When reached last week to respond to the criticism and the management of the case in light of Perry's sanction,
Baez said, "I don't have to answer any questions. Who are you?"He added,
"Do you have something to offer my client? It's a two-way street. … The door is open if you can assist me or my client." He hung up the phone, called back minutes later and said that conversation was off the record. Told that the conversation was not, Baez responded by saying,
"You're lying and being unethical."He threatened to stop discussing the case altogether, an approach he has at various times taken with other Central Florida reporters.
The first hispanic lawyer to try a high profile case either lost his soother or did not spend enough time in the time out corner. I will assist you Bobo - they say
opposites attact. I sincerely hope you meet somebody who is intelligent, honest, cultured and attractive.
O now you did it NorthernRose, you've got this Paula singing & dancing to Paula's song
To my knowledge he was married with one foot out the door & I recall it being reported he was in so much debt he might lose his house...haven't heard anything lately but if I were her I'd run. PS years ago he was also in arrears with child support from his first marriage, in fact the board refused to let him practice law for
8 years after he graduated from his "Sears & Roebuch" law school & the Florida Supreme Court agreed.
I recalled above but to be more accurate the OS did a two part article, the link no longer brings you to the articles directly but I saved the content
(and please excuse the length) here it is serving as a refresher & repost for our most recent members that may have not seen this information:
Jose Baez, Casey Anthony's defense attorney, leaves after conducting a news conference in December in front of his Kissimmee office. (RED HUBER, ORLANDO SENTINEL / May 2, 2009)
Casey Anthony Case: Special report on Jose Baez: First of 2 partsCasey Anthony's lawyer, Jose Baez, rejected by Florida Bar on first try
TOMORROW: Becoming Casey Anthony's lawyer has brought Jose Baez celebrity — and controversy.
Jose Baez, Casey Anthony's defense attorney, leaves after conducting a news conference in December in front of his Kissimmee office. (RED HUBER, ORLANDO SENTINEL / May 2, 2009)
His defense of a young mother charged with killing her toddler has transformed José Ángel Baez into one of the best-known lawyers in America.
For eight years after he graduated from law school, however, the board that screens prospective attorneys in Florida would not let him practice law. The Florida Supreme Court agreed with the decision, issuing an order in 2000 that cataloged unpaid bills, extravagant spending and other "financial irresponsibility" up to that time. Justices reserved their strongest condemnation for his failure to stay current on support payments for his only child.
His overall behavior, they wrote, showed
"a total lack of respect for the rights of others and a total lack of respect for the legal system, which is absolutely inconsistent with the character and fitness qualities required of those seeking to be afforded the highest position of trust and confidence recognized by our system of law."He worked instead as a paralegal for the Miami-Dade public defender and then taught Internet research to lawyers and started four business ventures, including two bikini companies. Before Florida Bar officials admitted him in 2005, he had to demonstrate that he had rehabilitated himself.
Today, as lead defense attorney for Casey Anthony — the Orange County woman charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter— 40-year-old Baez has become the sort of instant celebrity monitored by TV, newspapers, tabloids and the Internet.
He is a Bar member in good standing,
his office spokeswoman reminded the Orlando Sentinel in a prepared statement. She also questioned the motives behind the newspaper story.
"Based on your questions and actions," she wrote, "this profile you are writing has nothing to do with Jose Baez's representation of Casey Anthony and appears to be a sensationalist persecution of a Hispanic lawyer who has been targeted by a newspaper lucky to find itself at the center of a national story."
The Supreme Court order, which the Sentinel found in public records, shows that nearly a decade ago, he could not satisfy the character and fitness standards Florida requires of prospective lawyers.
It identifies Baez by his initials, J.A.B. — standard procedure in cases in which prospective lawyers challenge their denial of a law license at the state's highest court. Using other public records and interviews, the Sentinel matched many details in the document to Baez, however.
For instance, the lawyer listed as representing J.A.B. was Manuel Alvarez, an attorney with the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office, where Baez worked at the time.
The office confirmed that Alvarez helped Baez with his Bar application. Supreme Court records show J.A.B.'s is the only case involving the Bar that Alvarez has handled in the state's highest court.
Alvarez would not comment, but Executive Assistant Public Defender Rory S. Stein said that Alvarez wrote a legal brief on behalf of Baez in 1998, the year after he graduated from law school. Stein called it "a friendly gesture" to a staff member who needed help with his lawyer application.
