http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1206/13/ijvm.01.htmlJANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
Casey Anthony Speaks OutAired June 13, 2012 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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Now, we`re going to begin tonight with a familiar topic, Casey Anthony. She`s now speaking out. But what`s the real motivation behind Casey Anthony`s surprise -- and I mean surprise -- interview with Piers Morgan? What a scoop. Why didn`t she appear on camera, though? Is she testing the waters, trying to land a huge paid interview? We`re going to be analyzing everything she said with a team of experts on the Casey Anthony trial, next.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tonight, stunning developments in the Casey Anthony saga. The most-hated woman in America tells CNN`s Piers Morgan, "I didn`t kill Caylee. And I`m not fat." This as she appeals her convictions for lying to cops. Is Casey`s arrogance out of control? Could it backfire as she ends her probation? Plus, you won`t believe what she says about the possibility of having more children. We`re taking your calls.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casey Anthony, she says she`s gone through hell. And she`s speaking out for the first time in an interview since being found not guilty of killing her daughter, little Caylee.
PIERS MORGAN, CNN ANCHOR: "Obviously, I didn`t kill my daughter." She said that very firmly. "If anything, there`s nothing in this world I`ve ever been more proud of. And there`s no one I loved more than my daughter. I`ve never been a, quote unquote, party girl," she said. "I don`t drink now."
A lot of people in America believe she killed her daughter, but I was struck by that was what she wanted to get over straight away, loud and clear. "I didn`t kill my daughter."
CASEY ANTHONY, ACQUITTED OF MURDER: I`m not in control over any of this, because I don`t know what the hell`s going on.
MORGAN: She`s a different person now, in her eyes, to the woman she was before.
JOSE BAEZ, ATTORNEY FOR CASEY ANTHONY: This child at 8 years old learned to lie immediately.
MORGAN: But she seemed very aware of the fact that she has a reputation of one of the most hated people in America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice for Caylee! Justice for Caylee!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice for Caylee! Justice for Caylee!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice for Caylee! Justice for Caylee!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People hate her, and that`s because they don`t know her.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell.
Tonight Casey Anthony phones in her first interview. Will this clear her name? Is she setting the stage for a huge payday?
The most hated woman in America has been in hiding for nearly a year since being found not guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. So was is she coming out of the woodwork now to suddenly get on the phone and chat with CNN`s Piers Morgan?
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MORGAN: She said, "A caricature of me out there couldn`t be further from the truth. Where people get these ideas from, it`s so far beyond my own comprehension at this point. I don`t even know where it comes from."
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: She doesn`t know where people get these crazy ideas? Casey, here`s a hint. You lied to police repeatedly, hindering the investigation, insisting your daughter had been kidnapped by her nanny, Zanny, when you knew all along there was no nanny named Zanny; there was no nanny at all; and your daughter was already dead.
Casey was only found guilty of lying to cops. But now Casey wants even those minor convictions thrown out. She just filed an appeal.
What`s Casey trying to accomplish with all this? Everybody knows she lied over and over and over again. We saw her police interrogation. Let`s watch it again.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be the point where you stop all the lies and stop all the fibs and you tell us exactly what`s going on. I know and you know that everything you`re telling me is a lie, correct?
ANTHONY: Not everything that I told you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Remember Casey`s hot body contest? One thing Casey was very clear about all along was her appearance. She took offense to descriptions of her in her physique in recent reports.
Yes, they said she`d put on some weight. Well, she wanted to set the record straight about that. And remind us she`s still a head-turner. Those are her priorities?
Call me, 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7293.
Straight out to Robyn Walensky, author of "Beautiful Life?: The CSI Behind the Casey Anthony Trial." Robyn, why do you think Casey talked to Piers Morgan? Quite a scoop but refused to go on camera.
ROBYN WALENSKY, AUTHOR, "BEAUTIFUL LIFE?": Jane, I think it`s actually very simple. She`s been out of the public`s eye for a year, and she misses the attention.
She`s also a master of manipulation. We both sat through the trial for many weeks. And, Jane, she misses being in the spotlight. And I can remember, Jane, and I write about this in the book "Beautiful Life," you know, after the trial a lot of the conversations that went on with her and some of the letters that she wrote while she was in prison were revealed after the trial was over.
And in them she mentioned some very famous broadcasters. And she was very, very involved in watching all the attention and all the news reports about her. So now that her probation is going to be up in a couple of weeks, well, hey, it`s time to get back into the limelight.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Can you believe it`s almost four years, minus a couple of days, that that precious child was last seen? Four years. And it dominated our lives for so long, this case.
Piers Morgan said there`s a reason Casey spoke to him. And she claims, oh, no, this is not about money. Let`s listen.
