Dec. 11 Hearing on Bail and Discovery Issues

[Cylinder]

The court's Notice on Hearing has been released by Zimmerman's defense team. The hearing will be Tuesday, December 11 at 9AM EST. Among the issues to be heard are:
 
Motion to Take Additional Deposition
The defense team is asking to take an additional deposition of SPD Investigator William Irwin. The defense claims that Irwin and the SAO failed to disclose that Irwin was present for SPD interview with Tracy Martin in which he asserts that the voice screaming on the 911 call was not that of his son. The defense claims that it was only through the deposition of SPD Captain Robert O'Connor that they learned of this fact and the O'Connor also informed BDLR personally of Erwin's statement.
 
Motion to Compel Production of Evidence from a Third Party
This motion deals with the recorded interview with Witness 8 taken by attorney Benjerman Crump.
 
Motion to Compel Additional Discovery
The defense team is asking the court to orser the state to produce documents referenced in the 9th Supplemental Discovery but not given to the defendant. Included are: letters from Wolfinger's office requesting assistance from the FDLE and the invesdtigative file that was sent along with that request; biographical profiles generated by FDLE analysts on Zimmerman; Trayvon Martin and various other witnesses; materials, memos and minutes created by the transistion meeting between Wolfinger's  office and that of Special Prosecutor Angela Corey; surveillance video from local businesses; all supporting documents pertaining to records requests from Google and T-Mobile; all information provided to FDLE by the Department of Economic Oppurtunity; recording of the Crime Line tip received by FDLE that there was an 8-year-old witness that saw the entire events; all materials, reports and minutes from the Aug 2-3 meeting in Jacksonville with W8 aka DeeDee.
 
Motion to Compel Regarding Voice Identification
The defense team is asking the court to compel the state to identify any witness who has listened to the 911 call and any opinion given regarding voice identification. This motion comes on the heels of the revelation that at least two witnesses listened to the 911 call and identified the screams as coming from Zimmerman. The defense has argued that as exculpatory evidence, the state has an affirmative obligation to immediately disclose this information.
 
Motion to Modify Conditions of Release
Defense is asking Zimmerman be removed from GPS monitoring and be allowed to travel in state without the court's permission.
 
Clarification of Order Setting Bail
The defense team is asking the court to restrict Zimmerman from contact only with the victim's family and not all witnesses, which include many of his family and freinds.
 
Amended Motion for Specific Discovery from FBI
The defense team is asking for the FBI to provide correspondance with SPD, FDLE, SAO and interagency from this case; list of individuals involved in the investigation; to disclose if the file contains any undisclosed information deemed sensitive and the basis for that finding, copies of the files provided to the FBI by the various lacal agencies; the legal foundation for FBI involvement in this case; and documents relating to the current status of the investigation.
 
Amended Demand for Specific Discovery from the Department of Justice Community Relations Services
Various documents from that agency relating to thier involvement in this case.
 
 
 

[RickyJim]

recording of the Crime Line tip received by FDLE that there was an 8-year-old witness that saw the entire events;

Anyone heard of this before?

[Cylinder]

Anyone heard of this before?

That was revealed in the 9th Supplemental Discovery. FDLE stated that the tip claims the girl lived on that blaock in a townhouse with a screened-in porch and the girl could not be located.

[Cylinder]

The State has filed its response to Zimmerman's Motion to Compel Production of Evidence from a Third Party.

The issue in this case is whether Defendant had the right to target, follow, shoot and kill an unarmed seventeen year-old child, to then recite a litany of demonstrably false and internally inconsistent versions of the events, and to now shamelessly attempt to co-opt the mantle of victomhoos for himself. In sum, the Defendant's goal by way of the Instant Motion is not legitimately to gather relevant evidence in this criminal case. Rather, he is clearly more interested in defending his own supposed "reputation" than in permitting a judge and/or a jury consider his actions.[/qoute]

[Redbrow]

STATE'S RESPONSES TO DEFENSE'S MOTIONS AND MR. ZIMMERMAN'S REPLIES

http://gzlegalcase.com/index.php/court-documents/74-state-s-responses-to-defense-s-motions-to-compel-discovery

[MJW]

The State has filed its response to Zimmerman's Motion to Compel Production of Evidence from a Third Party.

Response or tantrum?

[RickyJim]

Should we use this thread for live discussion during tomorrow's hearing?  I think it worked out OK last time it was tried.

[Redbrow]

Why is the name of Martin's cousin, who was present at the DeeDee phone interview, still being redacted? If it is Boobie aka Stephen Martin or Ronquavis Fulton, they both have given media interviews and both are over 18.

I am guessing it is Stephen Martin, who is 20 according to Tracy Martin.

"I had gone out for dinner," says Tracy, "and when I got home, Trayvon wasn't there. I tried calling his cell phone several times, and it went straight to voicemail. I wasn't that worried, because he had been spending time with my 20-year-old nephew who was a responsible young man. There wasn't a panic that he wasn't at home. I figured that they had gone to the movies, because they had said they might. So I laid down, thinking they would show up later."

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20581404,00.html

[Cylinder]

The State has also filed its response to Zimmerman's Motion to Take Additional Deposition. In it, the State claims it notified O'Mara of Capt. O'Conner's conversation with Inv. Erwin during a break in O'Conner's deposition. Zimmerman has also filed a reply to the State's response that claims this assertion is mistaken - that the defendant only learned of the conversation through O'Conner offering it up at deposition after a break.

