George Zimmerman's cousin accuses him of sexual molestation

George Zimmerman, the man charged with the murder of a black teenager in Florida, has now also been accused of sexually molesting his cousin. In other developments relating to the case, supporters of Zimmerman aim to postpone plans for a memorial for the slain teenager. 

|
(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Joe Burbank, Pool)
George Zimmerman, left, and attorney Don West appear before Circuit Judge Kenneth R. Lester, Jr. during a bond hearing at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford, Fla., in June.

George Zimmerman, who is charged in the shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, was accused by his female cousin of sexually molesting her for a decade beginning when she was 6 years old, according to new documents made public on Monday by prosecutors.

The name of the relative was deleted from an audio tape version of her witness statement that was released to the media. Identified only as Witness No. 9, she would be about age 27 now.

Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, confirmed the woman was the former neighborhood watch volunteer's cousin.

It is not immediately clear why prosecutors released the molestation allegation or whether they plan to use it in court if Zimmerman goes on trial.

"Now that this statement is part of the public record, the defense will vigorously defend Mr. Zimmerman against the allegations," O'Mara said in a statement.

In a motion filed in June to keep the accusation under wraps, O'Mara argued the statement by Witness 9 was uncorroborated and irrelevant to the murder case.

He wrote at the time that its disclosure would lead to "widespread hostile publicity which would substantially impair (Zimmerman's) fair trial rights."

Seminole County Circuit Judge Kenneth R. Lester , who is presiding over the case, ordered the document released under Florida's public records law.O'Mara made an unsuccessful 11th hour attempt on Monday to stop the public release of the statement, filing a motion barely four minutes before prosecutors' scheduled release of the audio recording.He also filed a motion on Friday requesting the judge recuse himself, arguing that Lester has displayed b ias a nd Zimmerman be lieves he will not be given a fair trial.

O'Mara also sought to seal about 145 of Zimmerman's jailhouse phone calls which were also released on Monday. The calls included conversations Zimmerman had with his wife and other family members an d friends about his jail conditions, media handling and his finances.

Part of the woman's statement was released last week in which she told investigators in a separate recorded statement that Zimmerman's family was known to be racist, but she did not recall any specific statement or act by Zimmerman to illustrate the point.

Zimmerman is accused of second-degree murder in the Feb. 26 shooting death of Martin. He claims he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense.

The woman told investigators during a taped interview that the last time Zimmerman molested her she was 16 and Zimmerman, a new high school graduate at the time, was temporarily living alone in a house his parents had just purchased in Lake Mary, Florida.

'Not Afraid of Him' Now 

Asked why she waited until March 20 of this year to tell her story to law enforcement, the woman said, "This is the first time in my life that I'm not afraid of him ... he can't get to me."

The woman described Zimmerman molesting her during annual family get-togethers and trips.

The woman said she finally told her parents in 2005 when she was 20. She said her parents called Zimmerman to a meeting at a pizza restaurant in Lake Mary."

Instead of talking about it, all he did was come in the room, come in the restaurant, he sat down on the end of the booth and he said 'I'm sorry' and just got up and walked out ... my parents, their jaws dropped," the woman said.

She said her mother discouraged her from taking further action at the time, saying it would be his word against hers, and she would wind up in jail.

In a separate development, a Zimmerman supporter and former neighbor, Frank Taaffe, told Reuters he planned to go door-to-door on Monday in the Retreat at Twin Lakes, the subdivision where Martin was gunned down, to collect signatures to protest any permanent memorial for Martin in the neighborhood.

Taaffe, echoing Zimmerman's claim that he merely defended himself against Martin's alleged aggression, said any memorial should await the conclusion of the trial.

"Why are we memorializing a potential - potential - aggressor?" Taaffe said.

A makeshift memorial set up at a neighborhood entrance after Martin's death was removed last week by the city of Sanford after some residents complained they did not want the killing to define their neighborhood.

They also said the highly publicized case was bringing down property values, according to city manager Norton Bonaparte.

Bonaparte said the city packed up items left at the memorial and stored them in a local museum. He said he agreed to meet on Tuesday with a local group that wants a permanent memorial to Martin.

(Editing by David Adams, Kevin Gray and Cynthia Osterman)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to George Zimmerman's cousin accuses him of sexual molestation
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0716/George-Zimmerman-s-cousin-accuses-him-of-sexual-molestation
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe