A new report shows that the day after killing Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman passed a police lie detector test. He registered truthful in stating that he was afraid for his life before shooting the teen. The report does not materially affect the trial since such tests are not admissible but may explain the the resistance of local officials to bring the case. It also further supports the view, again, that Angela Corey overcharged the case. She was no doubt aware of the test which, while not admissible as evidence because their reliability is questioned, can be considered by the prosecutors in determining the appropriate charge. UPDATE: A police report shows a critical view of Zimmerman’s account and says that he missed two opportunities to defuse the situation.
Zimmerman willingly submitted to a computer voice stress analyzer (CVSA) “truth verification” on February 27 and the test “was classified as No Deception Indicated (NDI).” This included the question of “Did you confront the guy you shot?’ He answered, “No.” He was rated as telling the truth in both saying that he did not confront Martin and that he was in fear of his life.
Also released recently are further details from Zimmerman to the police. Zimmerman insisted that the teen knocked him down and began to pound his head in the sidewalk while telling him “You’re going to die.” Zimmerman claims Trayvon reached for the gun and that he grabbed it to protect himself.
Both the question of fear and the party responsible for the confrontation could be distorted by Zimmerman’s perspective and not accepted objectively by third parties. Of the two questions, however, the confrontation question is the most interesting. It is rare for targeted suspects to agree to lie detectors, though I have agreed to such tests in past cases.
Once again, this evidence does not rule out the basis for a criminal charge, but in my view strongly militates against a charge greater than manslaughter. In fairness to the local officials, the evidence also offers support for their view that no charge was appropriate. One can disagree with that conclusion, but they may have had solid reasons for opposing a charge. That does not excuse sloppy police work and there was still a basis to detain Zimmerman at the scene. However, the case has become more muddled with such new evidence. As a criminal defense attorney, I have always viewed this case as one with strong defense arguments for trial. While the odds always favor the prosecution, the factual record has a number of elements that could create reasonable doubt. Obviously, the trial itself can present facts in different light and the prosecution has yet to be fully heard in the case.
Source: NY Daily News
NEWSFLASH: George Zimmerman and O’Mara will appear on Sean Hannity tonight to do their talking points and to say over and over how George has credibility and how he tutored little black kids and how he had a broken nose and Trayvon Martin attacked him and he was just looking for an address and he never hid money and the judge ain’t fair and the racists are profiling him as a kidkiller and his cousin is a little liar and he loves his wife and he felt like his head was exploding and he had a broken nosey wosey!
Did I miss any of his talking points? Fill me in quick if I did…
Malisha – I’m saying “racial” because that’s the mandate of FBI’s operation here. SAIC Ibison can only bring federal charges on GZ if he can prove GZ violated TM’s civil rights. So far I have seen many red flags that GZ in fact did racially profile TM. With the suspected added evidence that he had an accomplice (Taaffe) it appears that it is a foregone conclusion that USAG Holder has enough to move forward. However, it makes sense that they will wait on Ms. Corey to see what she has first. I think Holder would like to pile on AFTER the other shoe drops on GZ. Just my opinion…
Malisha – I think we are AGAIN being graced by visiting expert like our other friends – who for some reason are strangely mute recently. Sling seems to have the chops for this stuff. And you know that observation is not just fluff coming from me.
Sling you are doing a great job… I’m really impressed!
Speaking of the woeful standards of SPD….
Has anyone ever found a *witnessed* position for Zimmerman’s truck immediately after the shooting?
One might have assumed that police would have checked out vehicles in the area.
One might also have assumed that they would do a door-to-door to determine what vehicles were moving inside the gates at the time.
Does anyone know who moved the truck from wherever it was – and when?
His wife?
Most probably not Taffe, if he’s indicating a position by hearsay afterwards?
Taffe indicated that it was on the North side of Twin Trees and facing the clubhouse. He says that Zimmerman told him this.
That position and orientation appears to be confirmed by examining security videos from the Clubhouse.
– bottom part of http://imgur.com/a/bcAII
That analysis also indicates weird stuff like Zimmerman on foot at the clubhouse – and not parked there at all.
I’ll try make time to go through that material.
If the Clubhouse video can reliably stand up a position, it would be interesting to run that plus Mirandas by whoever says they moved the truck afterwards.
It’s not really a big deal. There are enough major discrepancies between the non-E call recording and Zimmerman’s stories to shoot his credibility.
An actual location would be interesting though.
Here’s a little piece of Florida recusal law:
“The fact that the judge has made adverse rulings in the past against the defendant, or that the judge has previously heard the evidence, or ‘allegations that the trial judge had formed a fixed opinion of the defendant’s guilt, even where it is alleged that the judge discussed his opinion with others,’ are generally considered legally insufficient reasons to warrant the judge’s disqualification.” Rivera v. State, 717 So.2d 477, 481 (Fla.1998) (quoting Jackson, 599 So.2d at 107).
