A website which George Zimmerman’s lawyer Mark O’Mara suggested “setting up a chat session” with has published the identity of a witness who claimed Zimmerman molested her as a child.
The site has become a hub for Zimmerman supporters. One reader of the site, calling himself GZtheCourageous, even reached out to Zimmerman’s attorney to express displeasure with the way O’Mara was handling the case, prompting O’Mara to reply in an email that he’d like to see “if we could set up a chat session so I could respond directly to q’s.” A spokesman for O’Mara told theGrio previously that the email was the only contact he or his firm had with the website, and a spokesperson for the website maintained that they had no contact with O’Mara.
Now, another reader, called “Menagerie,” has posted identifying information about the accuser, whom prosecutors and media outlets have identified only as Witness 9, along with the names of her family members, and photos of the woman, her husband, and even her young child.
The site’s editors, owner and readers maintain their own anonymity. However in the past, they have published the names, addresses and phone numbers of various members of Trayvon Martin’s legal and public relations team.
The site, which theGrio will not link to, also posted information that could be used to locate the woman. It is not known how the person who posted the information obtained it. The judge in the second degree murder case against Zimmerman ordered statements from Witness 9 released on the condition that her identity remain anonymous. And media outlets, including theGrio, have declined to identify her. O’Mara did give details on the nature of the family relationship between the woman and the Zimmermans in a statement on the GZLegalCase website, in which the law firm vowed to “vigorously defend” Zimmerman against the allegations of sexual abuse.
The woman, who is a younger relative of George Zimmerman, alleged in a March interview with state attorneys investigators that that Zimmerman and his family disliked black people, and that Zimmerman sexually molested her from age 6 to age 16.
Both prosecutors and the defense in the Zimmerman case had objected to releasing Witness 9’s second statement, which came weeks after she first contacted Sanford, Florida police to speak to the lead homicide investigator in the case about her concerns regarding Zimmerman’s potential to “start something.” In fighting the release, O’Mara had expressed concerns that her allegations could harm Zimmerman’s ability to obtain a fair trial, and prosecutors expressed concerns about her privacy.
TheGrio reached out to O’Mara’s law firm, and to the website, requesting comment, but had received no response as of this writing.
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