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MORGAN: She didn`t want to make money. It was never a question of payment. Obviously, we don`t pay for interviews at CNN anyway. And she knew that. I think she felt it would be a more credible discussion with a news organization that wasn`t paying her.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: But notice that she didn`t appear on camera. She did not also allow her voice to be recorded. Now reports are saying Casey is still seeking a princely sum for her first on-camera interview.
A year ago when she was released, some outlets claimed she wanted a million dollars. Well, then of course, we all learned through the trial that one network paid Casey more than 200 grand in licensing fees, and the blowback was huge. It was highly criticized.
And by the way, you can read my op-ed on HLNTV.com. Mark my words, Lisa Bloom, legal analyst for Avo.com and author of "Swagger," speaking of swagger, this was a very calculated move, I think, on Casey Anthony`s part with, I think, the cooperation of her attorney.
LISA BLOOM, LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I`ll tell you something, if she wants to sell the first interview, she should not be talking now. I mean, If I can just be cynical for a moment. The way that you get top dollar for an interview or book deal is by keeping your mouth shut, by keeping all of the secrets inside, and that`s what you sell for the TV interview or for the book interview.
But nevertheless, I think she could still get a million dollars, I`m sorry to say. I think that`s what she wants. Probably there`s a show out there that will pay it. Not HLN, not CNN, but somewhere else I think it could happen.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I don`t know. Jen Hager, assistant managing editor of RadarOnline.com, there was blowback to the network that paid 200 grand. And so I think the networks are kind of afraid of getting in bed, so to speak, with Casey Anthony, because if it comes out that they did pay her a million dollars, there`s going to be blowback.
JEN HAGER, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, RADARONLINE.COM: I absolutely agree with you, Jane. You know, I want to read a partial transcript of what Cheney Mason said last night to Piers Morgan in regards to Casey Anthony not accepting any money, not trying to make a profit on this.
He said, you know, basically that he -- they`re sitting back. They`re taking -- they`re looking at what other people are doing. And there is a time and a place when Casey will have her story told. When she will tell her side of the story.
Well, is that going to be in a book deal? Is that going to be a television interview? I think at some point in the very near future, we are going to see Casey Anthony in front of cameras, most likely being paid by some media outlet.
Let me be very clear that RadarOnline.com will never pay one cent to Casey Anthony for any interview, photographs or anything.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And neither will we, obviously. Jayne Weintraub, criminal defense attorney out of Miami, you have been a Casey Anthony defender, oftentimes on this show. You`re close to the defense team. What say you to all of us cynics who say this was calculated?
JAYNE WEINTRAUB, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I mean, let`s take one step back. Did it ever occur to you that Casey might feel the dust has settled, it`s been some time, and she really just wants to tell the truth? I know that doesn`t occur to any of you that are on this panel, but that`s what I personally think.
This is somebody who was found not guilty. This is somebody that was convicted by the press, no offense, Jane. This is somebody who literally has had her life turned inside out publicly. And you know what? There`s nothing wrong with her selling her story, her side of the story, if there`s a want in the public to hear it. There`s nothing wrong with it.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think that the public has said time and time they don`t want to hear it, because they regard her as an habitual liar. So they don`t think anything she`s going to put in print is going to be any more truthful than what she told cops, which was one lie after the other, that she worked at Universal Studios when she didn`t, that she dropped the child off at the Sawgrass Apartments, which she didn`t, that she had a nanny named Zanny, which she didn`t. The list goes on and on, Jayne.
WEINTRAUB: Jane, she was scared out of her wits, and until you`ve been interrogated or seen one of these interrogations -- why do you think there are false confessions?
And we know that there are many false confessions that DNA has exonerated.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Robyn Walensky, help me out here.
WEINTRAUB: I mean, people are scared by the police.
WALENSKY: Jane, shy of Casey Anthony writing in a book or telling someone in a magazine how she did it, how she mixed the witch`s brew, how she put the chloroform over little Caylee, that she admits to killing her daughter, nobody`s going to buy her story. America and the world think she murdered her little daughter. Period.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is reading now this trilogy of books called "The Hunger Games."
MORGAN: "The Hunger Games" is about, you know, it`s about -- kids killing each other.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MORGAN: A weird subject, by the way.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. That`s Casey`s attorney Cheney Mason, Casey apparently doing some light reading. Can you say "Hunger Games"?
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Primrose Everdeen.
JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ACTRESS: I volunteer! I volunteer!
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable. This is the hit movie based on the book which is about -- it`s from Lionsgate. It`s about children dying as part of some kind of game that`s televised live on TV. Eerie, creepy, parallel somewhere in there.
Let`s go out to the phone lines. John, New Jersey, your questions or thought, John.