In an interview last year, Baez described his eight years out of law as a personal choice, saying he could earn more money in other fields. He would not be interviewed for this story but commented on the court order in the statement issued through Marti Mackenzie, his office spokeswoman:
"The ruling you claim that was made about a lawyer with the initials J.A.B. has nothing to do with Mr. Baez's current status as a member in good standing with The Florida Bar. Many people, including lawyers, have monetary misunderstandings, disputes and child support disagreements that have no effect on their ability to represent clients."From Navy to law school
Born in Puerto Rico in 1969, Baez told reporters he grew up in the Bronx and South Florida with his mother, a single parent. He dropped out of Homestead High School in ninth grade.
He married at 17, became a father, earned a GED diploma and joined the Navy in 1986.According to his résumé, Baez spent three years assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Norfolk, Va., trained as an intelligence analyst with what he described as a "Cosmic Top Secret" security clearance.
He left active duty in May 1989 as a yeoman seaman, a rank associated with administrative duties, and then served in the U.S. Navy Reserve, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.
In the next six years, Baez divorced, attended Miami-Dade Community College and graduated from Florida State University. A black belt in tae kwon do, Baez competed with the karate, pistol and crime-scene team from FSU's chapter of Lambda Alpha Epsilon, a fraternity of criminology majors.
"We probably ranked first overall in every category in every national competition," said Ken Koehler, the fraternity's former sergeant-at-arms. "José was more or less the primary instructor. ... We did academic testing as well, and he did pretty good with that, too."
After graduating in 1997 from St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, Baez applied to become a lawyer. In April 1998, he was called before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, which screens prospective lawyers. The later Supreme Court order outlined how this review uncovered the debts and other problems that concerned the Bar examiners.That order is the only public record of the review, which is designed to protect the public and safeguard the judicial system. The Bar examiners have responsibility for ensuring that all lawyer applicants meet Florida's requirements for character and fitness, education and technical competence, according to Supreme Court rules.
The process is not open to the public, except when a candidate who is turned down asks the Supreme Court to review the decision. The court identifies the rejected applicant only by his or her initials when its findings are released.
Court critical of financesAccording to the Supreme Court summary of the case, the Board of Bar Examiners filed formal allegations against J.A.B. in September 1998. In addition to unpaid child support, a personal bankruptcy and default on a student loan, the investigators said he left out parts of his history, including that he wrote a bad check and entered a pretrial program to avoid conviction.
Investigators also found fault with J.A.B.'s participation in a foreign-studies program in summer 1995 and his leasing of a Mazda Miata in Miami — unnecessary expenses when he owed money to others, they said.
After a formal hearing, the board found the allegations proven and recommended that he not be admitted to the Bar.
"Additionally, the Board found that J.A.B.'s misrepresentations and lack of candor in his answers to the specifications and during his formal hearing testimony were further grounds for disqualification," the Supreme Court wrote.
Many details in the order can be confirmed in public records for José Baez:
•Miami-Dade Circuit Court records show that Baez failed repeatedly to pay his $200-a-month child support after his 1993 divorce. The sum owed reached $12,000 by 2004. Asked recently about this, Baez said through his spokeswoman that he and his ex-wife have resolved their child-support issues. Like J.A.B., Baez's only child is a daughter.
•Baez declared bankruptcy in September 1990, the same month and year cited for J.A.B. The records on Baez are filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he lived during and after his service in the Navy.
•The Virginia Education Loan Authority filed liens against Baez for $4,336 in unpaid loans in 1995, the same year the Supreme Court says J.A.B defaulted on his student loan.
•Baez leased a Mazda Miata in 1998, just as J.A.B did. The Sentinel obtained a copy of his Progressive Express insurance card for the vehicle, which Baez had submitted to the Public Defender's Office in Miami. Files from the State Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles show the car was leased.
In April 1998 — the same month that the Bar examiners held their investigative hearing into J.A.B.'s qualifications as a lawyer — the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office reassigned José Ángel Baez to tasks that did not require a law degree.
Baez spent the next 16 months interviewing witnesses and investigating cases to compensate the office for its investment in his preparation to be a lawyer, records show. He resigned in September 1999.
The following year, in June 2000, the Supreme Court issued its findings in case No. SC95855, Florida Board of Bar Examiners RE: J.A.B.: "Accordingly, we approve the Board's recommendation that J.A.B. not be admitted to the Florida Bar at this time."
