Marva Hinton 07/30/2008 06:32:24

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A judge rules in favor of keeping a lot of the information in the Casey Anthony case public.

Judge Stan Strickland's ruling Tuesday afternoon paves the way for the continued release of Casey's jailhouse phone calls and video of her visits. But Casey's family still believes releasing this information will hurt the investigation into Caylee's disappearance.

Casey's father, George Anthony, took the stand during the hearing and told the court releasing his daughter's communication from jail may scare off Caylee's kidnapper.

"I believe that whoever has Caylee if they keep on hearing all these phone conversations things like that, they're going to find something out and it's going to take her further and further away from us," said George.

Casey's attorney, Jose Baez, stressed that point.

"If this person is out there and sees that this information has been released, they may abscond, may take the child even further, or God forbid do something worse," said Baez.

He also argued that releasing this information only hurts his client.

"All of, if not a majority of, the publicity that's been extended out there has negatively affected my client and her presumption of innocence and possibly her right to a fair trial," said Baez.

But Judge Stan Strickland denied Baez's motion saying in cases like this he prefers to err on the side of the First Amendment.

"Basically, if your motion is granted, then the public's only source of information will be from you and the defendant's family," said Strickland. "Something seems patently wrong with that."

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