George Zimmerman sues Trayvon Martin’s parents and others for $100 million
(CNN)George Zimmerman was acquitted in the fatal 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, but according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Florida, he believes there was a conspiracy to frame him and wants $100 million in damages.
Attorney Larry Klayman announced the lawsuit in tandem with a Coral Gables screening of a documentary titled “The Trayvon Martin Hoax,” which has since been canceled. Zimmerman was scheduled to appear alongside Klayman at a Thursday news conference, but hours later, Klayman said the news conference was canceled, too.
The chief allegation in the lawsuit is that civil rights attorney Ben Crump helped to swap out a reluctant witness, Brittany Diamond Eugene, for her half-sister, Rachel Jeantel, and helped prepare her to deliver a script intended to land Zimmerman in prison for the 17-year-old’s killing on February 26, 2012. Crump began representing Trayvon’s parents starting February 28, 2012, the lawsuit says.
The suit accuses Trayvon’s parents, prosecutors and state authorities of going along with the alleged ruse, and “are alleged to either have known about or should have known about the witness fraud, obstructed justice, or lied repeatedly under oath in order to cover up their knowledge of the witness fraud,” a news release from Klayman said.
Klayman, who founded the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, has filed several lawsuits in the past, including a “birther” lawsuit that falsely claimed former President Barack Obama couldn’t be president because he wasn’t a natural-born citizen.
According to Zimmerman’s lawsuit, Jeantel posed as Trayvon’s girlfriend when it was Eugene who was dating Trayvon and on the phone with him during the encounter with Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch captain.
Jeantel then delivered bogus testimony on the stand at Zimmerman’s trial, the lawsuit alleges. The alleged conspirators went along with the plot, despite Jeantel being two years older, 5 inches taller and about 120 pounds heavier than Eugene, the lawsuit says.
The plan was made final in a 3-minute phone call between Crump and Eugene on March 31, 2012, the lawsuit says.
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