Another Break for White Man George Zimmerman: Prosecutor mistakenly leaks witness names- helps to prepare defense/impeachment for trial
/Prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges in the Trayvon Martin murder case have gone to great lengths to protect the names of witnesses, fearing they'd be hounded by reporters, curiosity-seekers or worse.
But lead prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda has inadvertently leaked the names of nearly a dozen witnesses, violating a court order.
It's not clear what will happen now and whether he'll face any sort of sanction or punishment from the judge in the case, Debra S. Nelson in Sanford.
De la Rionda delivered a new set of evidence to defense attorneys Nov. 8, and he prepared a summary sheet and delivered it to the Seminole County Courthouse.
Normally, he prepares two sets of summary sheets, one for defense attorneys that includes witness names and other protected information, and a second for the public that goes into the courthouse file. It typically identifies witnesses by number — for example, witness 17.
But on Nov. 8 de la Rionda filed the summary sheet that included witness names in the courthouse file, where anyone is free to look at it.
It lists nearly a dozen new witnesses. None is expected to be a major figure at George Zimmerman's second-degree-murder trial. They include several of his neighbors and two black Sanford community leaders who were at a U.S. Department of Justice meeting several months ago.
A spokesman for de la Rionda's office did not return an email seeking comment. Defense attorney Mark O'Mara wrote a blog post Wednesday announcing that his office plans to begin posting all public court filings made by attorneys for both sides in the Zimmerman case.
Up to now, his office had only posted defense filings, something that critics had described as unfair, O'Mara wrote in his blog post. But it won't post the paperwork with the witness names that de la Rionda leaked, O'Mara said, because that would compound an error and might be interpreted as a violation of a court order.
