Casey Anthony’s life story is worth a decent chunk of change, and the trustee in charge of resolving her bankruptcy wants to sell the rights to it to help settle the nearly $800,000 she owes creditors.

The big catch is that Anthony doesn’t want to sell. Nonetheless, one bidder has already offered $10,000 – to bury her life story, he says – and more are waiting in the wings, according to her bankruptcy trustee.

On Tuesday afternoon, Anthony's trustee and her attorneys brought the issue before federal bankruptcy Judge K. Rodney May in Tampa, Fla., who decided he would make a decision 30 days from now on whether the worldwide exclusive rights to her life story can be auctioned off for cash -- a proposal May said he was "skeptical" of, reported NBC affiliate WESH.com. 

Most of the hundreds of thousands that Anthony, the Orlando, Fla., mother who was acquitted in 2011 in the murder of her two-year-old daughter Caylee, owes is to her defense attorney. She owns less than $1,100 in assets, according to a Chapter 7 petition filed for bankruptcy in January.

Her most valuable asset does not even exist yet, Stephen Meininger, her Tampa-based bankruptcy trustee, told the court on Tuesday, arguing that her best bet for paying back the approximately $792,000 she owes is to put the rights to her life story up for auction -- an unprecedented legal move Anthony's attorneys vehemently disagree with.

"The Trustee does not cite any law to support his contention that he can sell 'property' that has not yet been created," Anthony's attorneys, David Schrader and Debra Ferwarda, wrote in an April 4 court filing. "The Trustee’s Motion also creates a slippery slope that would have dangerous repercussions far beyond the scope of this case."

In the life story of Anthony, 27, there is a lot to tell: allegations of childhood sexual abuse by her father, George, one of the many bombshells that came up during her trial; what was going through her mind in the 31 days between when Caylee went missing and when her disappearance was reported to police; being in jail the day Caylee's remains were found; being voted America's "most hated person"; and what her elusive life has been like in Florida since her acquittal.

Meininger said he's received at least two written offers from people interested in buying the exclusive rights, and others who have expressed interest.

"We haven't really discussed figures, which is one of the reasons why we wanted to set up auction procedures at the hearing," he said Tuesday morning ahead of the hearing. He did say one of the offers was for $12,000. NBC's Kerry Sanders reported on TODAY that an Austin, Texas, attorney, James Schober, put in an offer of $10,000, but that bid was made on condition of preventing the story from ever getting out so Anthony would never profit from it.

"As much as I would like to think otherwise, Casey Anthony's story has value," Schober said.

Schober testified in Tuesday's court hearing via phone, WESH.com reported, and issued a statement explaining the reasons why he wanted to buy the rights to Anthony's story.

""(First)... to demonstrate that the asset has present value; second, to ensure that the proceeds from the sale of the asset are applied to the payment of her existing debts (which is a basic premise of Chapter 7 bankruptcy); and third, to ensure that the sale of the asset takes place in the clear light of day," he said.

No specifics about the second offer were given in court on Tuesday, other than that it came from a New York man who was looking to tell the story for entertainment value.

If the judge approves the sale 30 days from now, the money from the winning bid for Anthony's life story will go toward her debt. But asking Anthony to put something up for auction that doesn't exist yet isn't fair, her attorneys argue. 

"By allowing property that can only be created by post-petition labor to be sold as part of the bankruptcy estate, a debtor would never be able to achieve a ‘fresh start,’" the filing says. "Perhaps more troubling, the Order sought by the Trustee would result in the judicial invasion and taking of thoughts and memories that have not been memorialized but are contained solely within the debtor’s mind. This is a terrifying Orwellian prospect that would destroy the long-standing protections guaranteed by the Bankruptcy Code."

Anthony's attorneys also worry that if Schober were to win, it would greatly affect their client's personal life.

“The Trustee’s Motion would literally bar Ms. Anthony from ever discussion her life experiences with anyone by use of ‘all forms of social media’ or ‘the internet.’ Therefore, the plain language of the requested Order would bar Ms. Anthony from even sending an e-mail to her mother related to her childhood experiencing because the rights to those thoughts and memories would belong toe someone else,” the court filing says.