Baez tries bikini business
Turned down by the Bar, Baez started a series of businesses.
They included Bon Bon Bikinis and Brazilian-Bikinis.Com to sell bathing suits, corporate records show. He also applied for a real-estate license and created two companies selling computer know-how: LawStudentWebsites.Com and LawyerConcepts.
From 2000 to 2005, according to his spokeswoman, Baez worked for LexisNexis, the information company. In an interview last year, he said he taught lawyers and judges to research cases using the Internet and made twice as much as he could practicing law.
Records show that a court in Miami docked $550 a month from his LexisNexis paycheck in 2004 to pay child support to his first wife.
An applicant denied admission to the Bar can reapply after two years or other such period set by the Bar examiners. The application must include a "written statement describing the scope and character of the applicant's evidence of rehabilitation," according to Supreme Court rules.
The court requires them to produce "clear and convincing evidence of rehabilitation," such as strict compliance with judicial or administrative orders, assurances to "conduct one's self in an exemplary manner" and demonstrations of excellent character, good reputation for professional ability and "positive action" in their occupation, religion or community or civic service.
Baez launched two community-service ventures during his time away from the law.
In 2001, according to state records, Baez created a nonprofit group, the Miami Domestic Violence Project. It dissolved two years later. Mackenzie, Baez's office spokeswoman, said the project disbanded because another group with an almost identical purpose and name already existed.
In 2004, Baez created another nonprofit in Miami, Miracles for Children Foundation Corp., according to state records. It continued until Sept. 16, 2005.
The following week, Sept. 22, Baez was admitted to practice law. Because the admission process for lawyers is not public, there is no way to know what effect these nonprofit groups had on the Bar's action.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,3439656.storyWho is Jose Baez? Defending Casey Anthony brings celebrity, headaches.Henry Pierson Curtis | Sentinel Staff Writer
May 4, 2009
Casey Anthony is not the first murder suspect Jose Baez has defended.
But representing her has brought him more public attention, scrutiny and controversy than any other case since he became a lawyer four years ago.
In the process, he has bristled at suggestions that his trial experience is limited and at questions about how he is paying for the expensive legal team he has assembled.
From his office down the street from the Osceola County Jail, he has worked on several hundred criminal cases conducted in courthouses across Central Florida. This semester he also taught a course in pretrial practice at Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando.
He was a low-profile local attorney, however, until he started working for Anthony, the 23-year-old mother accused of killing her toddler daughter, Caylee. Before that, no one was asking him to appear on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN or to jump aboard Fox TV reporter Geraldo Rivera's 70-foot ketch for an afternoon of sailing.
Along with the celebrity have come insinuations that Baez is over his head in the Anthony case — sometimes from a law professor or someone such as former prosecutor Nancy Grace of Headline News.
Baez, 40, would not be interviewed for this story. His spokesperson issued a statement accusing the Orlando Sentinel of engaging "in a sensationalist persecution of a Hispanic lawyer…"
Earlier, however, he suggested that the newspaper could get a balanced view of his legal abilities by talking to the judge and prosecutor in a Lake County child-murder case he defended last year.
Circuit Judge Mark Nacke would not comment. Judges rarely comment on attorneys because anything they say might suggest they are not impartial toward a lawyer who could appear before them in court again.
Assistant State Attorney Bill Gross said it was the first time in his 30-year career that a defense lawyer had used him as a professional reference. He said Baez had done a competent job and showed promise.
"I've been doing this a lot longer than he, and I could recognize that he does have a lot of God-given talent. He is quite quick-witted, has an excellent ability to communicate," Gross said. "He did a very good job considering his relatively short time as an attorney."
Baez's client was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter and child abuse in the fatal beating of a 2-year-old girl. Baez fielded questions from reporters in English and Spanish because the victim was the granddaughter of Puerto Rican boxer Wilfredo Vázquez, a world champion.
William H. Stone, chief assistant public defender in Lake County, said he, too, was impressed.
"I heard nothing but glowing comments about his abilities and representation of his client," Stone said.
Disputes over bills, support Since he became a lawyer, Baez has been involved in several money disputes. They are mostly small compared with the bankruptcy, bad debts and other financial issues that prompted the Florida Board of Bar Examiners to refuse his application to the Bar after he graduated from law school in 1997. He was not admitted to practice law until 2005.
Darlene Bryant, a court reporter in North Carolina, said she spent six months in 2007 trying to get Baez to honor a $275 bill for work she did for him.
