George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer left off the hook after fatally shooting and killing Trayvon Martin in 2012, has launched a $100 million lawsuit against the slain boy’s family.
Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, 17, following a nighttime altercation between the two at his gated community in Sanford in February 2012.
He was cleared and acquitted of second-degree murder in 2013.
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Larry Klayman, Zimmerman’s attorney announced the suit Wednesday. The announcement came jointly with a Coral Gables screening of a documentary titled “The Trayvon Martin Hoax”, CNN reports. The screening has since been canceled.
Klayman is a high-profile legal crusader tied to conservative causes and the founder of Judicial Watch before splitting with the activist group.
The suit accused Martin’s family, prosecutors and several others of defamation, abuse of civil process and conspiracy. It further claimed that the family engineered false testimony and alleged all defendants “have worked in concert to deprive Zimmerman of his constitutional and other legal rights.”
Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother is the lead defendant in the suit. She became a national figure in the aftermath of her son’s fatal shooting as strong campaigner and advocate for social justice and reducing gun deaths.
Fulton is running for the District 1 seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission being vacated by a term-limited Barbara Jordan in the Miami Gardens area, according to the Miami Herald.
“It is both disgusting and shameful that George Zimmerman, a man who killed an unarmed child and got away with it, is now suing Trayvon Martin’s grieving parents,” Fulton’s campaign said in a statement.
The suit also aimed at Rachel Jeantel, a friend of Martin’s who testified at Zimmerman’s trial.
According to the suit, Jeantel was brought on as a “fake witness” and that she lied about her intimate relationship with Martin, as well as, her evidence that she spoke with the deceased moments leading up to the fatal shooting that would lead to his death.
“Jeantel lied repeatedly about having a relationship with Trayvon, about being on the phone with Trayvon in the days and minutes up to his death, and lied about everything she claimed to have heard over the phone in the hours and minutes before Trayvon’s death,” Zimmerman’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
“Defendant Jeantel also lied about her identity, falsely claiming her nickname to be ‘Diamond Eugene.’”
Also, Zimmerman’s suit was directed at civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and publishing house Harper Collins for defamation over the October release of Crump’s book, “Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People.”
Crump, who represented the Martin family, addressed the complaint in a statement Wednesday, saying in part: “I have every confidence that this unfounded and reckless lawsuit will be revealed for what it is — another failed attempt to defend the indefensible [and] a shameless attempt to profit off the lives and grief of others.”
Martin, the African-American teenager whose shocking murder in 2012 gave rise to the BlackLivesMatter Movement, was honored with a posthumous degree in Aviation.
Florida Memorial University (FMU) awarded Martin with an honorary degree in Aviation at the school’s May 13th graduation ceremony.
Inspired by his uncle, Martin took time out to study at the George T. Baker Aviation School during his freshman year of high school.
In a Facebook post in 2017 FMU President Roslyn Clark said the school was honoring Martin for “his long dream and the steps he took during his young life toward becoming a pilot.”
