Attorneys for Casey Anthony have asked the court to throw out the defamation suit brought by Zenaida Gonzalez and rule in favor of their client.
Anthony’s attorneys, Charles M. Green and Andrew J. Chmelir, in a 57-page motion filed in the Orange County court Monday say, Gonzalez’ defamation suit should be tossed out and no “intentional infliction of emotional distress” was suffered by Gonzalez.
The motion argues that “Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez”, also known as “Zanny the Nanny”, who Anthony told deputies babysat Caylee for 1 1/2 to two years and who had taken the child, is an entirely different person from “Zenaida Gonzalez.” Their names are different, physical appearance and as well, their backgrounds are vastly different.
According to the motion:
Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, as Anthony described to deputies, is tall, 25-years-old, mixed race, educated at the University of Florida and was living in Apartment 210 at Sawgrass Apartments in Orlando.
By contrast, the plaintiff (Zenaida Gonzalez) is 5’2″, 38-years-old, non-mixed race and Hispanic, “who ‘testified she ‘thinks she had completed only the 10th Grade,” had 6 children by at least three different men and several failed marriages. She is a grandmother of two children who were born to her oldest daughter. At the time of the alleged defamation, she lived at a Motel 6 in Kissimmee and not at Sawgrass Apartment in Orlando.
“Simply put, the Plaintiff does not even slightly resemble the “person” described by Ms. Anthony in any form or fashion,” the motion states.
Green and Chmelir say, Gonzalez admits she is not “Zanny the Nanny” and that she was the one who injected herself into the public eye. They also say she falsely claimed to be “Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez” when the initialy defamation complaint was filed on September 24, 2008. The complaint was only amended some 5 months later on February 24, 2009, to correctly state her true name, “Zenaida Gonzalez,” the motion states.
Anthony and Zenaida Gonzalez never met or knew each other so “Plaintiff cannot prove Ms. Anthony had the requisite specific intent to harm her,” the attorneys state. They also point out that when Anthony was shown a photo of Gonzalez, she told deputies that that was not the “Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez” she had indicated had taken her daughter.
Green and Chmelir conclude:
“This court should enter summary judgement in favor of Casey Anthony, dismissing the complaint with prejudice and awarding Ms. Anthony costs and such other relief as is just and appropriate,” the motion states. “This fictional play, set in a theatre of the absurd, has run all too long, needlessly wasting judicial resources. Plaintiff’s efforts to dress herself up in the “nanny’s” costume, when reviewed by this Court in its natural sense without a forced of strained construction… is pitable, not actionable.”
No date has been set for a judge to rule on the matter.
