Jeff Ashton and his wife, Rita, on Election Night in August, when he was elected Orange-Osceola state attorney. Photo credit: Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel
It was pretty clear from two Ashton interviews over the weekend that he’s ready to move beyond the Anthony case. Ashton will be sworn in as Orange-Osceola state attorney at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
When asked where Anthony is, Ashton said he has a standard response. “I don’t know and I don’t care,” Ashton told Greg Warmoth on WFTV-Channel 9’s “Central Florida Spotlight.”
“As I said in the book, I think we did about everything that we could in this case with what we were given. The jury’s verdict is what it is,” Ashton said.
He recounted the prosecution’s loss in his book, “Imperfect Justice.” Anthony was acquitted of murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee.
But the Anthony case still has policy ramifications. WKMG-Channel 6’s Tony Pipitone took a cue from defense attorney Jose Baez’s book and explored a revelation that a search for foolproof suffocation was conducted on the Anthony family computer, but the prosecution didn’t learn that information because the Orange County Sheriff’s Office had missed it.
Ashton didn’t want to dwell on that issue. He told WFTV that the state attorney’s office needs complete confidence in the people doing the searches.
He expanded a bit in a report by WESH-Channel 2’s Bob Kealing. “Once I get in office, I’m going to want to know what happened,” Ashton said. He added that as state attorney, he won’t use any agency he doesn’t have confidence in. But Ashton declined an on-air interview with Kealing.
On WFTV, Ashton noted that the Anthony case was good for his name recognition and “really got people to notice what I was doing.”
Being played by Rob Lowe in the Lifetime movie “Prosecuting Casey Anthony” is “a serious upgrade,” Ashton said.
That movie, based on Ashton’s book, debuts at 8 p.m. Jan. 19. In the WFTV interview, Ashton predicted it will be “embarrassing” to see himself portrayed on television.
“I’ll be glad when the movie is over and we move on, and I can start concentrating on other things,” Ashton told Warmoth.
He gets his start, in a big way, right after midnight.