CALLER: Hi, Jane, love you and your show.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.
CALLER: I followed the trial with Nancy Grace from beginning to end. And when Cindy went to visit Casey Anthony in jail, Cindy had stated that the new theory is that she drowned. Casey Anthony`s reaction was like, no, it didn`t happen.
I hope nobody buys nothing of her. She`s nothing but a murdering skank. And I hope somebody nails her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you raise a very good point, because she did say when they -- Cindy approached her with the possibility, well, maybe it was a drowning, honey. Maybe it was a big accident. And she`s like, yes, right.
Right, Robyn? I mean, her reaction was total sarcasm. And yet that`s exactly what they claimed on opening day of the trial, was that, oh, yes, she drowned. And now there she is crying and acting all like crushed by this same thing that she was sarcastically dismissing when she was behind bars.
WALENSKY: Yes. The exact quote from mommy was she goes in there and she says, "Oh, the latest -- you`re never going to believe what the press is saying now. Oh, that little Caylee drowned in the pool."
And she totally dismisses it, not even knowing that she`s being recorded. So that theory, I thought the whole Jose Baez, when he brought that in was just the most bogus scenario that ever lived.
I just want to say this. You know, from the Piers Morgan interview -- and I watched it all last night, Jane -- you know, the big nugget for me in all this is what Casey`s saying: "I`m 26 now, and I`ve gone through hell."
What about the hell of little Caylee who was chloroformed repeatedly? Who was forced to sleep in bed, as testimony showed, with Casey and some of her various boyfriends? That all three of them would sleep in the same bed. Hold on...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jayne Weintraub is laughing.
WEINTRAUB: I`m appalled. I`m just appalled at the spin that this woman, that this author, is putting on it. And mocking. That a lawyer would make things up, No. 1.
No. 2, to bring up her character evidence and the fact that there is so much chloroform. There was so much chloroform, Jane, that it was basically inadmissible and not believed, rejected by the jury.
There was so much chloroform there wasn`t even as much as was on a nail bed. And we all know...
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Robyn, your response.
WEINTRAUB: I mean, please.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Robyn. Let Robyn speak.
WALENSKY: First of all, I`m not just an author. I`ve been a news reporter covering crime for almost 25 years. Covering O.J. Simpson, JonBenet Ramsey. I sat in a lot of different courtrooms, and I`m going to tell you that when Jose Baez presented all that, it was bogus.
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GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY`S FATHER: OK. I`m going to cut to your chase right now and answer all these questions, OK? No. 1 is, the Zanny that my daughter described to me was 24 to 25 years old, about 5`7", 120 to 130 pounds. She had straight white teeth and long brown hair. OK? On a scale of one to ten, she`s a ten supposedly.
CINDY ANTHONY, CASEY`S MOTHER: Why this lawsuit is here and why I`m here is to state that this person had nothing to do with Caylee`s disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me just -- let me...
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Casey Anthony talking on the phone to Piers Morgan, saying she`s been through hell. What about the real Zenaida Gonzalez? There`s Zenaida Gonzalez, the real Zenaida Gonzalez.
But Casey said Zanny the nanny kidnapped, essentially little Caylee, blaming Zanny. And this ruined the real Zenaida`s reputation.
John Dill, attorney working with Zenaida Gonzalez, your civil suit against Casey Anthony is on the horizon. I under -- first of all, your reaction to what Casey had to say to Piers?
JOHN DILL, ATTORNEY FOR ZENAIDA GONZALEZ: Well, I thought it was funny that suddenly she wants to talk, and we`ve been trying to get her to talk for a couple years now. If she wants to talk in January up on the 23rd of the -- 23rd floor of the courthouse, she`ll be welcome to talk then. She`s under subpoena, so we hope to hear from her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I understand that you actually have her address because you had to subpoena her, correct?
DILL: Well, we -- we`ve subpoenaed her through Chase -- Cheney Mason, actually, who accepted the subpoena. So we expect her to be there. She`s required to be there through the law. We want her to answer questions.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But she`s been taking the fifth. She has not been...
DILL: It`s interesting, isn`t it?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.
DILL: She`s taken the Fifth Amendment, yet she`s talking to Piers Morgan about how she`s sorry for what happened about how she lied to the police. So it will be interesting to see if she`ll answer our questions. And we hope she will.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Lisa Bloom, what do you make of that? Here she`s talking to Piers Morgan, and yet any time she has to appear in the Zenaida Gonzalez case, she takes the Fifth and says, "I will not answer."
BLOOM: I`d have to say, she`s doing what any litigant would do. She`s trying to avoid answering questions if there`s a legal way of doing it and because her misdemeanor charges where she was found guilty of lying to police are now up on appeal. I suppose she can still claim that.
