The grandparents of murdered Florida girl Caylee Anthony won't have to give statements for a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman with the same name as the purported baby sitter implicated in the child's disappearance and murder.
The depositions of George and Cindy Anthony in the civil case brought by the woman, Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, were postponed.
During a hearing, Judge Jose Rodriguez ruled that the Anthonys, whose daughter Casey Anthony is jailed in her little girl's killing, wouldn't be asked for their statements in the deposition originally scheduled for Thursday.
Anthony family attorney Brad Conway has 20 days to turn over documents from a doctor to buy his clients more time before they're deposed in the case.
He filed a motion Tuesday to block the depositions on the grounds that they weren't mentally or emotionally able to participate.
Conway reminded the court that 2-year-old Caylee's grandfather ran away and threatened to commit suicide last month and was only recently released from the hospital.
Casey Anthony, 22, said she last saw Caylee over the summer when she left her with a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez in the parking lot of a local apartment complex.
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Her defense team has indicated plans to argue that the sitter kidnapped and later killed the toddler.
They say the woman described by Anthony is not the same person as the one suing.
Police questioned Fernandez-Gonzalez extensively, but turned up no link between her and the child.
Fernandez-Gonzalez claims she lost her job — and her life as she knew it — because of her unwanted involvement in the Anthony saga.
Anthony family attorney wrote that the woman's lawyers want to "annoy, embarrass and oppress" the Anthonys in filing Tuesday's motion to stop the depositions from going forward.
The proceedings are open to the public and the press.
Casey Anthony's brother, Lee Anthony, is still scheduled to give a deposition in the civil case on Friday.
Caylee disappeared in mid-June but wasn't reported missing until a month later. Her remains were found in December in a wooded lot about a half-mile from her family's home. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide.
Police released case documents last week outlining that evidence found on or near the little girl's skull and bones are a match to items collected at the Anthony house just outside Orlando.
Casey has insisted that she had nothing to do with her little girl's death. Detectives contend she made the kidnapper nanny story up and the sitter doesn't exist.
Her trial was scheduled to begin in March, but could be delayed until early next year.
Click here for more on this story from the Orlando Sentinel.
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