"The best I can say is this is a legal maze," Judge Belvin Perry said. "This is a legal morass."
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Judge Belvin Perry didn't indicate when he would issue a ruling. Casey didn't attend the hearing, which involves a case separate from her high-profile murder trial that ended with her acquittal last month.
Casey has disappeared from the public eye since a jury found her not guilty in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, and she was released from the Orange County jail.
Her lawyers have not disclosed her location expect to say she was out of state earlier this week.
Another judge sentenced her in January 2010 to probation after she pleaded guilty to using checks stolen from a friend. Judge Stan Strickland said during the sentencing hearing that Casey should serve the probation upon her release from prison or jail.Those instructions never made it into a written order and corrections officials interpreted the sentence to mean Casey could serve the probation while she was in jail awaiting trial.
Judge Strickland issued an amended order earlier this week, clarifying that Casey needs to start serving probation now that she is out of jail.
Strickland recused himself from the case, which is why Judge Perry is now handling it.
Her attorneys argued at the hearing that Casey already has served the probation and to do so again would be double jeopardy. They also argued that Strickland didn't have jurisdiction over the case anymore and that his original sentencing order could not be corrected more than 60 days after it was issued.
The defense admitted it knew that Casey was not supposed to serve her probation while still in jail, but also knew that the corrections department started her probation and ended it while she was still in jail and never said a word to anyone.
The attorneys didn't answer the question.
Now, the defense argues that it is just too late to go back and do it the way it was supposed to be done.
But Judge Perry said he's not so sure. He said it's unclear how long a judge has to correct a clerical error.
"There are no clear cut answers in this case. It's a mess," Perry said.
Perry said he's going to do more research before deciding whether to put Casey back on probation, but if he does, it might be administrative probation, which means she just has to go one year without being arrested again.
She wouldn’t be required to look for a job and it would only cost her $50, as opposed to the $40 payable upon each visit to her probation officer.
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