So I wouldn`t hold my breath waiting for her to appear in that civil case, frankly. But I agree. Let her tell her story. Come on camera, Casey. Have an experienced journalist ask you questions where you can answer the questions. We`d all love to hear your point of view.
I think she may be reluctant to give an interview of any kind, because she knows she lied, and she knows any intelligent interviewer is going to nail her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: John Dill, would it be correct to say she just filed this appeal on her lying convictions that she may have been delaying that so that they wouldn`t decide it before the start of the civil trial so that when the civil trial came along it would still be up in the air and she could still take the Fifth once again?
DILL: Well, I think that`s possible. You know, of course if she wins the appeal, then there will be no Fifth Amendment. That will be interesting. We`re going to ask her the questions anyway, and hopefully, she`ll answer them. After all, she just wants to tell truth. Now is the time in January.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She spins tales. All these crazy stories about all this stuff. She also made up a story about her parents, her dad cheating on her mom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be the point where you stop all the lies and all the fibs and you tell us exactly what`s going on.
CINDY ANTHONY: We need to have something to go on.
CASEY ANTHONY: Mom, I don`t have anything. I`m sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know and you know that everything you told me is a lie, correct?
CASEY ANTHONY: Not everything I told you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Information`s been provided by miss Anthony as to the whereabouts of her daughter, I would point out that the truth and Miss Anthony are strangers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there anything about this story that you`re telling me is untrue? Or anything you want to change or divert from what you`ve already told me?
CASEY ANTHONY: No, sir.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Breaking news, Casey Anthony of course, we all know has been holed up for months after being found not guilty of killing her daughter Caylee. Well, now she is talking to CNN`s Piers Morgan, breaking her silence.
The latest Casey rumor was that she had gained a whole ton of weight. Well, Casey went out of her way to tell Piers no way. Listen to this.
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MORGAN: She said to me, "I do not weigh 500 pounds as one magazine has stated. And I`m not moving to Costa Rica."
MASON: I can assure you that she doesn`t weigh 500 pounds. It`s doubtful that she weighs 120 pounds. Costa Rica, I don`t know where that comes from. I know where any of this stuff comes from.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we all know that Casey was a looker last time we saw her. And she engaged in hot body contests, et cetera, et cetera. Now, the story about her gaining weight came from RadarOnline.
Assistant managing editor Jen Hager or RadarOnline, you heard it there, Casey Anthony saying, "No, I did not get heavy. I have not put on a ton of weight." What say you?
HAGER: Well, our eyewitness tell us that she has put on weight. RadarOnline.com never said she weighed 500 pounds.
But, Jane, you know, we have to remember that this is someone that has been convicted of lying to the police. You know, those are very serious charges. I understand they`re misdemeanor charges, but those are very serious offenses to be convicted of, first and foremost.
Secondly, her own attorney said that she doesn`t watch the news. She doesn`t watch television programs. Well, for someone that doesn`t watch the news, she certainly seems to be very in tune with what the media and the public are saying about her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`re saying that you have somebody who`s actually seen her, because she`s in hiding, presumably in Florida, where she`s supposed to remain.
HAGER: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I guess nobody`s seen her except for the video diary she came out with at one point where she was wearing sunglasses or glasses and weird hair. You`re saying somebody that you trust and know has seen her and she`s put on weight?
HAGER: Absolutely. She has put on weight. "People" magazine also reported that she put on a lot of weight and that she was also very depressed.
I think it`s very interesting that Casey Anthony went out of her way, like you said, at least two or three times during her telephone interview with Piers to tell him she was not fat. She was working out.
And then her attorney, Cheney Mason, made two or three mentions of this.
When is this young woman going to accept responsibility for her actions? That`s all I ask. When is she -- I did not hear any remorse from her whatsoever in that telephone interview last night. We didn`t get to hear it --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: In fact, yes, she had a lot of self-pity. She was going through hell. She`s in a prison of her own making. It`s her own making, though.
Karen, Tennessee, your question or thought. Karen, Tennessee.
KAREN, TENNESSEE (via telephone): Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi. What`s your question?
KAREN: Hello, Jane. Thank you for taking my call.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sure.
KAREN: My sister Linda and I have followed this since the very beginning. And I certainly hope the public does not want to give her any pity. She does not deserve any pity from anybody. If she doesn`t -- if she says she didn`t kill her, then she knows who did because she`s the only one that had that baby. She was the only one that was near that baby all that time.
So if she does write a book, Gonzalez should be the one to get the money, not her. She ruined another family with all her lies. And that`s all the public knows is all she can do is lie.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Karen, you expressed the feelings of many people all across the country. Thank you for that call.
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