And that’s a judge deciding ahead of time about a defendant’s GUILT, not just deciding ahead of time about a defendant’s CREDIBILITY. In fact, deciding that a defendant is a liar does not have an absolute causal relationship to ANYTHING having to do with a defendant’s guilt or innocence, since a defendant is not required to testify in his own trial. All the credibility issue before Judge Lester will do is affect whether or not O’Mara can help Zimmerman AVOID a jury of his peers. If he were to convince Judge Lester that everything he said (in the second and third Serino interviews, but NOT in the FIRST) was true, he could get out scott free without having to stand trial. But if he can’t do that, Judge Lester’s opinion of his credibility is not relevant to his due process at trial.
See, O’Mara’s best chance is still to get some kind of judge in there who’s gonna say, “Well, everything George Zimmerman says MUST BE TRUE so we don’t need to deal with the rest of the law at all; he can just walk because he says he didn’t do wrong.”
I doubt there is a criminal anywhere in the country who wouldn’t like to have that “law” in place with a friendly judge when he stands accused.
Sling, that’s it exactly. “Little hero complex” is just “little hitler complex.”
Malisha: “Furthermore, the allegations of his behavior as a child is not an indication of child sexual abuse; it is an indication of bullying.”
Quite.
He never grew out of this bullying trait either. The story of the ME work colleague points the same way.
It’s nothing to do with sex or race. It’s all to do with using whatever means are available to assert power of others.
sonofthunderboanerges,
The timeline you quote above is woefully inaccurate. The officer who compiled it does not understand Event Logs – or something
(1)
19:11:12 is the ‘Created’ timestamp of the operator making the first entry after listening to Zimmerman describe reason for the call.
The call actually connected at 19:09:34
The original Event Log can be viewed at http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/327330-george-zimmerrman-911-call-history.html#document/p46
Note the Connection Time of 19:09:34
Note that the opening event in the History is 19:11:12 – This includes a summary of Zimmerman’s initial description, which the operator would have to type. The ‘Created’ timestamp is taken for the operator completing the first entry.
(2)
The call lasted for 4 minutes and 7 seconds
– Confirmed by timing the recording and by the Event Log timestamp of 19:13:41 in which the operator records Zimmerman’s closing request to have the incoming patrol call him – rather than meet at the mailboxes.
(3)
The first 911 call connected at 19:16:11
This is 2 minutes 30 seconds after the call ended.
If Zimmerman is to believed, it took him over 2 minutes to walk 94 feet.
http://zimmermanscall.blogspot.com/p/walk.html
The effect of Sanford PD’s completely invented timeline is to distract from the clear indisputable automatically recorded evidence that Zimmerman
a) Decided in the closing seconds of the call to go wandering rather than return to his truck (that he should not have left in the first place)
b) Had been wandering for over 2 minutes before he found/encountered Martin.
I don’t think George Zimmerman has to be a racist to be guilty of murder; I don’t even think he had to have committed a racist act on 2/26/2012 to be guilty of murder. Furthermore, it’s BETTER if he is not “a racist” so that the crime is simply the crime he committed, not something based on ideas that may be iffy.
Furthermore, the allegations of his behavior as a child is not an indication of child sexual abuse; it is an indication of bullying. Persistant and unremitting bullying of a younger weaker person…hmmmm…
Zimmerman’s credibility took another hit today with the revelation that his cousin alleges he subjected her to sexual abuse beginning when she was age 6 and he was age 8. The allegations span 10 years.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/16/justice/florida-teen-shooting-witness/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
I’m shocked that the news media is reporting that FBI is saying GZ is not a racist. SAIC Ibison never said that. And how does that mean GZ didn’t perform a racist act on 26Feb?
SlingTrebuchet – where on planet earth is the Internet not available at least by dialup or satellite? Just asking…
Vsa is worthless as a lie detector. It is best to detect stress as its acronym suggests. The Vsa operator was obviously feed biased questions as everybody at SPD knows GZ as he was personal friend of Bill Lee, has many powerful friends, and had applied to become a SPD officer.
Chris Serino despises GZ but can’t show it for obvious reasons. Chris is one of the good ones. Tim Smith and Bill are not IMO.
I mentioned before that REAL high-tech deception mitigation systems use EEG not voice or physiology. I vaguely remember DARPA calling it a Squid in early days. They look for brain wave changes when exposed to multimedia stimulus while being asked probing questions.
Therefore GZ was given softball questions with a device that is used basically to help investigators to formulate opinions about the suspect NOT facts or truth.
Omara is really reaching on trying to make judge Lester recuse himself. It ain’t gonna happen unless someone removes him.
Malisha where is this $4mill??
The administrator went to great lengths to put Z at ease. He also told him what to think about when he was supposed to lie.
