Casey Anthony Defense Worried Police Are Tampering With Evidence, Accuse Cops of Lying
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A spokesman for Casey Anthony's defense lawyer accused police of lying to the press and suggested they could be tampering with evidence at the site where a little child's bones were found.
Todd Black, a spokesman for Anthony's lead attorney Jose Baez, complained that investigators won't let the defense team observe their work at the scene where remains believed to be those of Anthony's daughter Caylee were discovered.
"Some of their comments are blatant lies," Black told FOXNews.com. "History has shown that in some cases authorities have been caught tampering with evidence. That is something we hope is not happening. We're not accusing anyone of anything."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, police said the bones discovered in the Caylee Anthony investigation could be identified by the end of the day on Thursday or on Friday.
Orange County, Fla., Sheriff's investigators were back at the wooded Orlando-area crime scene Thursday in their exhaustive dig for evidence. They said late Thursday additional bones that appear to be from a child were found at the scene.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The projected time release was maybe today or this evening," Capt. Angelo Nieves, an Orange County Sheriff's spokesman, told FOXNews.com. "They're still working on debris right now. It could be tomorrow. ... Identification will hopefully come soon."
Nieves remained tight-lipped about the nature of the evidence detectives have found at the site, less than half a mile from where then 2-year-old Caylee lived with her mother and maternal grandparents.
Some reports suggested teeth had been discovered.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia — who has her own Discovery Channel TV show and calls herself "Dr. G." — is handling the tests. Her office said Thursday that they didn't know when the results would be ready but would put out a report when they were.
Anthony, 22, has been charged with the little girl's murder and is being held in jail without bond.
Among the lies Black is accusing the sheriff's office of telling are statements about clothing found with the child's remains and the implication that the area where they were discovered hadn't been searched before.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Black said EquuSearch volunteers were the only ones who hadn't previously scoured the wooded lot.
"When [police] started searching for that child, they went into that area several times — with dogs, with people. Not once, but several times," Black said. "It's kind of suspicious."
He suggested the bones might have been dumped there by the person Anthony says took her daughter.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It seems like somebody may have been waiting ... somebody may have thought, they're done with that area, so let's dump it," Black said. "If that occurred, Miss Anthony was locked up all that time."
The defense is backing Anthony's claim that her daughter was kidnapped by a baby sitter named Zenaida Gonzalez, a name police say is made up.
Caylee vanished in June, two months shy of her third birthday. Before a meter reader stumbled upon a child's skull and bones last Thursday, detectives had little to go on in the way of forensic evidence that could prove a murder.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police have unearthed clues every day since the skeletal remains turned up in the privately-owned wooded lot, said Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Carlos Padilla.
"We can't specify ... but we continue to find evidence that's significant to the case," Padilla told FOXNews.com on Wednesday.
During a hearing this week, an attorney for the sheriff's office said the bones were a little girl's.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We have not been told that the remains are of a little girl," Padilla said. "She has not been identified. We are all assuming that it's Caylee Marie. We're all thinking of little Caylee. But again, that's not definitive."
The hair attached to the skull has been rumored to be long and light brown, like Caylee's, and the size and appearance of the remains also suggest a match.
The judge in the case said he'd reconsider Casey Anthony's attorneys' wish for a second autopsy at a later time if the remains are positively identified as Caylee's.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland isn't allowing Anthony's attorneys to be privy to evidence collected at the crime scene, including photos, sketches and audio and video recordings. He said he couldn't let the defense "interfere" with a murder investigation.
Anthony's attorneys are opposed to that decision, according to Black, who said it is common for defense experts to observe the handling of evidence in a homicide investigation.
The defense has made "numerous attempts to preserve the evidence" near where the child's remains were found, he said, but police and prosecutors have been uncooperative.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This has become a malicious, nasty case," Black told FOXNews.com. "Even in the worst cases, like O.J. Simpson, I've never seen an investigation tell a defense team to go to hell."
Though he admitted police haven't actually uttered those words, he said "their conduct tells you that," because they haven't kept the defense team informed.
Caylee was last seen June 16, less than two months before she turned 3. Casey Anthony waited a month to report her daughter missing. She maintains she dropped her little girl off with Gonzalez and another woman in an apartment complex parking lot and saw them drive away.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police say she made up her story and nearly everything else she has told them.
Caylee's grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony, have asked for privacy until the bones are identified.
Casey Anthony is alone in a cell and has no contact with other prisoners. Black said she was "emotional" when first told of the discovery but is holding up.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"She's a lot calmer than she was before," Black said. "She is doing the best she can. This is her daughter."
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