ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.,None — Casey Anthony's defense team questioned former meter reader Roy Kronk under oath Friday. Kronk is the man who found Caylee Anthony's remains in the woods near her house months after she disappeared.
KRONK AFTER DEPO: Raw Interview INTERVIEWS: Baez | Mason | Kronk's Lawyer VIDEO REPORT: Ex-Meter Reader Questioned
Roy Kronk is a key prosecution witness and the defense wants to discredit him. The defense is trying to make connections between the duct tape that was found layered over Caylee's face and the man who found her.
But Kronk said the defense's theory doesn't make sense. Roy Kronk has faced rumor and ridicule since he found Caylee Marie Anthony.
Investigators say her mother, Casey Anthony, dumped her body in the woods near her house hoping she'd never be found.
Still, Kronk said he'd do it again.
"Doing the right thing is its own reward," Kronk told WFTV.
The rumor and ridicule have come from Casey's lawyers through Kronk's ex-wives, who speculated he could be the murderer.
Kronk's ex-wife, who was arrested for check fraud, accused him of binding her with duct tape.
"He wound up beating me in front of his father. He duct-taped my hands," Kronk's ex-wife Jill Kerley said in a video.
He denies it, but the defense wants people to believe Kronk, who had no connection to Caylee when she was alive, murdered her, then instead of keeping quiet to stay in the clear, brought attention to himself by calling law enforcement with the claim that he just found her.
"Does it even make any sense when you think it through that people would believe this?" WFTV reporter Kathi Belich asked Kronk's attorney David Evans.
"I think your question suggests the answer. Of course it doesn't make any sense. So that'll be their burden if they even get an opportunity, which I doubt they will get an opportunity to try to convince a jury of this. Have at it," Evans said.
The defense hasn't backed off its claim that Kronk should be a suspect.
"We're going to find out exactly what happened. There's a lot of statements that we're concerned about and we're hoping Mr. Kronk will tell the truth," Baez told WFTV.
The defense filed court documents saying Kronk should be a suspect. Kronk says he's been telling the truth.
The defense wants a jury to hear Kronk's ex-wives' claims, but WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer agrees with Kronk's lawyer that it's highly improbable that the judge would allow that.
The defense canceled Friday's depositions of Casey's ex-fiance Jesse Grund and his father, but has rescheduled them for August 11.
The defense has also scheduled depositions with seven investigators from the sheriff's and medical examiner's offices for August and September.
JOSE BAEZ MAY LOSE $670K KISSIMMEE HOME
The case against Casey Anthony could be taking a financial toll on her lead defense attorney, Jose Baez. Court records show Jose Baez's house, which he bought for $670,000, is in foreclosure.
AT THE SCENE: Baez's Kissimmee Home DOCUMENT: Foreclosure Complaint VIDEO REPORT: Casey's Attorney Could Lose Home
His top client, Casey Anthony, hasn't been able to pay him in months, but taxpayers are funding Casey's defense.
Baez and his wife live less than one mile inside the gates of Kissimmee Bay (see map), which is a country club community in Osceola County. It's a private community and it's close to his office, but now he could lose it.
Defense attorney Jose Baez borrowed $603,000 three years ago, to buy the $670,000 house. The home has a screened-in pool and a fireplace. His monthly mortgage payment is $4,500.
The problem is court records show he hasn't made a payment for about one year, since August 2009. But that didn't stop him from skipping his client Casey Anthony's hearing on June 21 because of his vacation in Paris, according to his co-counsel.
Even though the ABC Network paid Casey more than $200,000 for all of her photos and videos of Caylee, Baez said the fee he was paid for handling her check fraud and murder cases was less than $90,000.
He's now two years into the murder case. The defense is out of money and now taxpayers are paying Casey's legal expenses.
WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said a high-profile case like Casey's can be a financial burden instead of a boon.
"It can be all consuming and people's perception is that you're so busy with this big case you don't have time for their case," Sheaffer said.
Baez wouldn't talk to WFTV on camera about the foreclosure, but would only say the house is not on the market and that it is a personal matter.
After making $4,500 mortgage payments for two years, he still owes $601,000 on the house and it's most recently been appraised at $397,000.
CASEY VISITED BY DOCTOR
Casey's had few outside visitors besides her defense team, until last Friday.
Dr. Steven Gold specializes in psychological trauma, dissociation, hypnosis and sex addiction at Nova University in Fort Lauderdale. He met with Casey for nearly four hours.
jail records show Casey bought medication three times since mid-May and visited with the nurse twice. Her jail account is no longer overdrawn, thanks to a $140 check her parents deposited Wednesday.
CASEY'S PARENTS SAVE HOME FROM FORECLOSURE
Casey Anthony's parents saved their home from foreclosure Wednesday and it only took them a few months to obtain the same loan modification that other homeowners have pursued for years.
VIDEO REPORT: Anthonys Save Home From Foreclosure
The Anthonys' attorney said he thinks it's because both parties wanted to keep the case out of court; if it went to court, it would have created a media frenzy.
For the past couple of months, people who live near the Anthony family thought their neighbors were going to move, but last month a new deal was made and now the Anthonys are going to be able to keep their home. Bank of America modified their loan.
