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Anthony trial rife with area connections

By Kimberly Moore Wilmoth Staff writer Published: Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 10:46 p.m.

Casey Anthony walked out of the Orange County Jail today after being acquitted of murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. People on both sides of her case have strong ties to the Gainesville community psychologists, anthropologists and attorneys. In the past two months, several of them became household names across America for their involvement in the trial.

Erica Brough/Staff photographer Gainesville forensic psychologist Harry Krop visited Casey Anthony in jail about half a dozen times and interviewed her at length.

At least half a dozen people who are either from Gainesville or work at or attended the University of Florida worked on the case. Harry Krop, psychologist Beginning in November 2010, Gainesville forensic psychologist Harry Krop visited Casey Anthony in jail about half a dozen times and interviewed her at length as he prepared to testify should a sentencing hearing be necessary. Krop was hired by and paid by the defense at about one-third his usual fee. Following her acquittal, Anthony, 25, signed a release form allowing Krop to talk to the media about all but one issue: the allegations that she was sexually abused by her father, George Anthony, and her brother, Lee Anthony. Casey chose not to testify, Krop said. Whether she will talk in the future about

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issues brought up in opening statements, I don't know. It depends on whether she and her family want to try and reconcile their differences. Krop said he tested Casey's IQ, which resulted in a score of 107 average intelligence. She's smarter than 70 percent of the population, he said. Despite three years of television pundits calling Anthony a psychopath, a sociopath and a pathological liar, among other things, Krop said none of those things are true. In my opinion, she did not meet any criteria for any formal psychiatric diagnosis. There was no evidence of any type of personality disorders. From the testing, she showed post-traumatic stress disorder features. In practice for more than 30 years, Krop has dealt with 2,000 death penalty cases, including Gainesville student murderer Danny Rolling and prostitute-turned-serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Krop said post-traumatic stress disorder is consistent with people who have been abused as children and that Anthony was displaying those symptoms, according to interviews with her friends, before Caylee's death in 2008 and before he interviewed her 2 years into her incarceration. He said the features of PTSD that Anthony displayed during his interviews with her include: flashbacks, avoidance, lack of trust It took awhile for her to trust her attorney, as well as me distancing herself emotionally and lying. Anthony was convicted on four misdemeanor counts of lying to police. Among those lies: telling police she worked at Universal Studios when she hadn't worked there for several years; making up a nanny; telling police and family that Caylee was with the fictitious woman; and lying about Caylee still being alive when, according to her attorney's opening statements, she knew the child had been dead for a month. But Anthony apparently also lied to Krop when she told him she had graduated in 2004 from Colonial High School in Orlando. Multiple media outlets have reported that Anthony attended but did not graduate from Colonial High. An Orange County Public Schools spokesperson said the district cannot discuss students' records and that Colonial High's principal did not know if Anthony had graduated. Krop said Anthony's lying began when she was about 16 years old. Casey did not want to disappoint her family or feel rejected by her family, and so

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her first alternative was often to lie to family, Krop said. The way Casey deals with things she was raised in a family where I think there were some pretty inadequate ways of coping with conflict and stress (with) denial and secrecy. It's apparent that this is a pretty dysfunctional family, Krop said, noting that he did not interview the family but depended on transcripts of state psychologists who did. That is not to say that they didn't all love Caylee, Krop added. Caylee was important to all of them. In addition to possible post-traumatic stress, Krop said Anthony's behavior was also consistent with someone who has an underdeveloped frontal lobe. One of the things the evaluation showed was Casey's immaturity, he said. The frontal lobe of the brain develops last that's why teenagers take all these risks. Krop said Anthony could not explain to him why she did not call 911 if Caylee had drowned in the family pool, as her attorney, Jose Baez, said in his opening statements. One of the ways Casey has always dealt with [things] is letting someone else take care of it, he said. She always let her parents take care of things. She expected someone else to call 911. Krop, 68, said Anthony's friends noticed a change in her personality beginning in 2007. At about the same time, Anthony began suffering from seizures. Krop said Anthony has had six documented seizures during her jail stay. She was taken to the hospital for one of those seizures, he said. Orange County Jail spokesman Allen Moore said any medical record of any inmate would be confidential under state and federal law. I have no anecdotal knowledge of it, though, Moore added. It may or may not be true, but we have no way of corroborating that. I can't produce a record for you if it does exist. Krop said Anthony is not on any kind of medication for the seizures, to his knowledge, but said the original medical diagnosis, before Caylee's death, was that they were caused by stress or lack of sleep. They could not find any neurological cause, Krop added. Krop said he found Casey Anthony to be smart, funny, warm, initially distrustful she hides emotions by trying to be funny, always cooperative with me.

