Casey Anthony Case: Dispute Between Lawyers about Judge's Ruling/Hearing Fri. 12/10 at 5:00 PM on Motion to Clarify

State's Request Could Undermine Casey Defense Experts
Prosecutors Wants To See How Experts Are Being Paid
POSTED: 5:15 pm EST November 22, 2010
UPDATED: 6:25 pm EST November 22, 2010

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Prosecutors in the case against Casey Anthony want to know more about how the defense team is spending money.

In a motion to compel additional discovery, prosecutor Jeff Ashton asked for a variety of information about the defense team's expert witnesses.
The motion asks for records of contracts and expected compensation, as well as bills that have been submitted and paid.
Read more at:
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I think we would all like to know how they are being paid.

We've BEEN wanting to know how they have been being paid. This is worth the watch!!

Something to look forward to "Post Turkey"! lol

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A spokeswoman for the Ninth Judicial Circuit confirms that Casey Anthony will be present at a status hearing on Monday.
The time of the hearing has been changed from 1:30 pm to 1:00 pm.

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How Is Casey's Defense Team Spending Taxpayer Money?
Posted: 4:32 pm EST November 25, 2010
Updated: 6:24 pm EST November 25, 2010

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- WFTV read through 322 pages of financial documents Thursday, detailing exactly how Casey Anthony's defense team is spending Orange County taxpayer money. WFTV learned the defense is spending a lot on what prosecutors believe is a wild goose chase.
In the documents, the defense spent thousands of tax money on talking to EquuSearch volunteers, many of whom they've apparently admitted behind the scenes that they didn't need to talk to.
Casey Anthony's defense team claims to have found 150 new EquuSearch witnesses who searched the exact area where Caylee Anthony's remains were found, months before that, and sent its private investigator, Jeremy Lyons, to talk to them.
He billed taxpayers almost $8,000 in September and October. After all that tax money was spent, prosecutor Linda Drane Brudick told the judge the number of new possible witnesses was greatly exaggerated publicly by the defense.
"When I asked Mr. Mason about that he told me he believed there would be 6 to10 individuals that may qualify as having relevant information,"
Defense expert Dr. Henry Lee has billed state taxpayers more than $8,000 for three days worth of work and travel from Connecticut. He claimed to be giving taxpayers a 50 percent discount and months ago, defense attorney Cheney Mason told a judge that Lee would be willing to work for oranges.
"He told me at a conference that Dr. Lee said he'd been willing to work for boxes of oranges," Mason said.
WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said the defense is playing fast and loose with taxpayer money.
"They're not spending tax money wisely and using it for fishing expedition," Sheaffer said.
The defense also hired a court reporter service, which charges almost $1 more a page for transcripts than the state allows. That could've cost taxpayers hundreds more than it should have, but the Justice Administrative Commission, which monitors defense spending, caught it and turned down reimbursement at that rate.
Casey Anthony will be back in court on Monday. Prosecutors had to call for a hearing to get important information regarding defense experts.
The information includes how much the experts were paid.
The hearing is at 1:00pm Monday. Prosecutors will ask Chief Judge Belvin Perry to compel Casey Anthony's defense team to hand over their contracts with their experts, bills and payments, travel meal and entertainment records and photographs, communications and notes pertaining to the experts and their work on the case.

CASEY'S DEFENSE WANTS TO SEAL WITNESS LIST Casey Anthony's defense team wants the judge to seal its list of death penalty witnesses. The defense has until next Tuesday to list its witnesses.
The defense doesn't want the names made public unless Casey is convicted, and they have to testify. The defense claims they'll be harassed by the media.
If the judge doesn't grant Casey's request, the defense is asking for a hearing on the matter.

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ORLANDO, Fla. -- Casey Anthony is expected to attend a status hearing on Monday at the Orange County Courthouse.
Judge Belvin Perry will hear a new motion filed by prosecutors asking that defense experts be required to disclose their financial arrangements with Anthony's defense team.

