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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. 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 ...

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