A new hearing will be held in 30 days.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 11:58 AM EDT

Casey Anthony emerged from almost two years in hiding Monday — shielding her face from reporters and hustled by her lawyer through a swarm of cameras as she walked into a Florida courthouse for a bankruptcy hearing.

It was her first public appearance since July 2011, when she was found not guilty of murdering her daughter, Caylee.

She said in court that she has $484 cash to her name and has no job or car, NBC affiliate WESH in Orlando reported.

“I don’t pay rent. I don’t pay utilities. I live off the kindness of those I’m living with. I try to contribute when I can,” Anthony said, according to WESH.

She filed for bankruptcy in January, claiming $1,000 in assets and almost $800,000 in debt, including $500,000 owed to a former lawyer, WESH reported.

Anthony appeared in a YouTube video last year with short, blonde hair but appeared Monday to have returned to the brown hair she had during her trial.

On the short walk from a car to the courthouse, she was holding a floppy hat and wearing sunglasses. She kept her head down and was shielded in a near-headlock by her lawyer, who guided her through the crush of reporters.

Her lawyer Charles Greene said in January that Anthony filed for bankruptcy to stop people from coming after her with lawsuits.

Brian Blanco / AP

Casey Anthony leaves the federal courthouse in Tampa, with a U.S. Marshal after a bankruptcy hearing Monday, March 4, 2013. Anthony, 26, has not made any public appearances since she left jail after being acquitted in the murder of her two-year-old daughter Caylee. She filed for bankruptcy in Florida in late January, claiming about $1,000 in assets and $792,000 in liabilities. Court papers list Anthony as unemployed, with no recent income. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

“She wants people to just leave her alone,” Greene said. “She’s had multiple opportunities to do tell-all book deals, to do tell-all interviews for a lot of money. That’s not what she’s trying to do. She wants this over so she can finally have the time to mourn, not only about the loss of her daughter, but the loss of her life.”

Anthony’s trial was among the most sensational of the Internet and cable-news eras — televised live, followed by millions of people and dissected night after night by pundits. She was cleared of murder, manslaughter and child-abuse charges.

She was convicted of four misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators who were looking into Caylee’s disappearance in 2008. She got a four-year sentence, but counting time served and good behavior she was released less than two weeks after the conviction.

Related: 

Casey Anthony files for Chapter 7

Judge throws out Anthony charges

This story was originally published on Mon Mar 4, 2013 10:26 AM EST

Joe Burbank / Pool via AP

Casey Anthony in 2011

Casey Anthony's long road through the U.S. justice system has inspired her to consider a new career path: Becoming a paralegal, according to one of her lawyers.

Anthony already knows a good deal about the criminal justice system.  She was thrust into the national spotlight when her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, disappeared from their Orlando, Fla., home in 2008.

The toddler's body was found that December and despite Anthony's initial tale of a kidnapping babysitter, the mother was later considered the number one suspect and spent various stints behind bars on charges related to the investigation.

But in July 2011 -- after a trial full of bombshells and intense media attention -- a jury found her not guilty in her daughter's murder, yet convicted her of lying about Caylee's disappearance. A poll at the time ranked Anthony as America's "most hated woman." 

Anthony, who has received death threats since her trial began, has been in hiding. After she was acquitted of murder but convicted of lying to police, she got credit for the three years of time she served behind bars, and was free to leave; however, she still has a number of civil lawsuits pending against her, which may prevent her from moving beyond Florida state lines.

Now, with just $1,100 worth of assets to her name, according to a recent bankruptcy filing, Anthony is considering ways to start making money.

"She would like to get a job, I can assure you, but she can't work at McDonald's. People would be looking at her instead of at the menu," one of her attorneys, Charles Greene, told ABCNews.com on Monday, several days after Anthony filed for bankruptcy protection in Orlando, Fla.

Greene said Anthony, who hasn't worked for the past four years and is nearly $800,000 in debt, might want to become a paralegal in the future.

"She's better than many paralegals I know," he told ABCNews.com. "She could be a paralegal or something like that right away. She is very organized, a very intelligent, very computer savvy person, so I think her skills and her desire may lie somewhere in that field."

Greene wouldn't comment on her whereabouts. The most recent sighting the public got of Anthony was in the form of a video diary she had put online, reportedly without the approval of her attorneys, in January 2012.

