'Witness 9' says George Zimmerman molested her for 10 years

George Zimmerman after his arrest (Gary Green/Pool) The special prosecutor's office has released more jailhouse calls and an audiotape from a witness saying George Zimmerman molested her. Zimmerman has  been charged with second-degree murder in the February slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The witness has been identified only "Witness 9":

"He would put his hands under my pants, under my underwear," the witness says.

That bombshell is part of a new set of evidence released by Special Prosecutor Angela Corey. [...]

In a statement released earlier, witness 9 told Sanford police that Zimmerman does not like blacks. In the audio-recorded interview released today, she reiterated that but without providing specifics.

Zimmerman's family, she said, "don't like black people if they don't act like white people. They like black people if they act white."

She said the molestation began when she was six and stopped when she was 16.

Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, had sought to have the witness's statement excluded, along with 145 120 phone calls made by his client while incarcerated in the Seminole County Jail. Those calls, he said, had nothing to do with the case. Zimmerman has since been released on bail of one million dollars after Seminole County Circuit Judge Kenneth R. Lester revoked his original $150,000 bail because Zimmerman and his wife had lied about their financial circumstances.

O'Mara has also sought to have Judge Lester replaced, claiming that he is biased against his client. The view of some legal experts is that O'Mara wants a new judge because he thinks another might dismiss the case under Florida's so-called "Stand Your Ground" law. That law gives defendants a stronger presumption of self-defense than the previous law. Zimmerman has claimed from the beginning that he was attacked by Trayvon Martin, punched to the ground with one blow, then had his head pounded into a sidewalk. It was only then, he told police, that he drew his semi-automatic pistol from a holster in his waistband and fired the single shot that killed Martin. Under Florida law, he can seek a hearing before the trial to have the charges dismissed on stand-your-ground premises.

The authors of the stand-your-ground law said soon after the killing that the circumstances do not fit the Zimmerman case. But defendants have been released under stand your ground in some particularly egregious instances, such as shooting an unarmed person in the back while he fled. It was clear from Judge Lester's order in granting new bail that he is unlikely to dismiss the case before trial.

His views expressed in that order are what O'Mara went after, accusing the judge of 'making gratuitous, disparaging remarks about Mr. Zimmerman's character.' In his brief seeking to have the judge disqualify himself, O'Mara stated, 'the Court has created a reasonable fear in Mr. Zimmerman that this court is biased against him and because of this prejudice he cannot receive a fair and impartial trial or hearing by this Court.'

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^{Vyan's post discusses the defense's attempt to have the judge replaced.}