Uh oh

Zimmerman relative, ‘Witness 9′ accused Zimmerman of racial bias

a woman identified by prosecutors as Witness 9, is a younger relative of Zimmerman’s, who contacted Sanford, Florida police shortly after the February 26th shooting. During the call, the woman made allegations that Zimmerman’s attorneys said could be highly prejudicial against their client, and could make it hard for Zimmerman to get a fair trial. Among them: that Zimmerman “hates black people” and that his family also harbors biased racial views.

Prosecutors previously released audio of the woman’s call to police, but on Friday, Judge Kenneth Lester ordered a second, more detailed statement to two state attorney’s investigators to be handed over to the media, along with 145 jailhouse calls between Zimmerman and family members while he was incarcerated in Seminole County’s jail. Those calls allegedly include Zimmerman “coaching” family members on how to hide money raised through his website, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.

“I don’t know what happened,” the woman said, referring to the shooting. Her voice sounded shaken and she seemed close to tears on the recording released by prosecutors last month. “I don’t know at all who this kid was, or anything else. But I know George. And I know that he does not like black people, and he would start something.”

“He’s a very confrontational person,” the woman said of Zimmerman. “It’s in his blood, let’s just say that. And I don’t … I don’t want this poor kid and their family to just be overlooked.”

the woman said she came forward because she was “afraid that he may have done something because the kid was black.” She alleged that when the two were growing up, Zimmerman’s family, and particularly his mother, “made statements that they don’t like black people.” She said that the family only “like black people if they act white. Other than that they talk a lot of bad things about black people.”

The woman also alleged that Zimmerman’s mother Gladys, who is Peruvian, made statements in front of her co-workers, some of whom were black, that she didn’t like President Barack Obama “because he’s black,” and that she proclaimed in the presence of those co-workers that she was a “proud racist.”