Anthony may take some more time before she tries to pursue a career, her attorney said, but she "believes strongly in our justice system." 

"You don't go from the most hated woman in the world, according to some media outlets, to being a normal person or being able to live a normal life," Greene said. "I'm not saying she's not a normal person, but people do not perceive her as a normal person."

There are no plans for Anthony to write a "tell-all book" or "tell-all movie," he said.

"The events are very private and Miss Anthony is still yet to come to terms with them and they're still so emotional, so emotionally traumatic for her," he said. "There's just moments she breaks down and starts crying when she starts thinking about it. It's nothing she's going to talk about. She's a very private person and she won't let people see that side of her either. She'll put up a tough face."

Of the approximately $792,000 that Anthony is in debt for, $500,000 is owed to her defense attorney, Jose Baez; $100,000 of it is to search and rescue organization Texas EquuSearch, which is suing her for $100,000 for the time it spent searching for Caylee; and the rest of the money is to the IRS and Florida law enforcement. 

Anthony is also being sued by the woman she claimed had kidnapped Caylee and a former meter reader who found Caylee's body, who says Anthony's attorneys portrayed him as a potential murderer.

Other recent stories on Casey Anthony:

• Casey Anthony files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Florida 
• Florida court throws out two of four charges
  

Baez's book comes out on July 3.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The Florida mother who was acquitted last year of murdering her 2-year-old daughter had mental health issues that contributed to her habitual lying, the lead attorney in her criminal case says in a new book.

In "Presumed Guilty, Casey Anthony: The Inside Story," Jose Baez said detectives should have realized Casey Anthony had built a "fantasy world," and her lies weren't evidence of guilt but signs of someone with "serious mental health issues."

The 421-page book is scheduled for release July 3. The Associated Press purchased a copy Tuesday.

Anthony is serving probation for an unrelated charge at an undisclosed location in Florida. She couldn't be reached for comment.

Describing how Anthony led detectives on a wild goose chase, even taking them to Universal Studios where she falsely claimed she had a job, Baez writes, detectives "should have stopped and realized, 'Wait a minute, we're not dealing with someone who is playing with a full deck.'"

Anthony originally told detectives that her daughter, Caylee, was taken by a babysitter in June 2008, and that she didn't report her missing for more than a month because she was searching for the toddler on her own. During Anthony's trial last year, Baez argued that the little girl accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool while Anthony and her father, George, were at home. Anthony panicked from the traumatic effects of being sexually abused by her father and George Anthony hid the body, according to the defense argument.

George Anthony denied the defense's allegations that he abused Casey and helped her cover up Caylee's death.

BenBella Books, who published Baez's book, calls the book an "all-access pass" to the trial, from the day Baez met Anthony for the first time to the weeks the defense spent in the judge's chambers.

"This is NOT a 'Casey Anthony is innocent' book," BenBella said in a press release. "It is a book about the facts, beyond the headlines and off the record."

The book is also partly autobiographical, tracking Baez's journey as a former high school dropout to a lawyer.

During the trial, prosecutors had contended that Anthony suffocated Caylee with duct tape because she wanted to be free to hit the nightclubs and spend time with her boyfriend. Jurors acquitted Anthony of first-degree murder but convicted her of four misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators.

Baez repeats the allegations of sexual abuse in greater detail in the book, saying it contributed to Anthony's mental health issues. Mark Lippman, an attorney for George Anthony, refused to comment on the book Tuesday because he hadn't read it.

Why Casey Anthony didn't testify
Anthony's defense contemplated having her testify until the very end of the trial but then decided it wasn't necessary. "We had everything to lose and very little to gain," Baez writes.

Baez takes aim at the reporters who covered the case, detectives who investigated it, "groupies" who attached themselves to it and the case's original judge who Baez says filed a complaint against him with the Florida Bar. The complaint was later dropped. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton undergoes the harshest criticism by Baez, who calls him "a coward" for not showing up at Anthony's sentencing for the misdemeanors since he was making the talk shows round after the trial.

Baez is critical of many of Circuit Judge Belvin Perry's rulings during the trial but praises the judge for allowing him to pick a fair jury.

