Can murder case against Casey Anthony be reopened?
Detectives overlooked searches for suffocation methods
Jose Baez, the Florida attorney who represented Casey Anthony in her 2011 murder trial, threatened to take legal action Wednesday over a private investigator's claims that the lawyer had sex with his client and said she killed her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
"I unequivocally and categorically deny exchanging sex for my legal services with Ms. Anthony... I have always conducted my practice consistent with the high ethical standards required of members of the Florida Bar," Baez told People Magazine. He went on to say, "Legal action is forthcoming."
In court documents that went public last month, investigator Dominic Casey claimed Baez told him in 2008 that the mom killed her daughter and hid the girl's body. The investigator also said Casey Anthony effectively paid Baez with sex because she didn't have enough money.
"Baez had told me that Casey had murdered Caylee and dumped the body somewhere and, he needed all the help he could get to find the body before anyone else did," Dominic Casey claimed. He said Baez hired him shortly after police arrested Casey Anthony in July 2008, but he left the team before the end of the year.
A meter reader found the girl's body in December 2008. After a trial that dominated media headlines for a month and a half in 2011, the jury took less than 11 hours to find Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse. She was convicted of lying to investigators.
Prosecutors argued the mom suffocated her daughter with duct tape because she wanted to be free to hit the nightclubs and spend time with her boyfriend. Defense attorneys said Caylee Anthony drowned in a swimming pool.
Dominic Casey's new claims emerged as part of the mom's bankruptcy case. She filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
The investigator also said Casey Anthony proposed framing the meter reader, Roy Kronk, for kidnapping or murdering her daughter.
"This libelous claim is in line with many other outrageous claims and theories that this individual has advanced regarding the Casey Anthony case," Baez said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
