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Eugene

(61,592 posts)
Wed Aug 1, 2012, 07:05 PM Aug 2012

Judge in George Zimmerman's Florida trial will not step down

Source: Reuters

Judge in George Zimmerman's Florida trial will not step down

By Barbara Liston
ORLANDO, Florida | Wed Aug 1, 2012 12:30pm EDT

(Reuters) - A Florida judge on Wednesday rejected a motion asking him to step down from the murder trial of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, ruling the defense request was "legally insufficient."

Zimmerman's lawyer Mark O'Mara, in a motion filed July 13 asking the judge to step down, accused Judge Kenneth Lester of bias, citing what he called "gratuitous" and "disparaging remarks" Lester made in a July 5 ruling raising Zimmerman's bond from $150,000 to $1 million.

The ruling followed a bond hearing held after prosecutors accused Zimmerman and his wife Shellie, who has been charged with perjury, of lying to the court about their finances.

In his order dismissing the motion for him to recuse himself, Lester wrote that, by law, he must assume O'Mara's allegations were true.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/us-usa-florida-shooting-idUSBRE8700ZY20120801
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