Story highlights
Anthony's attorneys invoked her Fifth Amendment rights 60 times in a previous hearing
Suit against Anthony alleges she falsely accused Gonzalez of kidnapping Caylee
Lawyers will argue whether Anthony should fully answer questions posed to her
Attorneys for Casey Anthony and Zenaida Gonzalez, the woman who has filed a civil suit against her, return to court Thursday to argue whether Anthony should fully answer questions posed to her during her deposition in October.
In that hearing, Anthony’s lawyers invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 60 times. Attorneys for Gonzalez want the court to compel her to answer.
Gonzalez’s defamation lawsuit alleges that Anthony falsely accused her of kidnapping her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony.
Gonzalez alleges that Anthony defamed her and damaged her reputation when she claimed that a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez had taken Caylee, who was reported missing in July 2008 – a month after she was last seen.
Authorities were never able to find the nanny. But they did find Gonzalez, who claimed she never met Anthony or her daughter.
Anthony’s civil attorneys have argued that she never identified this specific woman as the “Zenaida Gonzalez” she was talking about.
Gonzalez’s attorneys claim, according to questions asked of Anthony in the October 8 deposition, that Gonzalez was questioned by the police in Caylee’s disappearance, was kicked out of her apartment complex, lost her job and that she and her two daughters received death threats as a result of media attention in the case.
Anthony herself said little in the deposition, but did acknowledge she was aware she was being sued by Gonzalez.
She also said she had not spoken to her brother, Lee, in the previous six months, and had not spoken to her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, since October 14, 2008.
However, her attorney, Charles Greene, did not permit her to answer questions including whether she had ever met Gonzalez; whether a person named Zenaida was ever a nanny to Caylee; or whether defense attorney Jose Baez’s assertion during Anthony’s criminal trial that Zenaida Gonzalez was one of Anthony’s “imaginary friends,” was true.
She also was not allowed to answer questions about whether she considered herself a good mother to Caylee; the last day she saw the 2-year-old alive; and whether she drowned in the Anthonys’ pool in June 2008, as the defense claimed during Anthony’s criminal trial.
While Anthony was acquitted on murder charges in Caylee’s death, she was convicted on four counts of lying to authorities investigating the child’s disappearance. She was given credit for time already spent behind bars, however, and was released from jail July 17.
Gonzalez was deposed for about 12 hours last month by Anthony’s attorneys.