George Zimmerman to plead no contest in stalking charge to receive probation
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George Zimmerman is trying to slither his way out of a stalking charge and plans to plead no contest after following and harassing a private investigator, Dennis Warren, who was working on a documentary about the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin.
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Zimmerman’s attorney, Zahra Umansky, said in court Wednesday that his worrisome client would enter a written plea of no contest next month and serve some probation, the NY Post reports.
The Florida State’s Attorney’s office filed stalking charges against Zimmerman according to court documents obtained by Think Progress after “willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly” following and harassing Warren.
Zimmerman did the same thing to Trayvon Martin but was acquitted after shooting and killing the unarmed teenager in 2012.
With Zimmerman’s no contest plea, he gets away with not admitting guilt and he will circumvent a conviction if the conditions of the plea are satisfied.
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In total, Zimmerman made 55 phone calls, sent 67 text messages, and left 36 voicemail messages, and sent 27 emails to the investigator. Reportedly, some of those messages seem to contain threats. In one text, Zimmerman references an article which quotes him as saying “I know how to handle people who fuck with me. I have since February of 2012.”
According to the court documents, Warren contacted the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in December of 2017 to report that he was being harassed and threatened by Zimmerman. The documentary’s producer Mike Gasparro also shared with the sheriff’s office threatening messages he received. “Dennis is a f*#%ing p*$$y who bothered my uncle in his home. Local or former law officer, he’s well on his way to the inside of a gator as well. 10-4?,” read one message from Zimmerman to Gasparro.
Trayvon’s Legacy Lives On
“I need to file a missing person’s report for my son.”
“Okay, what’s his name?”
“Trayvon Martin.”
Those are the opening lines shared between Tracy Martin and the police dispatcher in the Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story documentary which aired on BET last month.
It’s a chilling intro knowing that at the very same moment of that 2012 phone call, Trayvon Martin was bleeding out, shot dead by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman, a self-authorized “neighborhood watch,” was eventually found not-guilty, shielded by Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law.
READ MORE: White woman who hit Black teens at pool gets fired after arrest goes viral
The death of an un-armed 17-year-old boy carrying nothing more than an iced-tea and Skittles served as a catalyst for a new wave of activism. #BlackLivesMatter and other movements have given rise to a passionate generation of activists, politicians, and artists.
The docu-series features archival footage and audio recordings from those early moments and days as well as current interviews. Tearful clips of Trayvon’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, are interspersed with footage of roiling marches, impassioned speeches, and never-before-seen pictures of Trayvon.
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