Prosecutors want the information as ammunition before they depose a number of defense experts.
The prosecution wants the experts to hand over emails between themselves and Anthony's defense attorney, as well as records of expenses they and those traveling with them have submitted and what financial compensation they agreed to with the defense.
What's unclear is whether a couple of new motions filed by Anthony's defense were filed in time to be heard on Monday. The defense wants an expert on taphonomy, who studies the decay of organisms, to give them a scientific opinion on how long Caylee Anthony's remains were in the woods.
They also want Perry to restrict the disclosure of information about witnesses they plan to call during the penalty phase of this murder trial if Anthony is found guilty.
Anthony's defense team recently won the right to do out-of-state DNA testing on a pair of Caylee Anthony's shorts and a laundry bag found near her skeletal remains.
Perry will also check with the two sides to see if Anthony's murder trial is on track to begin in May 2011.
WESH.com will stream the status hearing live at 1 p.m.
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WESH is already videoing from the courtroom...It is interesting to hear Mason and Bozo talking...

WFTV is now on the air...Ann Finnell has come in...

I think I heard Bozo say that they were only going to do the motion from the state about compelling discovery about their expert witnesses...

Jeff Ashton walked over to ask Finnell a question...Bozo tried to say something, and Ashton just ignored him...How funny!

KC is coming in...Bright orange blouse...Hair up in kinda french twist...

Judge has to be finished by 1:40 because he has a jury coming back in at 1:45 in another trial...

Ashton is saying that they have received NO discovery from defense on expert witnesses altho they have given defense over 10,000 pages of discovery...State is working in the dark because they don't have any info (reports etc.) before they depose these witnesses...

How paid, notes, etc, all important as to how to cross examine these witnesses...

Bozo is responding...Saying that state has not given them contracts, how paid, etc. about their expert witnesses...Said that they did not ask experts to write reports because many of them are working pro bono and did not feel like they should ask them to do extra work...

JP is asking Bozo to be more specific in addressing the 6 points of state's motion...

Bozo is saying that the state could just ask the expert witnesses about these things during depositions....

JP has asked if state's expert witnesses wrote reports...Bozo conceded that they had...

Ashton is saying that they have given all reports and bills from their expert witnesses to the defense prior to depostions...

JP is asking Ashton how these things he is asking for falls under the discovery law...Ashton seems to be well-versed in how these items should be included...

JP seems to be agreeing with Bozo that this info can be gotten through other methods than defense having to provide it....Ashton is arguing that many of the witnesses are out of state/country that makes it a huge burden, even tho the state went beyond what was required for the defense...

I see CA with her friend Donna Cox, but I don't see GA

JP is saying that experts don't work for nothing and that how they are paid is relevant, but that state can find that out through other means (subpoena, asking directly)...But he is saying that they have to let state know what the experts are going to testify to and any notes, tapes, etc...

JP was going to give Bozo 2-3 weeks, but Ashton is planning on doing depos before then, so JP is giving him until Friday

JP is asking about a motion concerning Roy Kronk...He is inclined to deny it since defense has not called it up...Bozo says that he will let him know if they want to pursue it...JP warns them about deadlines for hearing motions

Bozo has to give state list of their expert witnesses by tomorrow...

KC is writing notes and conferring with Mason...Now Mason is showing notes to Bozo...She thinks she is a lawyer!

Just watched some of it on In Session. I have not been as "obsessed" about this case recently...it had really made me actually depressed. I needed a break. The case that has made me cry, lose sleep and have nightmares.
The story of an innocent little girl whose only want in this life was to be loved. A beautiful little girl whose life ended at the hands of her mother. Seeing this today with all the players...seeing the little girl's face on the screen...made all of my emotions come back to me.
I literally grew to love a little girl...Caylee Marie Anthony-a girl that I never had the honor of meeting.
Seeing that "thing" named KC that had the honor of being Caylee's mother...it is just so gut-wrenching.
That little girl needs justice...it won't bring her back, but it will cause suffering to the one that caused her death.
I will never, ever forget her. RIP Caylee.

Mason is speaking...Can't hear him! Why doesn't he come to the microphone!?

I just love Judge Perry and the condescending manner in which he speaks to Mason and Bozo!!

Mason is complaining about JAC not wanting to pay for their court reporter...JP wants to know if they agreed to do it for the JAC rate beforehand...Advises that he needs to get a contract with someone before hiring them...

They asked to approach the bench for something...KC is writing notes to some woman at the table with her...She is smiling at someone in front of her...I guess the woman works with Bozo...I have seen her before...

Casey sure seems comfortable; laughing, chatting, writing notes.

They are looking at something on the computer screen/monitor(?) and smiling...

JP is going to be late for his other trial!!

lisette wrote:They are looking at something on the computer screen/monitor(?) and smiling...

Maybe Casey's latest BFF?

