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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Meter Reader Sues Casey Anthony

ORLANDO (CN) - The meter reader who found the remains of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony claims the child's mother, Casey Anthony, defamed him by saying that he killed the child.

Roy Kronk filed a similar defamation complaint in September against the National Enquirer.

In his new complaint in Orange County Court, Kronk says he was being a good Samaritan by reporting what he found to the proper authorities.

Kronk, then working for Orange County, says he was a private figure when he reported finding Kaylee Anthony's remains in 2008.

Casey Anthony was charged with murder but was acquitted this summer in a trial that made national headlines.

Kronk claims: "Over the course of the past last (2) years, Casey Anthony, through her attorneys, who acted as her agents, published false and defamatory statements about Kronk. The publications occurred in almost every media format imaginable and were broadcast and/or published across the country, if not the globe, via the Internet, the news print media, and national television shows. Casey Anthony, through her attorneys, made statements too numerous to recite. However, the substance and gist of the false and defamatory statements against Kronk are as follows:

"(a) Roy Kronk is the killer;

"(b) Roy Kronk is a child snatcher;

"(c) Roy Kronk is guilty;

"(d) Roy Kronk is the only one who's been with the body;

"(e) Roy Kronk magically discovered the body;

"(f) Roy Kronk played a role in placing the body;

"(g) Roy Kronk killed Caylee Anthony;

"(h) Roy Kronk had something to do with it;

"(i) Roy Kronk removed the remains;

"(j) Roy Kronk planted the remains;

"(k) Roy Kronk had the remains in his possession for months; and

"(l) Roy Kronk is morally bankrupt, took the body and hid it.

"If Casey Anthony's story is true that Caylee Anthony drowned in the family swimming pool on June 16, 2008, then she knew that the statements she authorized and permitted her agents to publish were false. In an attempt to find someone other than herself to blame for the tragic death of her child, Casey Anthony authorized and permitted her attorneys, as her agents, to make false and malicious statements against Kronk, and to portray him as the murderer of her child. Casey Anthony, through her attorneys, refused to retract the statements about Kronk, and when confronted with whether she was going to withdraw the defamatory statements, Casey Anthony, through her attorneys, responded the statements were not false, and that the statements would stand."

Kronk seeks punitive damages for defamation, and costs.

He is represented by Howard Marks with Burr & Forman.

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