Cheney Mason, the defense attorney for Casey Anthony, on trial for the 2008 murder of her daughter Caylee, was perhaps irritable after hours of damaging jailhouse videos of his client. If so, it would explain his verbal attack on state witness Orange County Sheriff’s detective, Charity Beasley, during cross examination at the Orange County Courthouse, Friday, June 3, 2011 in Orlando
Beasley’s Role in the Casey Anthony Case
Beasley was in charge of evidence collection as a detective for the domestic crimes unit in 2008, assisting Detective Yuri Melich in collecting evidence at the Anthony home.
On July 16th she collected items from the Anthony’s Orlando home on Hopespring Drive. These items included a white Pontiac Sunfire vehicle and a laptop computer. Cindy Anthony, Casey Anthony's mother, provided other items in a blue plastic crate, including a doll, a child’s backpack, and a black leather bag.
The car was towed to a forensic lab after Beasley sealed the vehicle doors and trunk with evidence tape. Beasley followed the tow truck from Hopespring Drive to the forensics bay where she turned the items over to crime scene investigator Gerardo Bloise.
Transcript Excerpt of Mason’s Cross Examination of Beasley
After Detective Charity Beasley was questioned by both state prosecutors, Cheney Mason, who serves on Casey Anthony’s defense team, conducted a contentious cross examination.
Cheney Mason: When you went to Hopespring Drive were you aware of the activities that occurred there?
Charity Beasley: I knew it was an active investigation for a missing child. (Beasley looks at the jury.)
Cheney Mason: I am over here. (Judge Perry shakes his head at Mason.)
Charity Beasley: I was requested to pick up several items, to collect the car, and to seal it.
Cheney Mason: The laptop......did you open it or check the battery?
Charity Beasley: No
Cheney Mason: Are you involved in any other matter in this case?
Charity Beasley: No. I was requested to collect items at the home.
Cheney Mason: The correct answer is,’ No, Mr. Mason I was not!’
Criminal Defense
According to his web site, J. Cheney Mason, P.A., the lawyer is “Board Certified by both The Florida Bar and the Board of Trial Advocacy as a Criminal Trial Lawyer.” Mason defended the notorious diaper-wearing astronaut, Lisa Norwak, during her assault and kidnapping trial in Orlando, and got her off with a year’s probation. Cheney Mason has proclaimed to the media that he is ”going to walk out of the courtroom with Casey Anthony arm in arm” at the end of her trial for premeditated first-degree murder.
If that is the case, this observer has to wonder about his strategy with the jury. At no time was Detective Charity Beasley anything but professional and scrupulously polite. If she addressed the jury, while answering Counselor Mason’s questions, that is her prerogative. Berating a law enforcement employee for doing her job, and scanning the jury for clarity, is not going to win Cheney Mason any points with said jury, and, more importantly, for the client he has vowed to exonerate.