KC is having fun...How nice!

Texas Equusearch witesses must be given to state by Dec. 31

KC didn't look at CA...CA has gained her weight back

Cherylz I feel your pain. For everybody to have to go through all of this with a vicious mother that killed her child makes me think there is something terribly wrong with our system.

We have gone way too far with defendents rights and left the poor victims continue being victims.

I am sad too Cherlyz.

lisette wrote:KC didn't look at CA...CA has gained her weight back

This is more of Caseys way of controlling CA. She does it every single time. Why CA continues showing up is beyond me. But it might be a little late for tough love now.

But this enabling is what put Miss Casey in just the spot she is in. Way to go CA.

Posted: 4:32 pm EST November 25, 2010
Updated: 3:47 pm EST November 29, 2010

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Casey Anthony was in court Monday afternoon for a hearing on information the state wants the defense to provide. Prosecutors had to call for the hearing to get important information regarding defense experts; the information includes how much the experts were paid.

CASEY HEARING: Part 1 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Part 2 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

CASEY WALKS IN: See Images [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Watch Video [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

IMAGES IN COURT: Casey, Attorneys, Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

BILL SHEAFFER: Analysis Of 11/29 Hearing [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

BAEZ INTERVIEW: Post-Hearing Comments To Media [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

READ: Motion Discussed During Hearing [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Casey Anthony entered the courtroom exactly at 1:00pm wearing an orange, short-sleeve blouse and a pair of grey slacks (images | video). There was little to no exchange between her attorneys before the hearing immediately got underway.


CASEY WALKS IN: Images | Video
IN COURT: Casey, Attorneys, More

Prosecutors started by asking Chief Judge Belvin Perry to compel Casey Anthony's defense team to hand over information related to six things (read motion): their contracts with their experts; communication between experts and the defense team; bills submitted by or payments made to experts; travel, meal and entertainment records related to experts; notes taken by the experts or for the experts; and photographs or video taken by the experts. The records go back before the defense ran out of money, after spending about $300,000.

"My first response to Mr. Ashton's motion ... there's nowhere in the rules that outline this particular type of discovery, at least some of it," Baez argued to Judge Belvin Perry on Monday afternoon. "There's nothing that entitles the state to this."

Soon after prosecutors filed their motion, the defense filed the exact same motion asking the exact same information pertaining to the state's experts and listed 34 prosecution experts.
"It should work both ways. It hasn't been working both ways," Baez argued Monday afternoon about the information the state is seeking.

Judge Perry then pressed Baez on some of the areas of information the state is requesting, specifically records for travel, notes taken by experts, and photographs taken by experts.
"Other than work product, we'd be more than happy to turn it over to them," Baez said.
Judge Perry then pressed the prosecution on what qualifies the state to receive the information they have requested. While the prosecution argued their point, Judge Perry said they have other means for obtaining much of the information they are seeking.

"The discovery rules were never designed to eliminate attorneys doing things on their own they can obtain," Judge Perry instructed the prosecution. "As to the request dealing with one, two, three, and four, I would deny those without prejudice unless they cannot be obtained through their vehicle of deposition. As to five, six, I will grant that request."

The "five" and "six" Judge Perry referred to are the photographs and notes pertaining to the experts and their work. Judge Perry also ordered the defense to provide information to the state by Friday at 2:00pm on what experts will be testifying about, as well as the aforementioned photos and notes.

Judge Perry also ordered that the defense review of DNA evidence be completed within 45 days. The defense will also be required to give the state a list of witnesses, as a result of the EquuSearch document review, by December 31 and any depositions of those witnesses must be completed by March 2011.

Judge Perry also said that death penalty witnesses will be sealed for now from public release.

Meanwhile, the defense wants permission to hire another forensic scientist at taxpayers' expense. Casey Anthony's defense team said the state has two forensic experts that are analyzing the decomposition process to pinpoint Caylee Anthony's time of death and explain the placement of her remains in the woods near her home, so it wants two experts.
The defense is asking permission to hire a taphonomist, which is an expert in decomposition.
Monday's hearing was the second in two months that switched from a simple status conference to a motion hearing that required Casey's attendance.

HOW IS CASEY'S DEFENSE SPENDING TAXPAYER MONEY?

WFTV read through 322 pages of financial documents Thursday, detailing exactly how Casey Anthony's defense team is spending Orange County taxpayer money. WFTV learned the defense is spending a lot on what prosecutors believe is a wild goose chase.

