Casey Anthony will have to come out of hiding and report to the Department of Corrections by noon Friday, to begin serving one year’s probation for check fraud charges.
The Fifth District Court of Appeal on Tuesday ruled that Anthony had not yet served her one-year probation sentense while she awaited trial for the murder of her two-year-old daughter.
“The petitioner (Casey Anthony) and her lawyers were well aware that he probationary placement was not to begin until her release from confinement. The petitioner may not under these circumstances, take advantage of the administrative error of the Department of Correction,” the Court of Appeal wrote in their two-page ruling.
Anthony’s lawyers had filed an emergency motion seeking to have set aside an amended order of probation by Judge Stan Strickland who had sentenced Anthony to one-year’s probation for check fraud, to which she had pleaded guilty in January 2010.
Chief Judge Belvin Perry earlier this month had denied Anthony’s attorneys’ motion and ordered her to report to the Department of Corrections on Friday. Her lawyers then appealed to the Fifth Discrict Court of Appeal.
Anthony, because of a clerical mix-up by the state Department of Corrections on interpreting Strickland’s sentence, was allowed to serve the one-year probation for check fraud, while she awaited her murder trial. Her attorneys argued she did serve her probation and any second sentence for probation “will be a violation of her rights of protection against double jeopardy under both the Florida State and United States Constitution.”
But the Fifth District Court of Appeal saw it differently.
“The Constitution does not require that sentencing should be a game in which a wrong move by the judge (or the Department) means immunity for the prisoner,” the Fifth District Court of Appeal wrote, citing case law.
Anthony, who walked out of the Orange County Jail on July 17, after being acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, had gone into hiding out-of-state.
It is not clear where in Florida Anthony will show up to begin serving her one-year probation, but certain terms will apply.
For her safety and security, Perry had ordered Anthony’s living arrangements not be made public.
