Abuse suffered at the hands of father triggered them, Jose Baez argues in new book

Jun 28, 2012 08:37 GMT  ·  By
Jose Baez writes tell-all book on Casey Anthony, argues she has “serious mental issues”
   Jose Baez writes tell-all book on Casey Anthony, argues she has “serious mental issues”

The attorney who defended Casey Anthony on the trial that saw her accused of the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, Jose Baez, says she's not guilty of murder – she's just dealing with “serious mental issues.”

It's a wonder then that prosecutors never stopped to think whether the woman they were accusing of such a vicious, cold-hearted crime was of sane mind.

The claim comes in Baez's new book, “Presumed Guilty, Casey Anthony: The Inside Story,” which comes out in book stores on July 3, Radar Online reports.

In it, Baez argues that Anthony was – and is – not sane, having suffered terrible abuse at the hands of her father when she was growing up, which took a severe toll on her.

“Tot-Mom’s elaborate web of lies weren’t because she was guilty of murder, but because she has 'serious mental health issues',” Baez argues, as cited by Radar.

Signs of this were everywhere, he goes on to say, from the moment Anthony took police officers to Universal Studios, where she falsely claimed to be working.

“Baez said the detectives working the case should have realized that Casey was living in a 'fantasy world,' and that she was someone with 'serious mental health issues',” Radar further writes.

“When Casey took detectives to Universal Studios where she pretended to work, they 'should have stopped and realized, Wait a minute, we’re not dealing with someone who is playing with a full deck',” the same media outlet notes.

She was never guilty of the murder of her daughter, and she only lied because she could not tell truth from the fiction in her own, wandering mind, Anthony's lawyer also argues.

In the book, Baez gives a detailed description of her actions after she was sprung from jail, when she was acquitted of the murder, including which was her first meal once out.

“He said once he and Casey, in a bright pink Polo shirt, got into the SUV they went to a parking garage and then got into another car while four of the same decoy cars left at the same time. With Casey he boarded a private plane and went to the Florida Panhandle resort community of St. George Island and members of their legal team and their families met with them,” Radar reports.

“Casey then went to New York, where she remained until she was ordered to return to Florida to serve her probation,” adds the e-zine.

With this book, Baez hopes to set the record straight once and for all as to how inexperienced he seemed during the trial: he was never an idiot, he says, but merely doing his job the best way he knew how, considering that he had it for a fact that his client was not mentally fit.