P.I. Accused Of Witness Tampering In Casey Case

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.,None — A private investigator working for the defense is being accused of witness tampering, WFTV was told by two EquuSearch volunteers Wednesday. They said both witnesses gave similar stories.

VIDEO REPORT: P.I. Accused Of Witness Tampering

Defense private investigator Jeremy Lyons is being accused by two EquuSearch volunteers of trying to change their testimony about searching the scene where Caylee"s remains were later found. One has already been deposed by the defense and the other has given a statement to investigators.

Lyons was in court recently examining EquuSearch records. He keeps a low public profile, but behind the scenes, he's talking to EquuSearch volunteers who are not happy about it.

Brett Churchill and Brett Reilly, both prosecution witnesses in Casey Anthony's murder case, feel Lyons was trying to get them to change their testimony.

"I felt in my mind, yes, he was trying to tamper with me, in a sense," Churchill said.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's almost like tampering with other witnesses to misrepresent the truth that way," Reilly said.

Both say the exact area on Suburban Drive where Caylee's remains were found December 11, 2008, was under water and unsearchable until the month before.

Churchill had already been questioned under oath by the defense for two and a half hours, but says that didn't stop the defense investigator from going to his house and lying to him about Reilly's story.

"He basically was asking me if what I said in my deposition was the exact story because he had others who fared differently, one of them being Brett Reilly," Churchill said.

Reilly says he warned Lyons not to twist his words after seeing what the defense has done to others. He says Lyons promised not to, but then found out he did exactly that.

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer says the defense investigator is traveling through dangerous territory.

"The statute specifically says you cannot engage in misleading conduct," Sheaffer said.

Reilly said he complained to defense attorney Cheney Mason about the situation and both told the sheriff's office.

Casey is headed back to court Friday, October 29, for a status hearing. At the hearing her defense team will ask a state agency to reconsider a recent request for thousands of dollars in funding to cover lodging and travel expenses.

The Justice Administrative Commission had previously challenged that request, saying the defense needs to prove the money is really needed for the case.

DEFENSE WANTS CASEY JAIL RECORDS SEALED; SPENDING QUESTIONED

The defense is trying a third time to seal Casey Anthony's visitation, phone and commissary records at the Orange County jail.

The records are public for all inmates, but Casey's defense team says releasing her records serves only to embarrass her and invade her privacy. The argument has already been rejected twice.

The state agency funding Casey Anthony's criminal defense has challenged recent cost requests.

Casey's attorneys, Jose Baez and Ann E. Finnell, filed a motion to set a budget for the penalty phase of the case. The Justice Administrative Commission (JAC) recently filed a 9-page response, challenging items like travel and lodging costs for Finnell. The JAC also challenged various rates and questioned the need for a private investigator or psychiatrist.

The JAC says the defense needs to prove the money is really needed for the case.

Also, the defense plans to depose key Orange County investigator Eric Edwards on October 22.

DEFENSE TO QUESTION KRONK'S SON

Details in the case against Casey Anthony were released Thursday. There are two more depositions scheduled by prosecutors.

On October 28, they'll question the son of meter reader Roy Kronk, who found Caylee's remains.

Kronk's son, Brandon Sparks, told Casey's lawyers that his father claimed in November of 2008, he knew where Caylee was.

Prosecutors will also depose defense witness, John samples, later this month.

CASEY'S DEFENSE EXPERTS TO EXAMINE COFFIN FLIES

Casey Anthony's defense team wants more evidence examined by forensic experts it hires.

Court documents filed Tuesday show coffin flies collected from Casey's car trunk will be transported to their experts.

Prosecutors are using the flies to prove there was a body in Casey's trunk.

Defense experts will also test a strand of Caylee's hair that the prosecution says came from Caylee after she was already dead.

CASEY DEFENSE WITNESS BACKS OUT OF QUESTIONING

A key witness, who could help defend Casey Anthony, backed out of being questioned under oath about falsifying documents, but Texas EquuSearch volunteer Laura Buchanan can't avoid prosecutors forever. She's under subpoena and she will have to answer their questions under oath about whether she made up a document to help Casey.

