evidence to reporters.

Calling the images irrelevant to the case, he proposed that prosecutors release only photos they intend to use at trial and keep the remainder under wraps...

The request comes after the defense team received two computer discs from the state that contained hundreds of pictures from Anthony's account on Photo bucket.com, an online photo-sharing Web site.

Under Florida's public-record laws, the media are entitled to the information unless a judge intervenes.

Baez did not describe the photos, but images that could be viewed on Photobucket .com last fall included dozens of pictures of Anthony partying with friends."The images on the Photobucket Website were created over a year before her daughter Caylee Anthony went missing in June 2008," Baez's spokeswoman, Marti Mackenzie, wrote in an e-mail. "These images are irrelevant to her case. If they were to be disseminated, they will only sensationalize the life of a young woman and may be used to attempt to paint her in a negative light."

Orange Circuit Judge Stan Strickland set a hearing for Monday to discuss the issue.

Baez sent the judge an example of what he said can happen if such pictures are distributed to the public: an online story about a Barbie-type "Casey Anthony" doll offered on eBay.

The doll was dressed in an American flag, similar to a photo showing Casey Anthony wearing a flag at a party. Baez wrote that the example was "proof that the release of photographs which are unrelated to this case, are forming a biased opinion of the defendant, and her persona, as evidenced by the creation of said doll."

Still photos aren't the only Anthony pictures that Baez wants to stay private. In a second motion the lawyer released Thursday, Baez asked the judge to withhold a Dec.11 video of Anthony's reaction to hearing that a then-unknown child's remains had been found in woods.

According to Baez, corrections officers took her to the jail clinic so she could watch media reports. She didn't know security cameras were recording her reaction, he wrote. Releasing the video would taint a potential jury pool before he had the chance to file motions to seal or suppress it.