Trustee wants to sell Casey Anthony's life story to pay debt
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The trustee overseeing Casey Anthony's bankruptcy case has filed a motion to sell the rights to her story so she can pay her debts.
In a motion filed Friday in federal court in Tampa, trustee Stephen Meininger asked Judge K. Rodney May for permission to sell the "exclusive worldwide rights" of Anthony's life story.
Anthony, who is now 26, was acquitted of murder in the death her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Anthony has never told her side of the story, despite intense media scrutiny of the case.
During a meeting with creditors in her bankruptcy case in Tampa on March 4, Anthony said she was unemployed and hasn't received any money to tell her story. She said that she is living with friends and that those friends - and strangers who send her gift cards and cash - help her survive.
But Meininger, through his attorney, said he thinks that her story has value and should be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
One man, Meininger wrote, has already offered to pay $10,000 for Anthony's life story so he can prevent her from publishing or profiting from it in the future.
Meininger points out that the man's offer is not contingent on Anthony's cooperation or participation. Anthony's life story - including details about her childhood and the disappearance and death of Caylee - is referred to as "the Property" in the motion.
"Due to the intense public interest in Debtor and the Property, the Trustee believes that there will be interest from others in purchasing the Property," the motion reads.
An auction, with bidding, is the "best way to maximize the value for the Estate and its creditors."
A call to David Schrader, Anthony's bankruptcy attorney, was not immediately returned.
Anthony filed for bankruptcy in Florida in late January, claiming about $1,000 in assets and $792,000 in liabilities. Court papers list Anthony as unemployed, with no recent income.
Her listed debts include $500,000 for attorney fees and costs for Jose Baez, her criminal defense lawyer during the trial; $145,660 for the Orange County Sheriff's office for investigative fees and costs; $68,540 for the Internal Revenue Service for taxes, interest and penalties; and $61,505 for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for court costs.
The filling also states that she is a defendant in several lawsuits.
In a motion filed Friday in federal court in Tampa, trustee Stephen Meininger asked Judge K. Rodney May for permission to sell the "exclusive worldwide rights" of Anthony's life story.
Anthony, who is now 26, was acquitted of murder in the death her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Anthony has never told her side of the story, despite intense media scrutiny of the case.
During a meeting with creditors in her bankruptcy case in Tampa on March 4, Anthony said she was unemployed and hasn't received any money to tell her story. She said that she is living with friends and that those friends - and strangers who send her gift cards and cash - help her survive.
But Meininger, through his attorney, said he thinks that her story has value and should be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
One man, Meininger wrote, has already offered to pay $10,000 for Anthony's life story so he can prevent her from publishing or profiting from it in the future.
Meininger points out that the man's offer is not contingent on Anthony's cooperation or participation. Anthony's life story - including details about her childhood and the disappearance and death of Caylee - is referred to as "the Property" in the motion.
"Due to the intense public interest in Debtor and the Property, the Trustee believes that there will be interest from others in purchasing the Property," the motion reads.
An auction, with bidding, is the "best way to maximize the value for the Estate and its creditors."
A call to David Schrader, Anthony's bankruptcy attorney, was not immediately returned.
Anthony filed for bankruptcy in Florida in late January, claiming about $1,000 in assets and $792,000 in liabilities. Court papers list Anthony as unemployed, with no recent income.
Her listed debts include $500,000 for attorney fees and costs for Jose Baez, her criminal defense lawyer during the trial; $145,660 for the Orange County Sheriff's office for investigative fees and costs; $68,540 for the Internal Revenue Service for taxes, interest and penalties; and $61,505 for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for court costs.
The filling also states that she is a defendant in several lawsuits.
If she's lucky, she can get whatever deal O.J. apparently worked out. Perhaps they can start dating. They have a bit in common, after all.
The most hated woman in America...
If she sells the rights to the story, it's all going to be lies unless she comes clean about killing her precious little girl. That biotch is guilty as sin. Let her sell the rights now to someone so she doesn't have a chance in the future to make one red cent off her murderous story.
When they find a buyer for it, there are a few bridges available too...
You have to laugh at anyone willing to pay for a story from a pathological liar.
Hahaha....
I love how she's too broke to pay for anything but she arrives to court in designer sun glasses.
