George Zimmerman To Sue Trayvon Martin's Family And Florida Prosecutors For $100M 

On February 26, 2012, a neighbour watch volunteer in Sanford Florida, George Zimmerman had shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in a gated community as he allegedly attacked him. Now, after more than seven years since he was acquitted of all charges of fatally shooting the unarmed black teen, Zimmerman is suing Martin’s family and Florida prosecutors for making up false evidence during the homicide trial.

Young Martin was a resident of Miami Gardens but was in Sanford to visit his father. On the day of the shooting, he was returning from the store after buying candy and that’s when he met Zimmerman. Zimmerman found the teen suspicious and claimed that when he approached him, Martin attacked him and in self-defence, he fired his weapon.

Zimmerman faced a lengthy trial in court as prosecutors stressed that there is no proof of the attack on him by Martin, who was on his way home.

And now, years after his acquittal, Zimmerman has filed a lawsuit of $100 million

He filled the lawsuit in Polk County Circuit Court on December 4, 2019, via which he seeks $100 million in civil damages for defamation, abuse of civil process, and conspiracy. He has claimed that the key witness in the case, Rachel Jeantel, presented as Martin’s girlfriend, was, in fact, an imposter coached by the family and their lawyers to lie in the court. Martin’s family's attorney, Ben Crump has also been accused of defamation and blamed for depriving “Zimmerman of his constitutional and other legal rights.”

Zimmerman’s high-profile conservative legal crusader Larry Klayman had released the full legal complaint to the media before officially filing the same. According to the complaint, Crump engineered fake evidence a week after the Sanford Police Department closed the February 2012 shooting as self-defence.

Crump produced a recording of 'Diamond Eugene', the 16-year-old girlfriend of Martin who was conversing with him minutes before he was shot by Zimmerman. Following the submission of the recording, Eugene’s half-sister, 18-year-old Jeantel appeared in the court as the alleged girlfriend and “provided false statements to incriminate Zimmerman based on coaching from others”.

As per the lawsuit, it wasn’t Jeantel but Eugene, the real girlfriend of Martin, who was on the phone with him on the fateful day and the swap was done to “cause Zimmerman's arrest and to try to send him to prison for life”.

“This plaintiff continues to display a callous disregard for everyone but himself, revictimizing individuals whose lives were shattered by his own misguided actions,” said Crump in response to the lawsuit. “He would have us believe that he is the innocent victim of a deep conspiracy, despite the complete lack of any credible evidence to support his outlandish claims. This tale defies all logic, and it's time to close the door on these baseless imaginings.”