As nal posted way up,
Does VSA actually work?
According to a recent study funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), two of the most popular VSA programs in use by police departments across the country are NO BETTER THAN FLIPPING A COIN when it comes to detecting deception regarding recent drug use. The study’s findings also noted, however, that the mere presence of a VSA program during an interrogation may deter a respondent from giving a false answer.
[emphasis added by me]
I’m catching up after being 3 weeks in a place where the only net around is to help keep mosquitoes away.
I watched the early interviews and Stress Test videos before I left, but never had time to comment much on them.
The Stress Test
Nine questions:
Three “Irrelevant” questions – No stress, benign
Three “Control” questions – What you look like when you do lie. Is the colour of the wall green?
Three “Relevant” questions
1. In fear for you life when you shot the guy?
2. Did you call him the guy, or the kid?
3. Did you confront the guy you shot?
None of the Relevant questions seemed to be at all searching.
(1) Zimmerman could well have felt great fear in the final seconds. He was losing a fight. He was the one that was meant to be in control.
The question asks absolutely nothing about the wider circumstances in which the shot was fired.
(2) Never got asked
(3) Zimmerman is probably convinced that Martin asking “Why are you following me?” was confrontational. The question is meaningless as it entirely depends on Zimmerman’s internal definition.
Disregarding the question of whether or not such tests are reliable even when conducted fully and sanely, the only outcome of this one appears to be some indicator of whether Zimmerman just shot Martin because he could or because he absolutely believed that he was about to die.
There are all sorts of questions that could and should have been asked.
Shano, I get it. I’m just observing that it’s alleged bad behavior and never led to criminal sanctions, much like the various peccadillos they “charged” Trayvon Martin with. Prior bad acts cannot be used as evidence in a criminal trial anyway, unless it’s a contempt trial against a mother or something like that where there is no pretense of due process involved.
The sexual acting out & abuse continued for 10 years…..just sayin’
Actually, I don’t think an 8-year-old acting out sexually with/on a six-year-old is sexual abuse by definition, but it was aggressive and bad behavior and should have been dealt with and corrected. More importantly, since the media indulged in “thuggizing” Trayvon Martin because of childhood behaviors that were not criminal, this indicates that the sword can slash both ways and the Zimmerman camp ought to take notice of that general principle.
Audio of Witness 9 recounting sexual abuse from George Zimmerman:
http://www.clickorlando.com/blob/view/-/15530264/data/1/-/xi01qr/-/Witness-9—1.null
Oh dear, Malisha, Gweorge engages in behavior right up your alley. Special prosecutor Angela Corey just released more than 120 recorded phone calls that murder suspect George Zimmerman made from the Seminole County Jail.
STORY: What A Surprise! Zimmerman’s Old Girlfriend Says He’s Biased Against Black People
Also released is the statement of “Witness 9,” a woman who says Zimmerman is prejudiced against blacks and that he molested her when she was a child.
Witness 9 recounted the molestation claims in graphic detail. She says Zimmerman molested her as a child, starting at age 6:
“He would put his hands under my pants, under my underwear. He would put his pants under my underwear…basically…****** me…”
She continued:
“He would say we weren’t doing anything, just playing hide/seek…I was a kid, didn’t know any better…He just got this look in his eye like he was going to.”
Witness 9 seems to be related to Zimmerman and is about 2 years younger.
She goes into more detail:
“We would all play in front of TV…he would reach under blankets/try to do things & I would try to push him off.”
Witness 9 also contends that there is one more victim:
“There is one more victim, but she will deny it ..says she doesn’t want to talk about it.”
When the conversation turned to Zimmerman and black people, Witness 9 said:
“Zimmerman’s family “don’t like black people if they don’t act like white people.”
Witness 9 went on to say that the last molestation by Zimmerman started as “massage,” and moved to touching and kissing and that’s when she ran away.
Witness 9 says her parents confronted Zimmerman about molestation at restaurant and he said-
“I’m sorry and just got up and walked out.”
According to witness 9 the molestation went on from the age of 6-16 while Zimmerman was 8-18.
If Zimmerman takes stand in trial, witness 9 could be rebuttal witness to show he has a violent history. Molestation charges may not be allowed.
Asked why she come forward, witness 9 said in the midst of Trayvon’s death, she was no longer afraid of Zimmerman.
Zimmerman’s defense attorney, Mark O’Mara filed a motion this morning, hoping to stay release of Witness 9 statements. You can read the motion by clicking here.
This latest evidence sheds more light onto what type of man Zimmerman was before he shot and killed Trayvon Martin on February 26th.
Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/witness-9-claims-george-zimmerman-trayvon-martin-molested-her-details-photos#ixzz20o9Z8e2L
Good luck convincing a jury of that George. No one in their right mind is going to believe that he wasn’t following Martin.