Dr. Phil to interview Casey Anthony's parents: 1st on-air chat with George and Cindy to air Sept. 12

 

Phelan M. Ebenhack  /  AP file

George and Cindy Anthony have stayed away from the public spotlight since their daughter Casey's acquittal on murder charges on July 7.

LOS ANGELES — The parents of Casey Anthony, who was acquitted in July of charges that she killed her young daughter, will sit with Dr. Phil for their first interview since the trial, the program announced on Tuesday.

Anthony's trial in the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee became a media sensation when it aired on television, and since it ended, the 25-year-old mother and her parents George and Cindy have stayed away from the public spotlight.

"I looked them straight in the eye and asked them some very tough questions," Dr. Phil McGraw said in a statement. The interview will air on September 12, when the program returns for a 10th season.

"Despite living under a 'media microscope' for years, their story has never really been told and there's so much more to it than we've heard in the media," McGraw said, adding that "nothing is off limits during this interview."

The case of Casey and Caylee Anthony took many twists and turns after the two-year-old's skeletal remains were found in a plastic bag near the Anthony's Florida home in December, 2008.

Casey Anthony never reported her daughter missing and, in fact, it was Cindy Anthony who first told police. Casey Anthony initially gave false statements about her and her daughter's whereabouts, and she eventually was charged for the murder.

The trial began in May 2011, and included the prosecution's contention that Casey Anthony wanted only to party and avoid parenting, so she researched the use of chloroform and used the chemical to put her daughter to sleep then suffocate her.

The defense claimed that Caylee had drowned in the family's pool and was found by George Anthony, who then covered up the death. The defense also claimed that George Anthony had sexually abused Casey since the time she was a young girl.

On the witness stand, George Anthony denied he had ever abused Casey, and Cindy Anthony claimed it was she, not Casey, who researched the use of chloroform.

Eventually, a jury found Casey not guilty of murder, but agreed with prosecutors that she had lied to police. Anthony is currently out of jail and in seclusion at an unknown location.

"We appreciate the way in which Dr. Phil has helped others, and we trust him enough to completely open our hearts in telling our story," George Anthony said in a statement.

TODAY Television 
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

Warren Jeffs, polygamist sect leader, gets life in jail

 

Religious head Warren Jeffs received maximum sentences on both counts

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has been sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two underage followers he took as brides.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader was handed the maximum sentence possible.

Last Thursday, the 55-year-old was found guilty of forcing two girls into "spiritual marriages" and fathering a child with one of them.

The charges followed a raid on a remote west Texas ranch in 2008.
Jeffs stood quietly in a Texas court on Tuesday as the jury's decision, which only took 30 minutes, was read.
 
Pregnant underage girls
He would be eligible for parole in 35 years, said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Jeffs had referred to himself as a prophet, and the Mormon breakaway sect he leads believes polygamy is the path to heaven.

During the trial, prosecutors presented DNA evidence to show Jeffs had fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl, and an audio recording of him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old.

The jury heard other tapes in which Jeffs was heard instructing his young wives on how to satisfy him sexually, which he said would please God.

Jeffs, who insisted on acting as his own legal defence during the earlier part of the trial, argued he had been prosecuted because of his religious beliefs.

The sect leader refused to speak during the sentencing portion of the trial, with a defence lawyer telling the judge his client had instructed his legal team not to speak for him.

Jeffs, who had stood expressionless and silent before the jury for nearly half hour during his closing arguments, called only one defence witness to the stand - a man who read from Mormon scripture.

Prosecutors said the religious head had spent years travelling around North America and avoiding arrest, ultimately landing on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.

An FBI agent said during the trial that fathers who handed over their daughters to Jeffs were rewarded with young brides of their own.

"If the world knew what I was doing, they would hang me from the highest tree," Jeffs wrote in notes, seized from his Texas ranch.

When police raided the Texas ranch they found women dressed in frontier-style dresses and underage girls who were clearly pregnant.

The 10,000-strong sect, which dominates the towns of Colorado City in Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, split from the mainstream Mormon church more than a century ago.
BBC News 

Lindsay Lohan returning to Court for case checkup

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the first time in more than a year, Lindsay Lohan is returning to a Los Angeles courtroom without the expectation of major drama.

The 25-year-old actress is scheduled to appear at a routine case review conference with a judge who is overseeing her probation for drunken driving and misdemeanor theft cases.

