George Zimmerman’s booking photo from 6/3/2012 (Source: Seminole County Corrections).
SANFORD, Fla. (WKMG) - The special prosecutor says George Zimmerman's bid for new judge in Trayvon Martin's killing is absurd, according to a motion filed on Tuesday.
Zimmerman's bid for a new judge is "long on conjecture and irrelevant and inaccurate bombast, short on actual fact and devoid of legal merit," prosecutors responded in a court filing.
Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, asked Judge Kenneth Lester to disqualify himself on Friday because, he claimed, Lester showed a bias against him by threatening to hold him in contempt and suggesting Zimmerman could have committed a crime when he sat silent as his wife falsely claimed they were broke.
But prosecutors say Lester was only stating the facts as he saw them and signaled no prejudice toward future proceedings. In fact, the state noted, Zimmerman's own attorney has admitted Zimmerman "allowed his financial situation to be misstated in court" and, as a result, Zimmerman's "credibility has been tarnished."
Zimmerman was released on a $150,000 bond after his wife allegedly lied to the court about their financial circumstances, claiming they were broke when they had control of more than $120,000 in donations raised from a website Zimmerman created.
"Defendant now claims that he and his client fear that the court has a negative impression of defendant's credibility," the state wrote in its motion opposing Lester's disqualification. "'Ironic' is perhaps an understatement in that context."
Lester has until August 12 to rule on the motion for disqualification.
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