VIDEO REPORT: Taxpayer Money In Casey Case [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

In the documents, the defense spent thousands of tax money on talking to EquuSearch volunteers, many of whom they've apparently admitted behind the scenes that they didn't need to talk to.

Casey Anthony's defense team claims to have found 150 new EquuSearch witnesses who searched the exact area where Caylee Anthony's remains were found, months before that, and sent its private investigator, Jeremy Lyons, to talk to them.

He billed taxpayers almost $8,000 in September and October. After all that tax money was spent, prosecutor Linda Drane Brudick told the judge the number of new possible witnesses was greatly exaggerated publicly by the defense.

"When I asked Mr. Mason about that he told me he believed there would be 6 to10 individuals that may qualify as having relevant information,"

Defense expert Dr. Henry Lee has billed state taxpayers more than $8,000 for three days worth of work and travel from Connecticut. He claimed to be giving taxpayers a 50 percent discount and months ago, defense attorney Cheney Mason told a judge that Lee would be willing to work for oranges.

"He told me at a conference that Dr. Lee said he'd been willing to work for boxes of oranges," Mason said.
WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said the defense is playing fast and loose with taxpayer money.
"They're not spending tax money wisely and using it for fishing expedition," Sheaffer said.

The defense also hired a court reporter service, which charges almost $1 more a page for transcripts than the state allows. That could've cost taxpayers hundreds more than it should have, but the Justice Administrative Commission, which monitors defense spending, caught it and turned down reimbursement at that rate.

CASEY'S DEFENSE WANTS TO SEAL WITNESS LIST Casey Anthony's defense team wants the judge to seal its list of death penalty witnesses. The defense has until next Tuesday to list its witnesses.

The defense doesn't want the names made public unless Casey is convicted, and they have to testify. The defense claims they'll be harassed by the media.
If the judge doesn't grant Casey's request, the defense is asking for a hearing on the matter.

FUNDING FOR DNA TESTS GRANTED IN CASEY CASE
Taxpayers will pay $2,000 for Casey Anthony's defense team to conduct DNA testing.

HEARING ON FUNDING: Watch Raw Video
The defense had asked the judge for permission to use an out-of-state lab to conduct DNA tests on a laundry bag and some shorts found with Caylee's remains. The agency that manages state money argued that the tests could be conducted at a Florida lab.

But at Thursday's hearing, Judge Belvin Perry granted the defense motion.
"The fees which are announced, which are a little more than $2,000 and change, is not an exorbitant amount of money and therefore the court will grant the motion for DNA testing at the figures placed in the motion," Judge Belvin Perry ruled Thursday afternoon (watch full hearing).

Judge Perry said the Florida lab did not have the correct certification needed to conduct the DNA testing. The 1:30pm hearing lasted a little over 10 minutes.

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lisette we can always count on you to post updates during the hearings. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love reading the commentary you post.

I agree LM Lisette does a wonderful job for us. Thank you so much Lisette.

Ok so what is going on between Casey and Baez? Those two are skanky together.

JP doesn't seem to miss much so I wonder if he notices the glances and the smiles and the split down to here orange blouse.

What girl that murdered her daughter would show up at a hearing in a bright orange blouse and make cutie eyes with her defense attorney.

If I saw it the certainly Baez wife had to see it. I would love to be a fly on that wall tonight.

I bet that woman can't wait for this trial to end.

Jeanne I had heard that his wife was pregnant. I do not even rem. where I read that. Did anyone else hear that? According to Gerald Baez' wife is "hot".

Cherylz I too heard she was pregnant and I can't remember either. Wasn't the news she was preggers not sitting well with Casey? Hummm. I shall look around a bit.

If you read down on the page you can see the detectives notes on Jose and Casey. Quite the pair.

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CASEY’S ANGER AT JOSE’S WIFE BEING PREGNANT



The documents which were released show just how much she misinterpreted their meeting and interactions. The dectective’s notes say that Casey was upset when she found out Jose’s wife was pregnant.

Obviously Casey manufactured in her disturbed mind that she and Jose were in a relationship. So she reacted like a jealous girlfriend who found out her boyfriend impregnated another woman. This was Jose’s wife. Her narcissism would not allow her to see that he had any other life outside of her. It is disturbing to see how proprietary she became over Jose.