Court officials say nothing has been filed indicating Lohan has violated her probation. She has appeared in court numerous times since last July, when she was jailed and ordered into rehab for failing to attend alcohol education classes. Since then, she has been jailed again, arrested for taking a necklace without permission, sent to another rehab and served 35 days on house arrest.

If the "Mean Girls" star stays out of trouble, her probation may end this year.
YAHOO News 

Casey Anthony sentencing: Casey won't leave jail today

She could leave jail at the end of July or August,

depending on how credit for time served is calculated.

Casey Anthony in court with her attorney Dorothy Clay Sims on Thursday morning. (Joe Burbank, Orlando Sentinel) (Joe Burbank, Orlando Sentinel)

 

by Amy Pavuk and Anthony Colarossi, Orlando Sentinel

9:27 a.m. EDT, July 7, 2011

Chief Judge Belvin Perry sentenced Casey Anthony this morning for lying to police, giving her four years in jail and credit for the time she's already served since 2008.

How much credit she gets will be calculated later. But it's clear she's not getting out of jail today.

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Sentence also include $1,000 fine for each of the four counts of lying to police.

Anthony showed no reaction during the sentencing.

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Earlier, she arrived in Perry's courtroom appearing relaxed and happy.

Anthony, who normally wears her long hair in a bun on top of her head, is wearing her hair down today. She huddled with her attorneys, Cheney Mason and Dorothy Clay Sims, while smiling and stroking her hair before the hearing began.

Lisbeth Fryer, one of Anthony's attorneys, argued that Anthony's four convictions for lying to police should be consolidated into one count.

That's because all the lies were told in one conversation, Fryer said.

Fryer is noting that the concept of "double jeopardy" should be applied to merge the convictions into one charge because the false statements Anthony gave law enforcement stem from a single incident on July 16, 2008.

She is also citing case law to support her argument.

Assistant State Attorney Linda Drane Burdick disagreed, saying "It is our position that there is a temporal break between the lies,

Burdick says Casey's lies were intended to lead law enforcement "on a wild goose chase."

She says she did have time to pause and reflect about these mistruths and they did not occur in one single instance.

Earlier, Burdick let Perry know about the state's interest in collecting investigative costs from Anthony related to the search for Caylee Marie in 2008.

This morning, at least two deputies were seen at the Orange County Courthouse carrying gas masks in anticipation of a strong reaction following this morning's sentencing.

Other officers are patrolling on horses.

Public outrage has been building since Anthony was acquitted Tuesday of first-degree murder and other serious charges in connection with her daughter's death in 2008.

Calls to the Orange County Sheriff's Office about its preparations have not been immediately returned.

About 50 people have gathered peacefully outside the courthouse this morning for today's milestone moment.
Orlando Sentinel

Judge rejects Willie Nelson plea deal in pot case: Magistrate says singer shouldn't get what she thinks is special treatment

  (Getty Images)

Musician Willie Nelson is seen in a booking photo Nov. 26, 2010, in Sierra Blanca, Texas. Nelson was arrested for possession of marijuana and released on $2,500 bond.

EL PASO, Texas — A judge has rejected a plea deal that would have resolved Willie Nelson's marijuana possession case in West Texas with a fine, saying the country singer shouldn't get what she considers special treatment.

Nelson was arrested in November after a Border Patrol agent said 6 ounces of marijuana were found on Nelson's tour bus.

Judge Becky Dean-Walker told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she rejected prosecutor Kit Bramblett's suggestion that Nelson resolve the case by pleading guilty and paying a $500 fine for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Dean-Walker claims the prosecutor "doesn't do that for anybody else."

The judge says Nelson should be charged with the misdemeanor marijuana possession, which carries up to a year in jail.

Bramblett didn't return a call Wednesday. Nelson's publicist declined comment.
TODAY News

'Libya: ICC issues arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi' - 27 June 2011

 

Muammar Gaddafi is accused of personally ordering attacks on civilians

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

The court had accused him of crimes against humanity and of ordering attacks on civilians after an uprising against him began in mid-February.

The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi's top aides - his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the conflict.

The arrest warrants refer to early weeks of the uprising, from 15 February until "at least 28 February".
The statement, read out by presiding judge Sanji Monageng, said there were "reasonable grounds to believe" that the three men were "criminally responsible" for the murder and persecution of civilians.

As the "recognised and undisputed leader of Libya", said the court, Col Gaddafi had "absolute, ultimate and unquestioned control" over the state.