She'd be in jail had the prosecutor not try to get a 1st degree murder conviction with no motive, no body, no evidence, no murder weapon...no cause of death, etc.Â
@lakeview You didn't watch the trial, I take it.
She'd be in jail if they had not tried to use the death penalty.
@lakeview This is all true, but recall this is FL, where they simply searched out "legal" ways to lynch.
Please don't tell me there enough idiots out there that would actually pay money for her pack of lies!
We should all be more kind to her with our comments. She is still grieving the loss of her daughter...Ha!
Not interested in hearing her life story...NEXT!
here we go, what a fascinating story, for brain dead people that is
@Lrry*x*KÂ Well, you clicked and read it... what does that tell us about you? ;-]
@JLS1950 I clicked but I didn't read it, LOL.
@JLS1950 is this a trick question?
@Lrry*x*KÂ @JLS1950Â Uh-huh...
@JLS1950Â @Lrry*x*K You also clicked and read it :-D
I think most of the people who read this don't really care, so much as that they were bored, so they said "Eh," shrugged, and clicked the link.
For a judge in a bankruptcy case to sell her right to tell her own story purely for the purpose of suppressing said story would seem a very clear violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. It further provides her no means of defending herself against possible slander and libel, so constitutes an abridgement of due process and a taking without compensation.Â
She was found "not guilty", people. Whatever you may think about her, she has as much right to be treated as innocent as any of the rest of us. If we do not honor and respect that right, we sell our own birthright and freedom as well. She should tell her story in her own way and in her own time if and only if she so pleases.
@JLS1950Â "$61,505 for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for court costs."
For me, that begs the question that if she was found innocent, why the court bill?
(I have no opinion on the validity of the case, otherwise.)
@Glassman @JLS1950 She was convicted of kiting a check if I recall correctly. Separate case entirely. All but I think one of the charges for lying to police were thrown out on appeal - basically because she was not under oath and the alternative "might" have been a fifth amendment violation. But I may be misremembering...
But this is FL, and they will try very earnestly to sentence her to 50 years' hard labor just for being "not like us".
@Glassman @JLS1950 If I remember correctly, the bill was because she told them a story about a person who did not exist, which they then had to investigate. I could be getting two stories mixed up, though. Like Casey.
Maybe she was hoping to get the bankruptcy out of the way to have a clear shot at keeping the money when she did decide to tell her story. I certainly don't agree that she should be forced to sell it. She was found innocent, no matter what other opinions may be.
@Gottadance It is her legal right to get the bankruptcy out fo the way before she encumbers future earnings. That is what bankruptcy is all about!
@JLS1950Â As much as I don't like the thought of her making a profit from the death of her daughter, she was found innocent. Â If you want to make sure she doesn't profit,dont purchase the book...damn!
She wasn't found innocent - she was found Not Guilty. Big difference - all that says is that she MAY be guilty but the prosecution didn't proove it beyond a shadow of doubt to the 12 jurors who were charged with the case.
@Joy Whitney @JLS1950 she will get a couple million before the book even has a title or the first sentence. From subsequent book sales she will only get royalties
@Lrry*x*K @Joy Whitney @JLS1950 Actually, because free speech also includes the right to silence, all she need do right now is say "I have no memoir assets" and there is nothing to sell. The bankruptcy court - by definition - cannot sell the rights to future earnings: that would be a form of chattel slavery. Of course in Florida... they just might not understand that until a federal judge puts them in prison for a few!
Oh man, this person is one scary looking dudette. I wouldn't trust her to keep an eye on a sack of dead cats.
I wrote her life story this morning but had the courtesy to flush before anybody else had to see it. Â
No. No way in all the 9 hells should she profit from her horrifying deeds.Â
She should be washing dishes for the rest of her natural days to pay it.Â
Using a story pinned in little girl's murder as a chip in a bankruptcy proceeding?? The trustee should be ashamed. But probably won't be, as evidenced by the fact of the proposal itself.
Grrr....
According to a jury, she did not commit those horrifying deeds. As she was found innocent, she has the same rights as any of the rest of us. Do I believe that she is innocent? No I don't. But, as I was not on the jury, my opinion does not count.Â