BILL SHEAFFER: Analysis Of Witness No-Show VIDEO REPORT: Witness Backs Out

Investigators are looking into allegations that Buchanan falsified records to make it appear as though Caylee Anthony's body was not in the woods near her house on Suburban Drive in September 2008. That was three months after Caylee disappeared, and three months before she was found.

Buchanan was to be deposed by prosecutors for a second time Wednesday about those records. However, Tuesday, Buchanan backed out saying she was ill.

"It is certainly suspect and damning to the defense that all of a sudden she's too ill to proceed with the deposition," WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said.

If investigators find Buchanan did falsify records in the death penalty case against Caylee's mother Casey, Buchanan could be in serious legal trouble.

The defense would not respond to WFTV's questions about Buchanan's illness, but it put out a press release repeating last week's claims that it found another 150 Texas EquuSearch volunteers who searched Suburban Drive for Caylee.

Suburban Drive is almost a mile long and the court has already ruled the defense can only get the records of volunteers who were in the exact area of the road near where Caylee was later found.

"Were there any witnesses that can testify that they were at the location where Caylee's body was found prior to the discovery of the body and that the body wasn't there? That's the sole issue," Sheaffer said.

Sheaffer says, if they don't have that, they can do all the press releases and media interviews they want, but it won't help Casey convince a jury in that she's innocent.

DOCUMENTS COULD DAMAGE CASEY ANTHONY DEFENSE

There's a new blow to the defense in the case against Casey Anthony. Documents uncovered by WFTV raise questions about a key defense witness.

DOCUMENTS: EquuSearch Records Contradict Witness Story RAW INTERVIEW: WFTV Presses Baez On Docs VIDEO REPORT: Docs Released In Casey Case

That witness swore she saw nothing when she searched a spot in east Orange County where, months later, Caylee's body was found. But WFTV obtained documents and a new witness contradicting her story.

A document shows EquuSearch volunteer Laura Buchanan wasn't with a team of volunteers, at the site Caylee's body was later found, the day she says she was. The document instead says she and the group of volunteers searched Blanchard Park that day and one of the volunteers, who was with her, says they never went to the woods on Suburban Drive that day.

The defense is desperate to show Caylee Anthony's remains were put in the woods near her house by someone other than her mother, Casey.

Defense witness Laura Buchanan signed an affidavit a year after Caylee was found there claiming she searched the area months earlier, on September 3, with her team of volunteers and Caylee was not there.

But WFTV found Texas EquuSearch documents that show Buchanan and her team were at Blanchard Park that day and even that they found bones there.

Volunteer Lela Radojevic, who was on Buchanan's team that day, says they were at Blanchard Park from morning until late afternoon.

"You were all together all day at Blanchard Park and nobody ever, with you, went to Suburban Drive that day?" WFTV reporter Kathi Belich asked Radojevic.

"No," she said.

Buchanan apparently has a document to prove her claim, which investigators believe could've been fabricated and they are looking into it.

Defense attorney Cheney Mason claimed to have found a legitimate copy of it in the EquuSearch records they're inspecting, but lead attorney Jose Baez is less demonstrative.

"Well, if Cheney says he saw it, he saw it," Baez said.

"Did you see it?" Belich asked Baez.

"I have not seen every document," he replied.

If it turns out someone falsified documents and or tampered with witnesses in this capital murder case about what went on at Suburban Drive, they could face felony charges.

Previous Stories: October 18, 2010: Defense Wants Casey Jail Records Sealed; Spending Questioned October 14, 2010: Meter Reader's Son To Be Deposed In Casey Case October 13, 2010: Casey's Defense Experts To Examine Coffin Flies October 12, 2010: Casey Defense Witness Backs Out Of Questioning October 6, 2010: Documents Could Damage Casey Anthony Defense October 4, 2010: Casey's Defense Examines EquuSearch's Records

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