Casey Anthony Must Come Out of Hiding and Report for Probation

Aug. 12, 2011 — -- Casey Anthony, the Florida woman acquitted of murdering daughter Caylee, must emerge from hiding and return to Orlando, Fla., by Aug. 26, a judge ordered today.

Judge Belvin Perry ended 10 days of deliberations by writing an order that Anthony must report to the Department of Corrections in two weeks to serve a year of supervised probation.

Anthony's probation stems from a check fraud conviction in 2010. Prior to her first degree murder trial, Anthony pleaded guilty to stealing checks from her best friend Amy Huizenga during the time that Caylee was missing.

The judge who presided over that case, Stan Strickland, ordered Anthony to serve 412 days in jail and a year's probation when she was released from jail. An error was made on the written sentencing documents which allowed Anthony, 25, to serve her probation while in jail awaiting her murder trial.

Last month, Strickland filed an amended order demanding Anthony return to Florida to serve a year's probation. Her defense attorneys claimed her probation had already been completed and filed for an emergency hearing on the matter.

In the order filed today by Perry, he writes that probation is meant to rehabilitate an individual and that serving probation while incarcerated "would clearly thwart society's interest in extracting a full, fair, and just punishment for a crime."

Casey Anthony Ordered to Report to Probation Officer

"To permit the Defendant, whose counsel was well aware that the probation was to begin upon the Defendant's release from jail, to avoid serving probation now, would take a lawfully imposed sentence and make it a mockery of justice," he writes.

Perry goes on to scold Anthony's defense attorney, Jose Baez. Perry writes that Baez had a duty to intervene when it was apparent his client's sentence was not being imposed according to the judge's orders.

"To additionally seek to use a scrivener's error to achieve an end that was against the court's intent, especially where both parties had argued the issue of when probation should commence, strikes at the very foundation of our justice system," Perry writes.

He said that Baez violated his duty of candor, which is "the gold standard that all officers of the court -- especially attorneys -- must live by."

Anthony, whose received death threats since her acquittal, has been in hiding since she left the Orange County Jail on July 17.

Her only confirmed location was in Ohio. Last week, TMZ.com posted pictures and video showing Anthony walking with an iced coffee in hand and shopping at an Old Navy store.

Perry acknowledged Anthony's notoriety.

"This court is very mindful that it is a high probability that there are many that would like to see physical harm visited upon the Defendant," Perry wrote.

The order to return to Florida follows the release of a report by Florida's Department of Children and Families. They ruled that Anthony's failure to protect Caylee contributed to the child's death and that she harmed her daughter by failing to report her missing.

Casey Anthony Must Emerge From Hiding

Caylee, 2, wasn't reported missing until July 15, 2008, 31 days after she was last seen alive. It was Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, that reported the toddler had disappeared.

For years, Anthony contended that a nanny had stolen the child, but her defense argued during her murder trial that Caylee had accidentally drowned in the family pool.

"The Department of Children and Families concludes that the actions or lack of actions by the alleged perpetrator ultimately resulted or contributed in the death of the child," the report reads.

The report also details Anthony's cold demeanor when dealing with police and the Children and Families Services' investigators. Anthony told the Orange County Sheriff's Office that they were "trying to break me and make me confess to something I did not do," according to the report. She also told child services that the police have "spent more time trying to find me guilty without any evidence than trying to find Caylee," according to the report.

"The mother's failure to act during those 31 days, ultimately resulted in her inability to protect the child from harm. In addition, this failure to protect delayed and interfered with a law enforcement investigation and best efforts to safely recover the child," the report reads.