Jean Ann LeGrand-Casarez ( LeGrand; born April 20, 1960) is an American lawyer and news correspondent for
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
and its sister network
HLN. She formerly worked for ''
TruTV
TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows.
The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that focu ...
'' until that network eliminated daytime trial coverage. As a correspondent for Court TV/TruTV, Casarez provided live daytime trial coverage, reporting on courtroom trials across the country; she covered such cases as the
Coral Eugene Watts trial, the
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
case, and
Scott Peterson
Scott Lee Peterson (born October 24, 1972) is an American convicted murderer. In 2004, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Laci, who was pregnant at the time, and the second-degree murder of their unborn son, Conner, in Mod ...
sentencing
In law, a sentence is the punishment for a crime ordered by a trial court after conviction in a criminal procedure, normally at the conclusion of a trial. A sentence may consist of imprisonment, a fine, or other sanctions. Sentences for mult ...
hearings. She was an anchor for Court TV's hourly ''Newsbreak''. In addition to her current work for CNN, she is occasionally a substitute host for
HLN's
Current affairs show, ''Primetime Justice''.
Career
A graduate of the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
and
Southwestern Law School
Southwestern Law School is a private law school in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and enrolls nearly 1,000 students. Its campus includes the Bullocks Wilshire building, an art deco National Register ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, Casarez is a member of the Nevada and Texas bars, licensed in the Southern District of Texas Federal Court. She joined Court TV in January 2003 from
KOLO-TV
KOLO-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Reno, Nevada, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Incline Village–licensed low-power Telemundo affiliate KXNV-LD (channel 26). The two stat ...
in
Reno, Nevada
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...
, where she was a weekend anchor and legal reporter. Prior to working in Reno, Casarez produced the news magazine show ''First Edition'' and served as the City Hall reporter and fill-in anchor at
KENS-TV
KENS (channel 5) is a television station in San Antonio, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Fredericksburg Road in northwest San Antonio, near the South Texas Medical Center, ...
in
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
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, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
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, subdivision_name1 = Texas
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.
In addition to her legal background and journalism career, Casarez, under the name Jean LeGrand, has recorded six albums of
Tejano music
Tejano music ( es, música tejana), also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences. Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres – particular ...
in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
for the International divisions of
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
and Capitol EMI Records, thus touring throughout the U.S. and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
; Casarez has also been nominated for numerous awards as a journalist, and received a 2010 Peabody Award for CNN Network’s coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill.
CNN Entertainment online, 2011.
Casarez is married and currently resides in New York City.
Discography (partial) (as Jean LeGrand)
* Tirano (CBS International, 1987)
* Jean Le Grand (EMI Latin, 1990)
* It Takes 2 Duets (EMI Latin, 1991)
* ''Enamorada'' (EMI Latin, 1992)
* ''Todo Para Ti'' (EMI Latin, 1994)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casarez, Jean
CNN people
Living people
American reporters and correspondents
University of Southern California alumni
People from California
People from Long Beach, California
Southwestern Law School alumni
American television journalists
1960 births
American women television journalists
American television personalities of Mexican descent
American women singers
American musicians of Mexican descent
Tejano pop musicians
Spanish-language singers of the United States
American women lawyers
Lawyers from New York City
21st-century American women