Stating that not to require Casey Anthony to serve one year of probation for her check fraud conviction “would make the sentence a mockery of justice,” Judge Belvin Perry today ordered that she return to Orlando no later than August 26.
Upon her return, assuming that she complies with the order, she will report to the Department of Corrections, where she will be compelled to agree with the terms of her probation. Just what this will “correct” is anybody’s guess. What it will serve to do, though, is refocus TMZ and other trash journalists, including amateurs like your own Turkey on Orlando instead of Columbus. But I digress.
Judge Perry had ruled that Ms. Anthony can keep her address secret. That means that soon, someone in the Department of Corrections who needs a couple of bucks will probably barf it up for the aforementioned yellow journalists. The Turkey does not pay for leads. You’d have to pay me to chase after that skank.
There were doubts as to whether the sentence meted out by Judge Strickland, the original judge in the check fraud case, was valid, as the wording in the original sentence was unclear. It was later amended by Strickland, leading to Anthony’s defense’s claim that it was contrived.
Judge Perry took on the case after Strickland recused himself. Perry originally called it all a mess, but in his comments today, he said that he viewed the amended sentence as a valid correction of a clerical error, and that videotapes and transcripts of the trial proved that the intent was a year’s probation once our Prevaricating Princess left jail. And so it is now ordered.
The Anthony defense team also brought up the double jeopardy issue while stating that the Mistress of Mendacity served her probation while incarcerated. Judge Perry dismissed this by stating that it would be impossible for her to comply with the standard 13 conditions of probation while in the slammer.
“To permit the Defendant, whose counsel was well aware that the probation was to begin upon the Defendant’s release from jail, to avoid serving probation now, would take a lawfully imposed sentence and make it a mockery of justice,” Perry wrote. “This would allow a defendant to take advantage of a scrivener’s error and be rewarded. This is not the message the courts want to send to the public or defendants.”
Of course, the argument that she had actually served her probation while in jail was again advanced by the defense, but Perry asked if they were aware that she was serving probation at the time. The answer was no. Bummer. They wanted to apply her time in jail retroactively once they heard about the probation.
“It is very clear that the Defendant and her attorney knew she was to start her probation upon release from the Orange County Jail. Despite this fact, they took advantage of a scrivener’s error which started the probation while she was being held in the jail pending trial,” Perry wrote. “The defense should not be able to claim that they are now harmed by having the Defendant serve probation at this time.”
Anthony has been the subject of death threats and recently was tabbed as one of the most hated people in America. Judge Perry’s compassion shines through in the ruling that she may keep her address secret. This Turkey is impressed with the manner in which Perry has bent over backwards to protect defendants and jurors.
And now we wait for the next act of this five-act comedy to play out.
