Jose Baez talked to the Sentinel in January. Photo credit: Joshua C. Cruey/Orlando Sentinel
“I have never seen a high-profile case that is so weak as the Zimmerman case,” Baez told Lauren Rowe on WKMG-Channel 6’s “Flashpoint.” The program aired Sunday morning.
Baez said he based his view on the evidence and not on his representing Chris Serino, the lead Sanford police investigator in the case. “I just think looking at the overall case, it’s extremely weak,” Baez said. “I had that opinion from very early on in the case.”
Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford last year.
Baez, who successfully defended Casey Anthony, is likely to be called by media outlets to offer his views when the trial starts in June. Baez gets people talking, and TV will play up his victory in the Anthony case.
Baez cited several reasons for his take on the Zimmerman evidence: The only eyewitness says that Martin was on top during the fight, and Zimmerman told law enforcement he was screaming for help during the fight, a point backed up by a 911 tape.
But Baez refused to predict an ending. “You can’t call this one without letting it play out,” he said. “You just never know what’s going to happen. You can’t call it. Trials are not scripted events.”
Rowe and Tony Pipitone also asked Baez about Anthony and her bankruptcy hearing. The media crush outside the Federal Courthouse in Tampa brought back unpleasant memories “of some of the madness that surrounds this case,” Baez said. “The madness of seeing her accosted outside of the courthouse and attacked in that way, it wasn’t a pretty sight.”
Baez complained that Anthony faced a double standard because she wouldn’t have faced any creditors in a regular bankruptcy. Baez called Anthony “an indigent person” and “yet there are prominent attorneys trying to squeeze water out of a rock here.”
Baez questioned the assumption that Anthony’s story could be worth a lot of money. But he wouldn’t discuss any money that he collected for photographs she posed for, and he wouldn’t say if the outlet that paid for them was TMZ.
“Any money she received from my office was in the course of legal representation. It wasn’t something that I gave her personally out of my pocket,” Baez said.
The WKMG appearance allowed Baez to promote his book, “Presumed Guilty,” and to discuss positive feedback he has received. “I never wrote the book to be a book about ‘this is Casey Anthony, the innocent person,’ ” he said. “I wanted people to understand the jury’s verdict.”
Baez saw a connection between the Anthony and Zimmerman cases. “There is never ever closure with these tragedies. They’re going to go on,” Baez said.