Casey Anthony now owes $217K for Caylee's search

[September 24, 2011]  ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- A Florida judge on Friday increased the reimbursement costs Casey Anthony must pay to investigators for searching for her missing 2-year-old daughter three years ago.

Judge Belvin Perry added another $119,000 to the bill she owes four law enforcement agencies in central Florida, bringing the total to more than $217,000. That's still short of the $500,000 prosecutors were seeking.

The additional amount comes from the Orange County Sheriff's Office providing the judge with more details about their costs. The judge said in the earlier order that the sheriff's office hadn't sufficiently broken down the costs of its investigation from mid-July through September 2008.

Anthony was acquitted in July on charges of murdering her daughter, Caylee. But the 25-year-old was convicted of four misdemeanor counts of lying to authorities. She told officers a baby sitter had kidnapped the child. Authorities later learned the baby sitter never existed.

The costs only cover the missing person investigation and not the homicide investigation.

Anthony, who was declared indigent by the court so taxpayers paid for her defense, has appealed her misdemeanor convictions.

The judge said that Anthony's payment obligations will be a civil judgment, meaning her creditors will have to sue to collect any money she earns from a book deal or the rights to her story. If she ever tries to buy a house, they will be able to put a lien on it.

Anthony currently is serving probation at an undisclosed location in Florida for unrelated check fraud charges.

[Associated Press]

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