There are other implications here as well, with Jose creating life while she allegedly took away a life . She even may have even fantasized about having a baby with Jose. Now that his wife was having his baby, she got upset and jealous that it was not her who was having the baby with Jose.

Interesting little article on Jose. Hummm I say..hummm.
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ORLANDO — His defense of a young mother charged with killing her toddler has transformed José Ángel Baez into one of the best-known lawyers in America.

For eight years after he graduated from law school, however, the board that screens prospective attorneys in Florida would not let him practice law. The Florida Supreme Court agreed with the decision, issuing an order in 2000 that cataloged unpaid bills, extravagant spending and other "financial irresponsibility" up to that time. Justices reserved their strongest condemnation for his failure to stay current on support payments for his only child.

His overall behavior, they wrote, showed "a total lack of respect for the rights of others and a total lack of respect for the legal system, which is absolutely inconsistent with the character and fitness qualities required of those seeking to be afforded the highest position of trust and confidence recognized by our system of law."

He worked instead as a paralegal for the Miami-Dade public defender and then taught Internet research to lawyers and started four business ventures, including two bikini companies. Before Florida Bar officials admitted him in 2005, he had to demonstrate that he had rehabilitated himself.

Today, as lead defense attorney for Casey Anthony — the Orange County woman charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter— 40-year-old Baez has become the sort of instant celebrity monitored by TV, newspapers, tabloids and the Internet.

He is a Bar member in good standing, his office spokeswoman reminded the Orlando Sentinel in a prepared statement. She also questioned the motives behind the newspaper story.

"Based on your questions and actions," she wrote, "this profile you are writing has nothing to do with Jose Baez's representation of Casey Anthony and appears to be a sensationalist persecution of a Hispanic lawyer who has been targeted by a newspaper lucky to find itself at the center of a national story."

The Supreme Court order, which the Sentinel found in public records, shows that nearly a decade ago, he could not satisfy the character and fitness standards Florida requires of prospective lawyers.

It identifies Baez by his initials, J.A.B. — standard procedure in cases in which prospective lawyers challenge their denial of a law license at the state's highest court. Using other public records and interviews, the Sentinel matched many details in the document to Baez, however.

For instance, the lawyer listed as representing J.A.B. was Manuel Alvarez, an attorney with the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office, where Baez worked at the time.

The office confirmed that Alvarez helped Baez with his Bar application. Supreme Court records show J.A.B.'s is the only case involving the Bar that Alvarez has handled in the state's highest court.

Alvarez would not comment, but Executive Assistant Public Defender Rory S. Stein said that Alvarez wrote a legal brief on behalf of Baez in 1998, the year after he graduated from law school. Stein called it "a friendly gesture" to a staff member who needed help with his lawyer application.

In an interview last year, Baez described his eight years out of law as a personal choice, saying he could earn more money in other fields. He would not be interviewed for this story but commented on the court order in the statement issued through Marti Mackenzie, his office spokeswoman:

"The ruling you claim that was made about a lawyer with the initials J.A.B. has nothing to do with Mr. Baez's current status as a member in good standing with The Florida Bar. Many people, including lawyers, have monetary misunderstandings, disputes and child support disagreements that have no effect on their ability to represent clients."

From Navy to law school

Born in Puerto Rico in 1969, Baez told reporters he grew up in the Bronx and South Florida with his mother, a single parent. He dropped out of Homestead High School in ninth grade.

He married at 17, became a father, earned a GED diploma and joined the Navy in 1986.

According to his résumé, Baez spent three years assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Norfolk, Va., trained as an intelligence analyst with what he described as a "Cosmic Top Secret" security clearance.

He left active duty in May 1989 as a yeoman seaman, a rank associated with administrative duties, and then served in the U.S. Navy Reserve, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.

In the next six years, Baez divorced, attended Miami-Dade Community College and graduated from Florida State University. A black belt in tae kwon do, Baez competed with the karate, pistol and crime-scene team from FSU's chapter of Lambda Alpha Epsilon, a fraternity of criminology majors.

"We probably ranked first overall in every category in every national competition," said Ken Koehler, the fraternity's former sergeant-at-arms. "José was more or less the primary instructor. ... We did academic testing as well, and he did pretty good with that, too."

After graduating in 1997 from St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, Baez applied to become a lawyer. In April 1998, he was called before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, which screens prospective lawyers. The later Supreme Court order outlined how this review uncovered the debts and other problems that concerned the Bar examiners.