Baez doesn't say where Anthony currently is hiding but he provides a glimpse of the first few hours after she was released from jail last July, time mostly devoted to eluding the media. After escorting Anthony out of the Orange County Jail and into a waiting SUV, Baez rode with Anthony to a parking garage where five cars driven by members of the legal team were waiting. Baez and Anthony got into one car which departed the garage at the same time as the other four. Each car drove in a different direction so reporters following Baez and Anthony wouldn't know which one they were in or where they were heading.

Baez said Anthony's first meal out of jail was a cheeseburger, fries and milkshake from Steak 'n Shake. Baez and Anthony then drove to a municipal airport where a private plane took them to the Florida Panhandle resort community of St. George Island. There, members of their legal team and their families met up with them. Anthony then went to New York until she had to return to Florida to serve her probation sentence.

Related: Casey Anthony's attorney pens book about the case

The three-year case took an emotional toll on Baez, according to his book. He suffered depression after the complaint was filed against him and he found it difficult to find joy in his wife's pregnancy.

Baez also criticizes the way he was portrayed in the media as an inexperienced attorney taking on one of the highest-profile criminal cases in recent memory.

"The public may have been convinced that I was an idiot but I let it all roll off my back," he writes.

In an interview last month about the book, Baez explained why he thought the case attracted so much attention.

"It's probably because Casey is the girl next door," Baez told The Palm Beach Post on May 25.

Baez co-wrote the book with Peter Golenbock, an author who holds a law degree. Golenbock has written seven New York Times bestsellers, according to the publisher, BenBella.

Requests for comment from BenBella were not immediately returned to msnbc.com.

A source told RadarOnline last week that Anthony also hopes to write a book by publishing excerpts from the journal she's kept since Caylee disappeared. Shortly after her trial ended last July, book publishers started expressing interest in her story.

"This is a story with biblical overtones — a mother and a daughter and a murder. What untold thing happened here?" Robert Gottlieb, president of the Trident Group of book agents, told USATODAY.com last July, adding Trident would be interested in publishing a manuscript from her.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Red Huber / Pool via Getty Images, file

Casey Anthony leaves the Orange County Jail after she was acquitted of murdering her daughter Caylee Anthony on July 17, 2011 in Orlando, Florida.

Two depositions from psychiatrists who evaluated Casey Anthony before she went on trial for murder were unsealed Wednesday, revealing more details about sexual abuse that Anthony's lawyer alleged she endured as a child and her claim that her young daughter accidentally drowned.

Anthony's defense attorney shocked the courtroom when he told jurors in his opening statement that 2-year-old Caylee, who had been missing for more than a month before her disappearance was reported to police, had drowned in the family's swimming pool in 2008. Lawyer Jose Baez also claimed Casey Anthony was sexually abused by her father, George Anthony, growing up.

George Anthony denied the allegations, which were not substantiated at trial. But in their depositions, Drs. Jeffrey Danziger and William Weitz discussed Casey's feelings toward her father as well as the most recent version of her story of what happened to her daughter.

 The Orlando Sun-Sentinel, which requested the depositions be unsealed, reported Wednesday that Weitz said Anthony felt George "was a threat to her daughter, based on what had happened to her and that would make her uncomfortable." She felt "very comfortable" leaving Caylee with her mother, she said.

Weitz said during his deposition that Anthony told him her father had sexually abused her when she was a child, "basically, the age range, from eight to 12," reported the Sun-Sentinel.

"She described physical touching. She described physical touching and involvement all the way to sexual intercourse," Weitz said.

• Read the full Sun-Sentinel article

Both Weitz and Danziger commented on what they perceived as Anthony's lack of sadness or anger when they met with her, said the Sun-Sentinel. While describing the alleged abuse, Weitz said, Anthony was "presenting it to me in a very cognitive, intellective manner stripped of almost any affect or emotion."

In Danziger's report, he described a meeting with Anthony at the Orange County Jail in July of 2008, when Caylee was still missing: "Mood, good. Reading books, keeping self distracted. Calm, bright affect. No feelings of guilt, not hopeless. Sleeping fine. Appetite okay. Weight stable. Energy okay. Concentration normal. Able to read. And I wrote in there surprisingly cheerful but not manic."

