Casey Anthony speaks on baby sitter in deposition
Feb 26, 2014, 5:38 PM
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Casey Anthony maintains that a baby sitter her attorney acknowledged was fabricated at her 2011 murder trial is a real person.
Anthony, who has been in hiding since her trial, was questioned in a Jan. 23 deposition related to her ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. A transcript of the deposition was filed Tuesday in Orlando, Fla., federal court.
Anthony was acquitted in the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. After Caylee disappeared in 2008, Anthony told investigators a baby sitter named Zenaida Gonzalez had kidnapped the toddler. The Kissimmee, Fla., woman sued Anthony, claiming her reputation has been ruined.
According to the transcript, Anthony told Gonzalez’s attorneys she met the baby sitter at Universal Studios in 2006 and the women were friends for a little over a year. She said she left Caylee in her care on one occasion in 2006.
The baby sitter did not actually kidnap Caylee, nor did the woman suing for defamation, Anthony said. She declined to answer the attorneys’ questions about why she had lied to investigators.
Anthony waited a month before reporting Caylee missing. The trial ended in her acquittal on the murder charge, but she was convicted on charges of lying to law enforcement.
During the contentious deposition, Anthony declined to answer many questions and she refused to answer all questions about her daughter. Gonzalez’s attorneys plan to ask a judge to compel her to respond. A hearing on that motion is scheduled next week.
“Now, is there any way in the world that you could suggest to me that I might find this person to see if she ever existed?” Gonzalez’s attorney Keith Mitnik asked Anthony.
Anthony replied, “I don’t know if you could or not, sir.”
During her murder trial, Anthony’s attorney Jose Baez told jurors the baby sitter story was fabricated. During the deposition, Anthony’s attorney Cheney Mason said she was not responsible for Baez’s statements in court.
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