"This foreclosure was one of the fastest ones I handled," Attorney Mark Lippman told WFTV.
Lippman, who represents the Anthonys, said it only took four months to settle the issue. They qualified for the federal program called Making Homes Affordable.
Bank of America started the foreclosure process in February. Documents show the Anthonys bought the home for almost $91,000 in 1991, but now owe more than $115,000.
Cindy is on disability and George lost his job. Lipton would not tell WFTV the amount of the new mortgage payment, but said it is 31 percent of their anticipated income.
"It was reduced to what they can afford," Lippman said.
Ana Biascoechea also lives in east Orange County. When she learned about the Anthonys' new settlement, she wasn't too happy. She has been trying to modify her loan through Bank of America for more than a year. WFTV found some cases can take up to two years.
"We are all in the same predicament as they are. Why should they get preferential treatment?" Biascoechea asked.
Lippman disagrees, but says both sides wanted to avoid a media circus.
"I think it was addressed because Bank of America and myself wanted to get this done without exposing this to the press," he said.
A Bank of America spokesperson said the Anthonys got their loan modification within a normal period of time. When WFTV asked about the other woman's loan, the spokesperson never returned the call.
BAEZ WANTS PARTS OF JAIL CALLS REDACTED
Casey's lawyer, Jose Baez, is trying to get portions redacted from some recorded jail phone calls.
An inmate told Baez that two other inmates, including Casey's jail pen-pal, made up lies about her. But Baez says he can't remember being warned that their conversation was recorded.
He's expected to ask a judge to at least edit out his comments before releasing the calls.
CASEY'S EX-FIANCE, KRONK TO BE QUESTIONED
Friday, Casey's ex-fiance Jesse Grund and his father will be questioned by defense lawyers. A paternity test proved Caylee was not Grund's child, but at one point Casey allegedly told her parents she didn't trust Grund and her parents asked detectives to investigate him as a suspect.
Also, Roy Kronk, the former meter reader who found Caylee's remains, will return for more questions. Kronk was also once talked about as a suspect.
CRITICISM FOR CASEY'S ATTORNEY OVER JAIL CALL
A possible new witness in the case against Casey Anthony is leading to more criticism against Casey's lead attorney, Jose Baez. The issue revolves around a phone call Baez received from a state prison inmate.
VIDEO REPORT: Baez Facing New Criticism
Baez wants the recording of that phone call kept secret; he says he didn't know he was being recorded. But when prison inmates make calls, they start with a message that the call is being recorded and prosecutors say he had to have heard it, because he followed its instruction to press "1" on his phone to accept inmate Robin Lunceford's call.
A month and a half later, Baez denied it. After prosecutors called him on it, he filed new paperwork claiming he doesn't remember.
Baez is now being called into question for the same kinds of inconsistencies his client, accused child murderer Casey Anthony, has been caught in. Baez told Chief Judge Belvin Perry he didn't know he was being recorded when Lunceford called him, so he said it was illegal and asked the judge to seal it.
Baez says Lunceford can show that two other inmates lied about Casey to investigators.
"This person taped it or the institution taped it?" Judge Perry asked Baez at a previous hearing.
"The institution," Baez replied.
But prosecutors say Baez not only heard the prison's warning that he was being recorded, he was told again by Lunceford during their phone call, and he was expecting her collect call from Lowell Correctional Institution, according to his assistant.
"At worst, it's an intentional misrepresentation to the court. At best, it's a faulty memory," WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said Tuesday. "He has damaged his credibility with Judge Perry in either event."
Baez's claim of faulty memory came after prosecutors told him they had heard the call and heard the warning he got before taking the call. In court at a previous hearing, Baez actually joked that, by asking to seal what he argued is an illegal recording, he was protecting the prosecutor from getting arrested for listening to it.
"I don't want her to get arrested," Baez said in court with a laugh.
Judge Perry set him straight.
"Well, it would be up to the state attorney, Mr. Lamar, to determine that," Judge Perry said.
The judge hasn't decided whether the public will get to hear that recorded phone call.
Lunceford is in prison for life and is under criminal investigation for playing with the prison phone system, partly for having her calls forwarded to people she's not authorized to call.
Previous Stories: July 29, 2010: Jose Baez May Lose $670K Kissimmee Home July 28, 2010: Casey's Parents Save Home From Foreclosure July 27, 2010: Criticism For Casey's Attorney Over Jail Call July 23, 2010: Casey Attorneys Back Off Claims Against EquuSearch July 23, 2010: Casey Anthony Broke, Owes Jail Over $40 July 22, 2010: Casey Judge Gets Recorded Prison Calls July 20, 2010: State Ordered To Turn In Recorded Conversations In Casey Case July 19, 2010: Casey's Defense Investigating George Anthony July 16, 2010: Casey's Attorney Hanging Hopes On Inmate July 16, 2010: Judge Denies Motion, Allows Cindy's 911 Calls July 14, 2010: Casey's Defense Wants More Testing On Evidence July 13, 2010: Casey's Lawyers Begin Evidence Examination July 12, 2010: Deadline Set In Casey Case For Release Of List
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