Casey Anthony scores another legal victory in defamation lawsuit

TAMPA, Fla. – A federal appeals court has sided with Casey Anthony over a lawsuit filed against her by a former Orange County meter reader.

In 2011, months after a jury acquitted Anthony of murdering her daughter Caylee, Roy Kronk sued Anthony for defamation.

Kronk claimed that statements made by Anthony's attorneys to the media and during her highly publicized trial implied that he kidnapped and killed the 4-year-old girl, whose body he found in a wooded area.

Last year a judge presiding over Anthony’s bankruptcy ruled that there was not enough evidence to prove that Anthony willfully defamed Kronk.

Kronk appealed that court’s decision.

Last week, an appeals court upheld the lower’s court decision blocking Kronk’s lawsuit from proceeding to trial.

“In sum, there is no evidence in the record of Anthony affirmatively directing her attorneys to make statements to the media implicating Kronk in the crime, nor is there even any evidence that Anthony knew her attorneys were doing so, thought it was wrongful, but contemporaneously failed to act,” wrote U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington.


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Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Mike DeForest has been covering Central Florida news for more than two decades.

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