He introduced a state policy "aimed at deterring and quelling by any means, including by the use of force, the demonstrations of civilians against the regime", the court alleged.

The warrant says that while Saif al-Islam Gaddafi holds no official position in Libya, he is "the most influential person" in Col Gaddafi's inner circle.

Mr Sanussi, said the court, had "indirectly instructed the troops to attack civilians demonstrating" in Benghazi, the city that has become the rebels' stronghold.

The BBC's Andrew Harding in Misrata said there was celebratory gunfire on the streets of the besieged city as the news emerged.
 
'No legitimacy':
The warrants had been requested by chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in May. He has said Col Gaddafi must be arrested in order to protect civilians.
But the Libyan authorities have previously said they do not recognise the court and are not concerned by the threat of a warrant.

On Sunday, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the court was overly preoccupied with pursuing African leaders and had "no legitimacy whatsoever".

But the arrest warrant was welcomed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who said it further demonstrated "why Gaddafi has lost all legitimacy and why he should go immediately".

Mr Hague called on people within the Libyan regime to abandon the leader and said those responsible for "atrocities" must be held to account.

The ICC announcement comes as the international air operation in Libya, aimed at protecting civilians, enters its 100th day.

The rebels say they have launched a new push towards Tripoli and there has been heavy fighting near strategic town of Bir al-Ghanam, to the south-west of capital.

The rebel defence minister told the BBC that forces opposed to the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi may also make a move on the capital from the east.
BBC News 

Lohan's lawyer: 'She didn't get a special deal' - 'People think celebrities get it easier and a break, but the converse is true,' says Holley

  Frederick M. Brown  /  Getty Images

Lindsay Lohan leaves the Airport Branch Courthouse after a probation hearing on June 23, in Los Angeles.

By Gina Serpe

If those walls could talk.

We speak, of course, of the walls enclosing the office of Shawn Holley, the go-to defender of Young Hollywood's most notorious troublemakers, who's fast become a boldfaced name of her own. And who, most recently, has proven to the world that she just can't quit Lindsay Lohan.

Not that she hasn't tried a couple times.

In any case, the woman whose brain the celeb-watching world would most like to pick (and whose continued ability to keep a client out of jail the celeb-defending world would most like to steal) sat down exclusively with E! News Special Correspondent Allison Hope Weiner and told all—and we mean all—on her star clients.  Including who among them got most royally screwed by the legal system.

"People think celebrities get it easier and a break, but the converse is true," Holley, who at one point or another has kept Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian under her legal wing. "With someone in the spotlight, there is a lot of attention on the sheriffs and prosecutors, and they don't want people to know deals are being made."

Which is exactly what she was battling against to secure Lindsay's recent house arrest sentence, given in lieu of jail time. Holley denied claims that it was any sort of backdoor deal or that any special treatment was given.

"Anyone with her background would have gotten house arrest, she didn't get a special deal. I worried perception would harm her...But everyone--the judge, the courts--were professional, so it was fair. It was difficult in my mind. I believed public pressure would make the powers that be behave differently but she got what everyone would have."

What everyone wouldn't get is a skintight white minidress to don in court or show up in front of a notoriously no-nonsense judge with " F--k U" written on their nails.

Not that Holley seems all that upset by her client's manicure habits.

"No one was aware of it. The judge wasn't aware of it, the D.A. wasn't aware of it, I wasn't aware of it, I sat next to her all day, you could barely see it. Only a zooming in telephoto lens could see it and then broadcast it. No one in the court system saw it or knew about it at all."

The power lawyer was equally unfazed by LiLo's curious choice of courtroom attire.
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We have talked in the past about wardrobe. I didn't see the white dress before she wore it," Holley explained. "I have mixed feelings about that...was it the most appropriate dress for court? Probably not, but the reality is she's a young beautiful starlet.

"That's probably conservative by her standards," she laughed. " It sold out. I'm sorry, I won't tell her to dress in an argyle sweater all buttoned up. That's transparent and phony, too."

We take it that today's black slacks and a button-down oxford shirt pass her phony test.

Still, while Holley isn't there to play the role of parent, she does consider herself something of a protector and says she offers up advice when needed.

"People want to live their life," Holley said. "I have to give my best advice, but they make the decisions...but I try to be as mature as I can and not say I told you so."  Which must be trying at the best of times.


