Don’t give Casey Anthony another 15 minutes of fame warns MAUREEN CALLAHAN

Talk about criminal.

Casey Anthony, arguably the most maligned woman in America, will tell her side of the story – as it is – in a three-part documentary series that airs on Peacock.

Do not believe it? Watch the trailer, Casey Anthony in full hair and makeup, ready for her close-up, enjoying another 15 minutes of – what exactly? Fame? shame? The red-hot hatred of the general public?

Unless Casey Anthony finally confesses to the murder of her two-year-old daughter Caylee, or at the very least vile indifference to human life—and those odds are slim to zero—this series is indefensible and whoever gave the green light must be fired. Peacock must make sure he never sees the light of day.

Not since OJ Simpson has a jury gotten a not guilty verdict so wrong.

For those who have forgotten the details, or are too young to remember, little Caylee Anthony disappeared in June 2008, last seen leaving her grandparents’ home in Orlando with Casey, then a young single mother.

31 days passed before the toddler was finally reported missing by Casey’s mother Cindy, who told a 911 operator that “my granddaughter has been taken – she’s been missing for a month” and that her daughter Casey had lied about her whereabouts.

‘I found [Casey’s] car today,” Cindy told the operator, “and it smells like there’s a body in that damn car.”

According to Casey’s boyfriend at the time — from Caylee’s disappearance, last seen with her mother, to that 911 call — Casey Anthony, then 22, was keeping herself pretty busy. She partied constantly.

She got a tattoo that read ‘La Bella Vita’ – the beautiful life – on her back. She entered a ‘Hot Body’ contest at a local nightclub.

During the time Caylee was missing, her boyfriend and his roommates testified that Casey never seemed upset in the least. She went shopping at Target and Ikea. She bought beer. She went to a Fourth of July party and barely mentioned her child.

During the time Caylee (top left) was missing, Casey never seemed to be upset in the least, according to Casey’s then-boyfriend and his roommates. (Right) Caylee’s remains were finally found in a garbage bag on December 11, 2008

“Having a great old time,” her then-boyfriend Tony Lazzaro testified.

“She was partying and having fun—drinking, dancing,” Lazzaro’s roommate Roy House testified. “She seemed like a fun party animal.”

When the police began investigating Caylee’s disappearance, Casey told Anthony lie after lie. First, she told police that Caylee had been taken by her Spanish nanny, a woman Casey identified as Zenaida Gonzalez — but Gonzalez told authorities she had never met Casey or Caylee. The address Casey gave the detectives for Gonzalez was false, and the investigators discovered that the girl did not have a nanny.

Casey also told investigators she worked at Universal Studios and took them on a 25-minute walk through the offices until she gave up and admitted she didn’t have an office there. She even told police that she had been fired two years earlier, but pretended she was still going to work there, cheating on her friends and family.

She also said she told two people her daughter was missing – two people she had made up. And Casey lied about Caylee, who had just turned three, and called her after she went missing.

If that last part doesn’t make sense to you, that’s understandable — because it doesn’t make sense. Yes, Casey Anthony claimed her daughter, who had just turned three, called her.

There was no evidence that Casey Anthony had done anything – one thing – to look for her toddler in all that time. No wonder America came to one conclusion: Casey Anthony was a psychopathic narcissist who found motherhood a barrier to partying, the only one with the means, motive, and ability to want Caylee dead.

On December 11, 2008, Caylee’s remains were discovered in a wooded area just a quarter of a mile from Casey’s parents’ home. Her body had been put in a garbage bag and partially eaten by wild animals. She was wearing a T-shirt that read BIG PROBLEM. Duct tape was found around Caylee’s nose and mouth, tight enough to protect her lower jaw from postmortem decomposition; at that point it should have been detached from her skull.

According to police reports, whoever wrapped the duct tape around Caylee’s nose and mouth also placed a heart-shaped sticker on it – which led me to suspect that the killer was known to the child and close to the child. A pair of pull-up diapers and a Winnie the Pooh blanket were also found at Caylee’s.

A forensic expert testified that evidence showed Caylee’s body had been in the trunk of Casey’s car, a white Pontiac Sunfire, for several days. That car was found abandoned in a parking lot on June 24, 2008. Both Casey’s father and the tow truck company manager testified to the strong stench of human decomposition emanating from the trunk.

In a re-examination of the case, famed OJ prosecutor Marcia Clark noted that a search history on the Anthony family’s computer would include one for “foolproof asphyxiation,” according to a book written by Anthony’s attorney, Jose Baez.

Clark claims the date and time of that search took place when Casey was home alone and that she tried to remove it after the police initially questioned her. Baez says that Casey’s father, Caylee’s grandfather, did the search.

She entered a ‘Hot Body’ contest at a local nightclub. (Above) A photo used as evidence during her murder trial shows Casey Anthony during a match at the Fusion nightclub in Orlando

She got a tattoo that read ‘La Bella Vita’ – the beautiful life – on her back. (Above) Photo of Anthony’s tattoo was introduced as evidence in her murder trial

The defense argued that Caylee accidentally drowned in her grandparents’ pool — a theory that, frankly, felt sloppy and a little too handy. But after nearly three months of testimony, a jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter.

Judging by the outrage this doc has already generated, few people believe Casey Anthony is not guilty, myself included. Why? Because this woman showed fear and tears only during the process, and only then – in my opinion – for herself. Not for her child, who died a horrible death and was thrown like garbage by the side of the road.

And to put the obvious, if it really was an accidental drowning, why wouldn’t her mother call 911? How could she party with abandon for the next month—as if she had her freedom back, literally no care or responsibility in the world?

Last year, one of the judges, who prefers to remain anonymous, told People magazine his deep regret. That statement “haunts me to this day,” he said. “I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, and I didn’t stand up for what I believed in at the time.”

All that can be learned from this case is law school: how the prosecution can screw up a slam dunk, and how a shoddy defense team (albeit aided by a six-figure check from ABC News, which bought pictures of Anthony) can win. the seemingly unwinnable.

Other than that, there’s nothing of value here. There is nothing enlightening or uplifting about Casey Anthony. Unlike OJs, this case tells us nothing about bigger issues: race, socioeconomics, celebrity, the legal system.

The defense argued that Caylee accidentally drowned in her grandparents’ pool — a theory that, frankly, felt sloppy and a little too handy.

And while true crime has exploded over the past decade, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careful about which cases we’re re-investigating and why, and whether they’re honoring the only people who matter: the victims and their families.

There’s one worthy OJ parallel here, though: in November 2006, after HarperCollins announced it was publishing an OJ Simpson book titled “If I Did It” — in which he explained how he allegedly killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend. Ron Goldman while maintaining his innocence – the public reaction was so swift and vociferous that the book was scrapped.

The editor, the then very powerful Judith Regan, was fired. The publisher pulverized all 400,000 copies. Regan’s namesake, ReganBooks, was folded and she never regained her iconic status in the industry.

The copyright of the book was given to Goldman’s estate by the courts. Ron’s sister Kim wrote an introduction and the late Dominic Dunne, who reported extensively on the Vanity Fair trial and believed in Simpson’s guilt, wrote the afterword.

At least here we saw a genuine attempt to atone for that blatant, cynical mistake.

As for this documentary, only Peacock executives and these filmmakers know what is and isn’t in it. But anything less than a confession is reason enough to retract it. That is the only correct and decent call.

Casey Anthony doesn’t deserve a podium. She doesn’t deserve to make money on this case, or try any kind of reputation repair, or get the slightest recognition in the public square.

As the monster itself told the Associated Press in 2017, “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I will never. I’m okay with myself. I sleep pretty well at night.’