Casey Anthony's Parents' Attorney: 'This Case Has Destroyed Their Lives'

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Very Bittersweet Closure for Casey's Parents

Attorney for George and Cindy Anthony reflects on not guilty verdict on murder charge, strained family relationship

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," July 6, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Tonight: Well, will she walk? In less than 11 hours, Casey Anthony could be walking right out of that jail. As you know, Casey was not convicted of murder. The jury unanimously agreed the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey murdered her 2- year-old daughter, Caylee. But the jury did unanimously agree she lied. She lied to the police, and they convicted her for misdemeanors. And early tomorrow morning, Casey will be sentenced for those four crimes. Casey's sentence, however, could be time served, meaning the 25-year-old could walk out the front door of the courthouse after spending nearly three years in jail.

Meanwhile, Casey's parents, George and Cindy, haven't spoken to her since the verdict. So where are her parents right now? Joining us is Mark Lippman, the attorney for George, Cindy and Lee Anthony. Good evening, Mark.

MARK LIPPMAN, ANTHONY FAMILY ATTORNEY: How're you doing?

VAN SUSTEREN: I'm very well. Now, I know you're not going to tell me specifically where they are for security reasons, but I'm curious if -- you know, how they're doing tonight.

LIPPMAN: They're doing fine. They're assimilating and just letting this all sink in, the fact that this chapter in their life is over and that they will not have to face any more depositions, anymore testimony, going and being recalled and recalled and recalled in this case. All that's over. And tomorrow, we'll see what the day brings.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you expect them to go to court tomorrow?

LIPPMAN: I can't discuss that because of security reasons. But you can imagine, they've been there every day since the trial began, so...

VAN SUSTEREN: What do you advise your clients at this point? Because this is a very unique situation. Your clients are obviously not the defendants. But they've gone through a horrible situation with their child, and of course, with their grandchild. How do you advise them to get their lives back in order?

LIPPMAN: Well, first, we need to see what happens tomorrow, see what Casey chooses to do. Certainly, there's lots of decisions that need to be made. My client can't -- neither one of them or any them can go back to their mundane lives of the day-to-day grind that we all go through. Cindy can't go back to being a nurse. George can't go back into security or law enforcement. This case has destroyed their lives, so they need to -- as you can imagine, just starting out, they have to just start out all over again and figure out where they're going to go.

VAN SUSTEREN: In your prior life, you were a prosecutor. So give me a little education on Florida law. She's been convicted of four misdemeanors. She has been detained since about August, I think, 2008. I think she got out for a period of time. Does that automatically get -- set off any sentence she receives tomorrow, number one? And number two, is there any sort of mandatory parole so that you would expect that she would be -- that she would immediately go out tomorrow, even if she got the maximum?

LIPPMAN: Well, in the state of Florida, you get five days for every month that you serve. You only do 85 percent of your time. So if you do the math, we figured that she'll get approximately 240 days' credit time served. If she were given -- if she had served the full four years -- obviously, she hasn't served that yet -- she's at 900-and-change. I imagine if the judge were to max her, she'll get a couple months, and then that's it.

For her safety, you know, I -- it's horrible to say, but I could see the judge wanting to keep her in jail for a variety of different reasons. But who knows what he's going to do tomorrow.

VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of her walking out -- I mean, obviously, it's -- I mean, it's very obvious to all of us that she has leveled some pretty incredible accusations against her father and her brother. And I know that George, her father, has denied it.

She doesn't have any money. Does the state give you anything as you walk out the door? Do they even give you bus fare?

LIPPMAN: I do think they give you bus fare. But generally what happens, once the judge sentences her, they'll take her back to the jail. They'll process her. They'll give her back her clothes that she was booked in. She has a variety of articles of clothing.

For security purposes, I've heard that they won't release her directly from the jail. They're going to take her to some location, I imagine it would be somebody's office or home. And we'll go from there. Mr. Mason has said that she wasn't inclined to necessarily go back to the parents' house. But certainly, we haven't had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Baez, who's out of state -- or he may be back by now -- or Casey herself.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do the parents -- are they willing to have her come back home or are things just too raw right now?

LIPPMAN: Unfortunately, those are things I can't talk about because that's attorney/client privilege. And as you know, whatever my clients tell me, I can't say. Otherwise, I could lose my license.

VAN SUSTEREN: One of the things that was so curious -- and you can misinterpret things by looking at them from a distance. But there's been a lot of talk about the fact that as soon as the verdict was read, that George and Cindy Anthony left the courtroom. Should we read anything into that? Was there anything -- any reason they left the courtroom...

LIPPMAN: No, if you...

VAN SUSTEREN: ... was it abruptly? Maybe it wasn't abruptly. Explain it.

LIPPMAN: Right. Sure. If you look back a couple seconds earlier, Karen Levey, who, by the way, was exceptional as court administrator, was very kind to my clients and myself -- you can see her leaning over and the deputies leaning over, saying, you know, "Probably now would be a good time to leave." And for security purposes, certainly, we're going to take the advice of law enforcement and take off when they tell us to.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, so no one should read, like (INAUDIBLE) they had any reaction to the verdict so they were out there. By the way...

LIPPMAN: Correct.

VAN SUSTEREN: ... how do they feel about this verdict? Mixed -- I imagine it's very difficult. It's their grandchild. It's their daughter and the horrible trial. Can you tell us, you know -- you know, how they feel about all this?

LIPPMAN: You know, unfortunately, as their attorney, I feel -- and I can't say anything what I personally think because anything I may say may come back as the representation of what they think. So while my wife may know what I think, nobody else will ever know what I think because that's the nature of my representation.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, in this business of high-profile trials, all of a sudden, the deals come flying in over the ransom. Have they been offered book deals, publicity things? I mean, as their lawyer, are you fielding stuff like that?

LIPPMAN: Unfortunately, I can't discuss those things, either. We take the attorney/client privilege very seriously, but my goal is to ensure that they have some way to rebuild their lives, however we can achieve that.

VAN SUSTEREN: Mark, thank you.

LIPPMAN: Thanks very much for having me.