Danziger said she had "as normal a mental status examination as could be," reported Florida's CFNews13.com.

Casey told Danziger that her brother, Lee, also molested her numerous times when she was between the ages of 12 and 15, he said, according to CFNews13.com.

In the April 2011 deposition, Danziger told prosecutors he was "deeply troubled" by the allegations because they had not been substantiated, according to The Sun-Sentinel.

"I am very troubled about being a vector by which statements she made may accuse others of crimes past and present. I don't know what to do," Danziger said. "I am just deeply worried that I'm doing the wrong thing."

"I have lost much sleep, lost weight, and I don't know – I want to do the right thing, and I don't know what the right thing to do is except I know we're here in the deposition and my understanding is you're entitled to it, but I feel troubled," Danziger said.

• Anthony: My computer was hacked

Neither Danziger nor Weitz testified at Anthony's trial, although both were originally listed as defense witnesses before it started in May, said The Sun-Sentinel. The defense later withdrew them as witnesses.

As for Caylee's death, Weitz said, "It is the perception of Casey that her father had something to do with the death of her daughter. It's clear that she believes that George either harmed and/or took the life of [Caylee]."

Caylee's alleged drowning
According to The Sun-Sentinel, Weitz said Casey Anthony told him about the alleged drowning.

"[Anthony] always slept with Caylee and she was highly protective and sensitive to her," Weitz told prosecutors during his deposition, also taken in April. But on "the particular date in question…she was sleeping very hard, she awoke, the father was in the room and Caylee was missing."

"They went to search for her and look around to no avail, and then father brought Caylee to her and she was wet – in his arms. She was wet, and she appeared to be deceased. He then took her, you know, basically, and he took Caylee out of the room from her, and she said she basically lost it at that point in time."

George Anthony then told Casey, "I'll take care of her," and left with Caylee, Weitz said Casey told him.

Even as Casey Anthony described the alleged drowning death of her daughter, she seemed "detached from a lot of her feeling and emotions," he said, adding that she "uses lies as a protective measure. She admits to not always being truthful; that for her, it's a protection."

A jury found Anthony not guilty in the death of Caylee. She was released from jail on July 17; she is currently serving a year of probation in an unrelated check fraud case.

Reuters file

Saudi-born dissident Osama bin-Laden addresses a news conference in Afghanistan, where he and his organization are based, in a May 26,1998 file photo. News of bin Laden's death on May 2 was the top news story on msnbc.com in 2011.

The killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs at his hideout in Pakistan was the top news event of 2011, followed by the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, according to a ranking on msnbc.com by page views as of Dec. 20.

Here's a look at those events and the three other stories with the most page views:

1. The May 2 death of bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Several stories about his death generated more than six million page views each, but a story that detailed how the U.S. used intelligence about the people in bin Laden's circle, including his personal couriers, was by far the No. 1 single story:
How the US tracked couriers to elaborate bin Laden compound 

2. Japan's earthquake and tsunami on March 11 left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing. The quake triggered a tsunami that caused massive inland flooding and crippled the Fukushima nuclear reactor, sparking the largest nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. Here are the two stories on Japan's tragedy that got the most attention: 
Vast devastation, search for survivors after Japan quake 
Japan overwhelmed by scale of quake damage 

See The Year in Pictures: 2011

3. An article on the murder acquittal on July 5 of Florida mother Casey Anthony, who had been accused of killing her toddler daughter, had the second-most page views on the site. After a trial that lasted six weeks, a jury found Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child, but guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. With credit for time served, she was released July 17. 
Casey Anthony found not guilty of murdering daughter  

4. The July 23 death of 27-year-old British jazz-soul singer Amy Winehouse, whose problems with alcohol and drugs began to overshadow her brilliant musical talent.  
Singer Amy Winehouse found dead in London home 
Images: Amy Winehouse: 1983-2011

5. Charla Nash, the victim of a chimpanzee attack, revealed her new face after a transplant. Nash was getting out of her car in 2009 when her friends' pet chimp went berserk and attacked, leaving her without a nose, eyes or lips. After a remarkable recovery, she showed off her new face during an interview on TODAY.
Chimp attack victim reveals her new face

Which story resonated most with you this year? Vote below or sound off on our Facebook page.