"I hearken back to the last time in court with [Lindsay], she was remanded into custody and there were huge news trucks with satellites and people yelling at her, and there was this sense of foreboding, people wanting something bad to happen," Holley recalled. "I feel it's an honor to be there as her protector."

But for all her problems, Holley doesn't believe it was Lindsay who got the rawest deal. That (dis)honor goes to none other than Paris Hilton.

"Paris was without a doubt treated harsher," she said. "I don't know if it was public pressure...It was outrageous. What I'm saying is a fact, honestly. No one gets that. No one gets treated like that."

Guess getting the celebrity treatment isn't always a good thing.
TODAY News

Lindsay Lohan Ordered Back to Court for Emergency Hearing

KTLA News

June 23, 2011

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Actress Lindsay Lohan has been ordered back to court Thursday for an emergency hearing to determine if she violated her probation in a 2007 DUI case.

There are unconfirmed reports that Lohan may have tested positive for alcohol while under house arrest in her jewelry theft case.

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District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons says Lohan's case is expected to be called at 10 a.m.

The actress will have to make an appearance, Gibbons said.

The 24-year-old actress was sentenced to 120 days in jail and 480 hours of community service back in May.

She was allowed to serve 35 days in home confinement due to overcrowding at the L.A. County Jail, sheriff's officials said.

Lohan issued a statement after the sentencing hearing, saying in part, "I am glad to be able to put this past me and move on with my life and my career."

"I support the judge's decision and hold myself accountable for being in this situation."

According to Judge Stephanie Sautner, Lohan violated the terms of her probation when she left a Venice jewelry store in January wearing a gold necklace, which she failed to return until she learned that detectives were about to search her house.

360 hours of community service will be performed at the Downtown Women's Center, and the remaining 120 will be done at the L.A. County Morgue.

"We have community service workers all the time," said Assistant Chief Ed Winter of the coroner's office. "They do janitorial tasks. They clean up and sweep up."

Lohan will be treated like any other community service worker assigned to the office by the courts, Winter said.

"I hope to be able to fulfill my obligation without any press attention," Lohan said in her statement. "I think the media spotlight should be on issues such as homelessness and domestic violence instead of on me."

Once Lohan's community service is completed, her probation on the DUI case will be terminated. She will still be on 3 years probation for the jewelry theft case.

The actress also has to complete psychological counseling and a 'Shoplifters Alternative' class.

The actress rejected a plea deal in March and decided to take the case to trial.

Lohan had two choices: accept a plea deal and go to jail for 90 days or refuse the plea deal and demand a trial on the felony grand theft charge.

The actress refused to consider any time in jail, continuously insisting she never took anything intentionally.

The judge eventually reduced the felony theft charge to a misdemeanor and transferred the case to the City Attorney's office.


Sautner said Lohan has received a lot of punishment for her DUI charge four years ago, and admitted she wanted "to give her an opportunity."

Sautner said Lohan should have notified the store about the necklace sooner, but instead waited until police were about to serve a search warrant at her house.

Lohan pleaded not guilty March 23 to charges she stole the $2,500 necklace from Venice jewelry store Kamofie and Co.

During several hours of testimony at a preliminary hearing, the owner of the Venice jewelry store took the stand.

Sofia Kaman testified that she noticed Lohan had left with the necklace about 10 minutes after she closed her store on Jan. 22.

She said Lohan had tried on the necklace, looking at it in the mirror for almost a half-hour, but did not buy it.

Kaman also said she had not given Lohan permission to borrow the piece.

Kaman testified that she reported the alleged theft to police the next day, after reviewing tapes from her security camera.

She also alleged Lohan covered the store's necklace up with her own necklace as she was walking out.

Kaman also spoke about her decision to license the security video. She said a lawyer had advised her to put out an "authentic" version of the video, and that the store had received no money from licensing of the video.

Kamofie and Co. employee Tinelli Comsookri testified about another incident involving Lohan that happened just four days before the alleged necklace theft.

Comsookri said that Lohan tried on a pair of diamond earrings on Jan. 18, and nearly walked out with one of them still in her ear.

She said Lohan apologized and removed the earring. Comsookri then emailed her bosses to inform them about what had happened.

Lohan has appeared before a judge 10 times in the past year. Presumably eager to get the legal drama behind her, Lohan is set to go back to work. She's been cast in the "Gotti" movie, which is set for production in October.
SouthFlorida.com