"He finally paid after I got the state Bar Association involved," she said.
Baez also ended up being sued in April 2007 over an $837.62 bill for 1,000 of his plastic business cards, which are decorated with a golden crest. Sir Speedy Printing went to court and won after Baez refused an offer from the Orange County Bar Association to mediate.
And in January 2007, four months before he bought a $670,000 waterfront home in a country-club community on East Lake Tohopekaliga, Baez was held in contempt of court for failing to pay $4,000 in child support, according to Miami-Dade Clerk of Court records.
my note: (the home I believe he was in threat to lose in the past year or so-notice the date this two bit wambulance chaser wannabe high profile attorney assumed) he'd get rich off of Casey's case and/or he's doing something shady thinking he could afford an over half a mil homeHis office spokeswoman, Marti Mackenzie, told the Sentinel that Baez and his former wife have resolved their support issues.
Part 2
Spotlight follows big caseBaez's finances would be of little interest had the case of a lifetime not fallen into his lap in July. When Anthony picked Baez to defend her — based on the recommendation of someone she met in jail, her mother has told reporters — he took on a case that has attracted attention around the world.
Since then, he has appeared on Good Morning America and 20/20 on ABC, The Early Show on CBS, Today on NBC, Larry King Live on CNN, Geraldo at Large on Fox and others.
Last summer, he traveled to New York City, where he and his wife spent part of a day sailing with Fox's Rivera. Photos of the outing show a grinning Baez on deck with Rivera.
Heavy media schedules by defense lawyers raise the eyebrows of some seasoned lawyers. University of Florida law professor Michael Seigel, a former federal prosecutor, said any lawyer who goes public risks being accused of tainting the jury pool.
"It's very dangerous," Seigel said "Unless you are very skilled at it, it can truly backfire. ... Most of the best attorneys around the country tend to be very quiet. They wait to try the case in a courtroom setting."
Setting a tone for the defense
Early on, Baez confounded reporters by taking on a media-relations company that used three anonymous — and often irritable — spokesmen calling themselves "Todd Black." Baez severed ties with Press Corps Media after one of the spokesmen turned out to be a felon who served time for trying to extort money from a TV reporter in California.
Mackenzie, who was hired to replace Press Corps Media, said in March that Baez had not known the felon's background.
Robert M. Jarvis, who teaches classes in legal ethics and law and popular culture at Nova Southeastern University Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, said the incident is just one of many twists in the case.
"I think he's a guy who's clearly in over his head. Handling a capital-murder case is obviously the most challenging thing a lawyer can do," Jarvis said. "So it's very surprising right from the get-go that a lawyer with less than four years of experience is handling this case. ... Right off the bat, you have to say this is a guy who is very cocky or who is really naive."
Baez does his own speaking in court, where he has annoyed state prosecutors with his motions.
He has demanded repeatedly that the state speed up release of evidence it has and make it available for analysis by his experts. He has sought to block release of photos and videos that he said could show his client in a bad light. He has sought sanctions for prosecutors he accused of moving too slowly on his requests. He complained to the judge when the State Attorney's Office sparked a Florida Bar investigation by sending it news releases from his former spokesman.
He often does not prevail. For example, when the state wanted to force Anthony to appear in court, Baez balked, saying she didn't want to appear in public. The judge ruled against him, requiring she attend every hearing.
What Baez makes clear in all his court appearances is that he intends to vigorously challenge the state's interpretation of what the evidence against his client shows.
Who is paying, state asks?
A continuing controversy stems from the question of how Anthony, who had no assets when arrested in July, is paying for her defense, including the hiring of nationally recognized expert witnesses. One of them, pathologist Dr. Henry Lee, testified for O.J. Simpson at his murder trial.
In March, prosecutors asked Circuit Judge Stan Strickland to investigate whether Baez was playing two potentially conflicting roles for Anthony: defense lawyer and story agent.
Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton speculated in a motion that Anthony's "seeming conversion from pauper to princess" could be based on sale of her photos and videos, which had appeared in national TV reports about the case. He further speculated whether Baez could be managing both her assets and her defense.
TV networks admit that they often pay "licensing fees" for videos and photos, but they will not say whether — and whom — they paid to use photos and video of Anthony and her family.
Strickland refused to step in after Baez denied having any arrangement with Anthony to sell her story. Baez accused prosecutors of trying to intimidate and embarrass him.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,6717896.story