Zimmerman judge orders release of jail calls, 'Witness 9' statement
By Jeff Weiner
Orlando Sentinel
July 13, 2012
Despite objections by George Zimmerman's attorneys, the public will get to hear 145 additional phone calls Zimmerman made from the Seminole County jail, as well as the statement of a witness who says he doesn't like black people.
The witness, identified as "Witness 9" in prosecution documents, has not been publicly identified. One of her two statements has been withheld from the public so far, and attorney Mark O'Mara argued it should stay that way.
In her other statement, Witness 9 says that she knows Zimmerman, as well as his family.
"I know George, and I know that he does not like black people," she said, speaking to a Sanford police investigator. "He would start something. He's a very confrontational person. It's in his blood. Let's just say that."
She went on to describe Zimmerman and his family as "just mean and open about it, and I don't know what he's capable of, but I do know things that he's done to me that I would never, I would never talk to him about ever again."
O'Mara wrote in a motion that the not-yet-released second statement "is not relevant" to the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, and would "serve to reignite and potentially enhance the widespread public hostility toward Mr. Zimmerman."
However, Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester wrote in an order filed Friday that public records law requires the release of evidence, unless it would present a "serious and imminent threat to the administration of justice."
The statement, Lester writes, does not reach that high bar.
O'Mara also asked the judge to seal 145 of 151 jail phone calls made by Zimmerman, arguing they're irrelevant to the case and the people Zimmerman talked to have a right to privacy.
The judge rejected that argument. People called by an inmate, he wrote, "are specifically advised that their calls will be recorded."
It was not immediately clear when the statement and calls would be released.
The order comes as Zimmerman has requested a new judge in the case.
Poster Comment:
Self defense case vs a lynching - witch hunt !
