Casey Anthony is Not Hiding on My Yacht, Says TV Journalist
Television journalist Geraldo Rivera is firing back in response to the latest rumors hitting the news claiming Casey Anthony is hiding on his million-dollar yacht, The Voyager.
Numerous reports claim to know where Anthony might be hiding since her release from the Orange County Jail this week.
Anthony, 25, was greeted by angry crowds of hecklers and protesters when she walked out of the Florida jail just after midnight Sunday under the watch of guards wearing bullet proof vests and carrying semi-automatic rifles.
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After being whisked away by a private vehicle, reports of “Anthony sightings” are coming in by the hundreds. News agencies are contracting out scuba divers, private planes and reporters to confirm Anthony’s whereabouts.
The high-profile trial has captivated America causing Anthony to go into secret hiding, which has only added to the media hype surrounding the case.
According to the latest news reports, Anthony was hiding aboard Rivera's yacht, which is frequently based in New Jersey.
The rumors are swirling this week that Anthony and her attorney, Jose Baez, are staying on Geraldo Rivera's boat because he reportedly came across as their only ally in the media.
Rivera is now the target of a boycott among protesters because he has a relationship with fellow Puerto Rican José Baez.
“My unflinching, but correct legal analysis of the weakness of the prosecution’s case and my comments that the evidence suggests Anthony was a good mother have folks thinking I am harboring her from the public,” he said.
But, Geraldo is quickly responding to the rumor, calling it "untrue."
“The tabloid press corps and the legion of Casey-haters believe I know where she is,” Rivera said in a statement.
“As I said Wednesday on Fox and Friends, I have never met Ms. Anthony; I have never spoken to Casey Anthony; I have no idea where she is; and I have played no role whatsoever in her life.”
Rivera also claimed that he does not own a yacht. “I own the ‘Voyager’ a vintage 40-year old vessel that I sailed around the world with my family in 1997,” he said.
“As far as I know, ‘Voyager’ has never hosted a fugitive from either justice or the press. She currently sits on a mooring under the George Washington Bridge in New York Harbor in plain view of hundreds of thousands of commuters every day.”
Rivera did say that he continues to be appalled at the slanted, distorted, one-sided press coverage concerning the Casey Anthony case and her acquittal.
He reports the latest blundered revelation concerning alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
“It is now clear that the prosecution knew before closing arguments that it’s much hyped contention that Casey searched her computer 84 times for information on chloroform was bogus; and that there had been only one search lasting several minutes,” Rivera said.
“That single search came at the same time chloroform was being advertised as a dance club drug by one of Casey’s boyfriends."
"Worried that he might have given the jury incorrect information, after testifying in late June, John Bradley, the computer researcher used by the prosecution went back to his lab, and reconfigured his tests. Upon review, he came to the same conclusion as the defense computer expert, that there had not been 84 searches, but only the single search lasting several minutes concerning the use of chloroform in the 1800s," according to media reports.
During the weekend of June 25th Bradley then reached out desperately to prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick and Sgt. Kevin Stenger of the Orange County Sheriff’s office.
“I gave the police everything they needed to present a new report,” Bradley said to reporters.
“I did the work myself and copied out the entire database in a spreadsheet to make sure there was no issue of accessibility to the data,” he told Lizette Alvarez of The New York Times.
"Prosecutors ignored it," Rivera said.
Rivera also said the legal system and the public should care about this because the prosecution is required by law to present the defense with all exculpatory evidence.
"In other words, by suppressing this crucial evidence, they broke the law. Worse, they fanned the flames of the lynch mob," he said.
Rivera said he can take the heat.
“But justice for the tragic and beloved toddler Caylee Marie Anthony does not mean that we can suspend the laws of the State of Florida or the Constitution of the United States to frame her mother.”
Other news reports this week show Anthony sightings across the country.
She was recently traced to Puerto Rico making her way there with the help of attorney Baez.
Sources also believe that Anthony boarded a single engine plane at the Orlando Executive Airport at about 3:00 a.m. Sunday headed to Ohio.
"Extra's" Jerry Penacoli sat down with movie producer and former spokesperson for the Anthony family, Larry Garrison, to talk about all the swirling rumors.
Garrison said he thought that Casey Anthony could be headed to Mexico.
"I was told she would be staying at her attorney's home in Mexico," Garrison told reporters.
According to Garrison, Jose Baez also took photos of Casey on a beach in Florida and told her "not to look in the camera" so the pics would appear more candid and earn more money from a potential buyer.
In another report, ABC7 News mentioned there was a possibility that Anthony could also be in California or Arizona.
Another new report released today from TMZ says Baez is in New York meeting with major networks to determine who will score the first interview with Casey.