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As for the partying and the photographs of her in a hot body contest, Krop said Anthony told him it's hard for her to believe she's the same person now that she was in June 2008. She admitted she was guilty of bad behavior, Krop said. I'm embarrassed when I look at my behavior now,' Krop quoted Anthony as saying. I can understand why others think the way they do.' Krop said he was surprised by the jury's decision not to find Anthony responsible in any way for her daughter's death. I thought the jury would come back with some kind of compromise, he said. But, he said, many people family and friends included testified that Anthony was a loving mother. To go from an intelligent woman who has no history of violence and who was shown to be a loving mother, Krop said, to go from that to somebody who would intentionally kill their child to party more, especially when she had built-in baby sitters, I think that was a theory the jury had a hard time buying. Cheney Mason, defense attorney J. Cheney Mason said he joined Anthony's defense team after Baez, her lead attorney, called him on several occasions to seek advice. Ultimately, it got to the point where I thought, Why don't I help him,' Mason said. I knew it was going to be pro bono and I was going to be spending a hell of a lot of time with it. Mason said he has spent $20,000 out of pocket on the case. The deal was, I was going to save Casey's life, he said. Mason graduated from the University of Florida in 1967 and UF's law school in 1970. He worked full time throughout college, first as manager of Correy Village, a UF married housing complex, and then at University Gardens Trace on Southwest 16th Avenue. That's what you do when you don't have any money, said Mason, a well-respected and long-time defense attorney in Orlando. He said law professors had to intervene on his behalf because law students were prohibited from working more than 20 hours a week. I had a wife and two children, he said.

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Mason said his fight was for the Constitution. In his opinion, he said, many people are falsely accused or falsely charged or overaccused and overcharged. When asked if he thought Anthony had been overcharged, as opposed to falsely charged, Mason said: It was clearly, in my opinion, it never should've been a death penalty case to begin with. I only know I have no hesitancy in saying Casey Anthony did not kill her daughter. Period. When asked why Anthony didn't call 911 if her child had drowned, Mason said Anthony was in shock and was not accepting the reality that her child was dead, coupled with everything done in that family. He also said two people on the defense team, during the duration of the trial, dealt with the death of a loved one. They both showed up to work after burying relatives. People do grieve dramatically differently, he said, quoting an expert witness who testified on Anthony's behalf. Mason said the defense team did celebrate its victory with champagne, for which the attorneys have been criticized. But Mason said he doesn't care what others think. We [were] celebrating saving Casey's life, and I always will, Mason said. Dr. Bruce Goldberger, University of Florida forensic anthropologist Dr. Bruce Goldberger, director of toxicology in UF's department of pathology, is passionate about his work. As a toxicologist and forensic anthropologist, Goldberger joined with other toxicologists last year to successfully push for the removal of caffeinated alcoholic beverages from store shelves because he labeled them a danger to society. I get emotional about the issues, like drug misuse, that lead to injury or death, Goldberger said. It's all preventable. We lose too many people to alcohol and drug misuse and abuse. Goldberger was subpoenaed by both the defense and the prosecution in the Anthony case after he searched for drugs or any volatiles in Caylee Anthony's hair, bone and bone marrow samples. In addition, Goldberger performed and analyzed a much-discussed cranial wash of the toddler's skull. He found no drugs specifically no chloroform, which the prosecution had argued was used to drug Caylee before Anthony wrapped duct tape around her face to smother her.

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I'm not officially a state toxicologist, Goldberger said. But I'm the university toxicologist. Goldberger has been at UF since 1994. He said he is fortunate because, while most of his toxicology and anthropology peers are locked away in laboratories, he teaches and interacts with students and also does research. It's a wonderful place to work, Goldberger said. It's given me such wonderful opportunities. Goldberger, who is the father of two children, said he cannot become emotional when he is working on a case, even when holding the skull of a dead toddler. You end up having to disconnect your emotions, Goldberger said. Emotions cannot get in the way of your work. Goldberger said he treats every case he handles as though it's a high-profile case, so we can give it the utmost attention; so in the end the state attorney or district attorney can rely on us. He declined to say what his reaction to the Anthony verdict was. Dorothy Clay Sims, defense attorney One of the familiar images from Anthony's trial was that of defense attorney Dorothy Clay Sims working closely with Casey in the courtroom. Sims, a UF law school grad who has law offices in Gainesville and Ocala, stood mainly in the background, as when she consoled or spoke softly to Anthony at trial, usually inches from her side. Since the trial, Sims has come forward to grant interviews and has offered her thoughts on everything from the jury's work to her feelings toward her client. I liked Casey Anthony. I came to trust her, Sims told HLN's Joy Behar, though blogs have pounced on her hesitation when asked whether she would entrust Anthony to baby sit her grandchildren. Sims also told The National Law Journal she felt the jury was amazing and spoke of her outrage over the backlash it has received in the wake of its controversial July 5 verdict. They were brave, Sims said of jurors. They were bright. They were taking notes, because this was extremely technical. Presenting this information to them in a form

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that makes sense and is logical was what was done in this case. Sims told the National Law Journal she believes the state went too far in their forensics and believes the defense breaking things down more simply was the key. Sims referred to the prosecution's focus on the existence of chloroform in Anthony's trunk as an inconvenient fact that can be considered incomplete and inconsistent science. I think going too far, using science that has never been proven and not relying on a research lab, all played a part in the jury's response, she stated. Suevon Lee contributed to this account. Contact Kimberly Moore Wilmoth at 374-5036 or kimberly.moore@nytrng.com. Copyright 2011 Gainesville.com All rights reserved. Restricted use only.

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