The Roughton Report

Orlando, FL - The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has engineered their latest episode in their ongoing saga. The masterminds at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, knowing full well that the media was planning to cover a scheduled protest at the Anthony home, orchestrated their latest episode by arresting Casey Anthony in full view of the protesters and media cameras in yet another attempt to convict the young woman in the public eye.

The arrest was made last night on charges of uttering a forged check, fraudulent use of personal identification and petit theft of $100 or more. These charges are all economic crimes that detectives have been aware of for months, yet it was not economic crimes division detectives that made the arrest. It was homicide detectives John Allen (right) and Yuri Melich (second from right) that were shown on camera placing Casey into custody.

This all smacks of the typical grandstanding that the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has been known for all along in this case.

Detectives has consistently leaked supposed evidence to the media concerning this case in a thinly veiled attempt to convict Casey Anthony in the court of public opinion. Why? Because NONE of the supposed evidence they have collected even begins to amount to enough to convict her in a court of law of the crime they have imagined she has committed.

The media, in their quest for higher ratings at any cost, has played right into the detectives hands. The only reason that this has received the attention that it has is because the media keeps siding with detectives in their own attempts for recognition. The evidence of this is in every news teaser and advertisement the media airs concerning their coverage.

What ever happened to objectivity in the news? The greatest news anchors of the past are all rolling over in their graves now wondering what has become of their industry. It’s no longer about reporting the truth. It’s about what "Enquiring minds want to know", meaning, what the gossips and folks with nothing better to do with their time need to feed their habits.

Anthony’s attorney, Jose Baez of Kissimmee, went on record at the scene of Casey’s arrest last night accusing detectives of "grandstanding".  In his statement he reported the facts that he had offered to surrender Casey to authorities on the financial crimes charges if it was their intent to make and arrest by both FAX and telephone call to detective Allen at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Baez went on record stating (that he told detective Allen), "If you plan on arresting my client, you let me know and I will surrender her. We’ll do this like professionals. He assured me that they had no intention of doing it. Why? Because he didn’t have his stage or his cameras. Okay? This is the type of display that these law enforcement officers are doing. They decide what they want to leak, when they want to leak it so that they can have public perception." He also stated that he will not try his case in the court of public opinion as detectives are doing. He will present his case in a court of law and not allow detectives to force him to reveal his case in an inappropriate forum.

Recently leaked information include reports that the DNA evidence that was processed from Anthony’s car indicated that Kaylee was killed in the car. Experts that I have spoken to have stated that "DNA is DNA. It can’t tell you if the donor is dead or alive, much less where they were killed. That evidence was falsified." Apparently, this was just another attempt to influence public opinion by generating outrage against Casey Anthony.

Good for you, Mr. Baez. Stick by your guns and do the right thing. Maybe when this is all over, there will be a real investigation into the deliberate misuse of authority by Orange County Sheriff’s Detectives as well as their attempts to manipulate the system and circumvent your client’s constitutional rights.