Reported by Jacqueline Fell and Mark Jenkins
ORLANDO -- Despite efforts to throw the case out, Casey Anthony's defense said there's still hope the civil case will be put on hold.
"He understand that's the civil case should take a back seat to a pending criminal matter," said John Kasen, Anthony’s attorney in the civil case.
However, attorneys for Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez said Tuesday was a major success.
Judge Jose Rodriguez granted a motion to amend the original complaint and ask for punitive damages.
Gonzalez is suing Anthony, claiming she was defamed when Anthony told authorities a woman by the same name took Caylee in June.
Gonzalez's attorneys said Anthony never cleared her name, and actually put added spotlight on her when she talked to her mother Cindy in jail.
"She told her mother that didn't happen and then authorized her mother, according to her mother, authorized her to go public and she stood in front of a bank of cameras and denied that she had cleared Zenaida Gonzalez by looking at the photograph. Thereby putting the cloud of suspicion and the target right back on our client’s back," said Keith Mitnik, Gonzalez’s attorney.
Kasen said he will try to have lawsuit dismissed again because this is not the Zenaida Gonzalez Anthony was ever talking about, and therefore never defamed her.
"You can not intentionally harm someone that you don't know. You can only harm an individual that you've had contact with and that you know,” Kasen said.
The attorneys will be back in court Thursday when Gonzalez's attorneys try to force Anthony into answering questions about the alleged 'Zanny the Nanny.'
Meanwhile, Zenaida Gonzalez is back to work.
Her attorney told News 13 things have been looking up for the Kissimmee mother, but that doesn't make up for the pain over the past few months.
He said that if Anthony ever makes any money, whether it be from a book or movie deal, they will fight to get Zenaida Gonzalez money.
Padilla To Be Questioned
Attorneys with Morgan and Morgan were scheduled to question bounty hunter Leonard Padilla at 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon in the defamation suit against Casey Anthony, but News 13 has learned that meeting was cancelled.
Padilla made headlines in 2008 when he first bailed out Casey Anthony and participated in the search for her Caylee’s body.
The Case Against Casey
See News 13’s Extended Coverage for more Documents, Audio and Video released in the case, plus News 13’s story archive of the entire case against Casey Anthony.
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