Zimmerman's version:

In a deposition on the November 19, 2012, the undersigned counsel deposed Sanford Police Captain Robert O'Connor regarding his involvement in and awareness of the investigation. In that deposition, Captain O'Connor testified that he had a conversation with the Assistant State Attomey handling this matter, Bemie de la Rionda, during which he advised Mr. de la Rionda some two weeks before his deposition (placing the conversation between O’Connor and de la Rionda during the first few days of November, 2012), that he spoke with Investigator Erwin some three weeks before (placing that conversation between O’Connor and Erwin some time during the beginning of October, 2012). During the O’Connor-Erwin conversation, Investigator Erwin stated that he was in the investigative office during the time that lead investigator Christopher Serino had Mr. Tracy Martin in that office. Investigator Serino played the 911 tape which contained, in the background, screams for help for Mr. Martin to hear. Investigator Serino then asked Mr. Martin whether or not those screams were the voice of his son, and Mr. Martin stated “no”.

The State's version:

Before Capitan O’Conner's deposition, O’Conner informed the State that Erwin sometime after his deposition told O’Conner that Erwin overheard Tracy say he was unable to identify the voice on the recording.

During a break in O’Conner’s deposition and before the deposition was finished, the undersigned counsel informed Defense Counsel that O’Conner had spoken to Erwin about the specific matter mentioned above. Defense Counsel thanked the undersigned counsel for bringing it to his attention and proceeded to question O’Conner on the matter. That is how Defense Counsel became aware of this.

O'Mara's response to the State's version of events:

As to Paragraph 4 of the State‘s response, the State was aware of Investigator Erwin’s involvement at least two weeks before Captain O’Conner’s deposition. Mr. de Ia Rionda’s assertion that he informed counsel of the O’Conner-Erwin conversation is in error, and mistaken.

Undersigned counsel and co-counsel only learned of that from the words spoken by Captain O’Conner in his deposition testimony, which is attached hereto as Exhibit B.

The actual deposition transcript:

MOM: Back for a few more questions.
 
COC: Can I make a statement?
 
MOM: Sure
 
COC: Your last question. I think, before we took a break, conversations between Bernie and myself, and we did have a conversation a couple of weeks ago that I forgot about untii just now.
 
MOM: Okay.
 
COC: Where I made him aware of a conversation that I had had with one of my investigators, Bill Irwin.
 
MOM: Okay.
 
COC: And Bill Irwin had been the investigator who did the voice stress analysis on Mr. Ziiminerman, I believe.
 
Mr. Irwin came to me about three weeks ago, give or take, and said that he had overheard a conversation between Investigator Serino and Tracy Martin on the night -- on the Monday night following the shooting. That conversation occurred at Serino's desk where -- and it occurred during which Serino was letting Tracy Martin listen to the 911 tape of the shooting.
 
And Bill Irwin said that he overheard the conversation that Tracy Martin was asked by Investigator Serino, "Is that your son screaming on the tape?" And Mr. Martin said, "No."
 
That, I thought as the investigative commander, had been run to its logical end months ago. I didn't know -- apparently nobody knew that Bill Irwin was in the room at that time.
 
I had -- originaly when it came up -- I asked Serino who was in the room and he had originaly said that two investigators, Sergeant Ciesla and Investigator Villaluna, who were both in the room.
 
When we spoke to them, they were not in the room. They said that they had left at various points in time, but never heard that conversation.
 
Bill Irwin -- I just never -- I didn't ask because I wasn't aware that he was in the room until about three weeks, maybe four weeks ago.
 
MOM: Okay.
 
COC: So, I made Bernie aware of it and that was one of the conversations we've had recently.
 
MOM: Okay. Great. I appreciate you clearing that up.
 
COC: Okay.

Though the transcript doesn't rule out the State's version entirely, it seems to support O'Mara's version. Capt. O'Conner either suddenly remembered the conversation with Erwin or he got wobbly during the break about his ommission and decided to come clean.

At any rate, it's my layperson opinion that circumstance matters little. BDLR had an affirmative obligation to disclose the conversation much earlier. You would think that the state had an obligation to memorialize the original disclosure and inform Zimmerman of it almost immediately.

[nomatter_nevermind]

Should we use this thread for live discussion during tomorrow's hearing?  I think it worked out OK last time it was tried.

Why settle for OK?

My personal preference would be that the first person to comment live on the hearing start a new thread for it.

[MJW]

Why is the name of Martin's cousin, who was present at the DeeDee phone interview, still being redacted? If it is Boobie aka Stephen Martin or Ronquavis Fulton, they both have given media interviews and both are over 18.

I am guessing it is Stephen Martin, who is 20 according to Tracy Martin.http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20581404,00.html

Unless I'm misinterpreting something, the cousin is female. In Crump's response to West's letter he says he obtained a person's last name, and refers to the person as "her." The cousin is the only one whose first name is listed, but not the last.

[MJW]

My personal preference would be that the first person to comment live on the hearing start a new thread for it.

That sounds like a good idea to me. It will make the discussion easier to find in the future.

[unitron]

Why settle for OK?

My personal preference would be that the first person to comment live on the hearing start a new thread for it.

If 7 different people comment live within a second or so of each other and each starts a new thread, who decides which is the "official" livebloggingthehearing thread?

Perhaps you could start a separate thread for that now and call for a voluntary embargo on it until the hearing actually starts, at which point everyone will know where to post.

[MJW]

If 7 different people comment live within a second or so of each other and each starts a new thread, who decides which is the "official" livebloggingthehearing thread?

Perhaps you could start a separate thread for that now and call for a voluntary embargo on it until the hearing actually starts, at which point everyone will know where to post.

Good point and good idea.

[nomatter_nevermind]

Video of Dec. 11 hearing, courtesy of The Conservative Tree House.