That order is the only public record of the review, which is designed to protect the public and safeguard the judicial system. The Bar examiners have responsibility for ensuring that all lawyer applicants meet Florida's requirements for character and fitness, education and technical competence, according to Supreme Court rules.

The process is not open to the public, except when a candidate who is turned down asks the Supreme Court to review the decision. The court identifies the rejected applicant only by his or her initials when its findings are released.

Court critical of finances

According to the Supreme Court summary of the case, the Board of Bar Examiners filed formal allegations against J.A.B. in September 1998. In addition to unpaid child support, a personal bankruptcy and default on a student loan, the investigators said he left out parts of his history, including that he wrote a bad check and entered a pretrial program to avoid conviction.

Investigators also found fault with J.A.B.'s participation in a foreign-studies program in summer 1995 and his leasing of a Mazda Miata in Miami — unnecessary expenses when he owed money to others, they said.

After a formal hearing, the board found the allegations proven and recommended that he not be admitted to the Bar.

"Additionally, the Board found that J.A.B.'s misrepresentations and lack of candor in his answers to the specifications and during his formal hearing testimony were further grounds for disqualification," the Supreme Court wrote.

Many details in the order can be confirmed in public records for José Baez:

•Miami-Dade Circuit Court records show that Baez failed repeatedly to pay his $200-a-month child support after his 1993 divorce. The sum owed reached $12,000 by 2004. Asked recently about this, Baez said through his spokeswoman that he and his ex-wife have resolved their child-support issues. Like J.A.B., Baez's only child is a daughter.

•Baez declared bankruptcy in September 1990, the same month and year cited for J.A.B. The records on Baez are filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he lived during and after his service in the Navy.

•The Virginia Education Loan Authority filed liens against Baez for $4,336 in unpaid loans in 1995, the same year the Supreme Court says J.A.B defaulted on his student loan.

•Baez leased a Mazda Miata in 1998, just as J.A.B did. The Sentinel obtained a copy of his Progressive Express insurance card for the vehicle, which Baez had submitted to the Public Defender's Office in Miami. Files from the State Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles show the car was leased.

In April 1998 — the same month that the Bar examiners held their investigative hearing into J.A.B.'s qualifications as a lawyer — the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office reassigned José Ángel Baez to tasks that did not require a law degree.

Baez spent the next 16 months interviewing witnesses and investigating cases to compensate the office for its investment in his preparation to be a lawyer, records show. He resigned in September 1999.

The following year, in June 2000, the Supreme Court issued its findings in case No. SC95855, Florida Board of Bar Examiners RE: J.A.B.: "Accordingly, we approve the Board's recommendation that J.A.B. not be admitted to the Florida Bar at this time."

Baez tries bikini business

Turned down by the Bar, Baez started a series of businesses.

They included Bon Bon Bikinis and Brazilian-Bikinis.Com to sell bathing suits, corporate records show. He also applied for a real-estate license and created two companies selling computer know-how: LawStudentWebsites.Com and LawyerConcepts.

From 2000 to 2005, according to his spokeswoman, Baez worked for LexisNexis, the information company. In an interview last year, he said he taught lawyers and judges to research cases using the Internet and made twice as much as he could practicing law.

Records show that a court in Miami docked $550 a month from his LexisNexis paycheck in 2004 to pay child support to his first wife.

An applicant denied admission to the Bar can reapply after two years or other such period set by the Bar examiners. The application must include a "written statement describing the scope and character of the applicant's evidence of rehabilitation," according to Supreme Court rules.

The court requires them to produce "clear and convincing evidence of rehabilitation," such as strict compliance with judicial or administrative orders, assurances to "conduct one's self in an exemplary manner" and demonstrations of excellent character, good reputation for professional ability and "positive action" in their occupation, religion or community or civic service.

Baez launched two community-service ventures during his time away from the law.

In 2001, according to state records, Baez created a nonprofit group, the Miami Domestic Violence Project. It dissolved two years later. Mackenzie, Baez's office spokeswoman, said the project disbanded because another group with an almost identical purpose and name already existed.

In 2004, Baez created another nonprofit in Miami, Miracles for Children Foundation Corp., according to state records. It continued until Sept. 16, 2005.

The following week, Sept. 22, Baez was admitted to practice law. Because the admission process for lawyers is not public, there is no way to know what effect these nonprofit groups had on the Bar's action.