Detective in Zimmerman case said he was pressured to file charges Records released Thursday show a federal law-enforcement agent accompanied George Zimmerman to his police interrogations, and FBI interviews did not turn up any sign of racial bias in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.The lead Sanford Police investigator who sought manslaughter charges against George Zimmerman told the FBI that a sergeant and two other officers tried to pressure him into making an arrest in the controversial case — even though he didn’t think there was enough evidence.
Sanford Police Officer Chris Serino first made headlines when evidence released in the case showed he sought manslaughter charges against Zimmerman even while his chief publicly said there was no probable cause to arrest him. But a document released late Thursday casts doubt on Serino’s prior sworn affidavit seeking criminal charges, and raises questions about the credibility of the star law-enforcement witness in the murder case against Zimmerman for the shooting death of a black teenager, Miami Gardens high school junior Trayvon Martin..
Telling the FBI that he was concerned that people inside the police department were leaking information, Serino cited Sgt. Arthur Barnes, officers Rebecca Villalona and Trekelle Perkins “as all pressuring him to file charges against Zimmerman after the incident,” an FBI report said. “Serino did not believe he had enough evidence at the time to file charges.”
The summary of Serino’s statement does not mention the race of the officers who allegedly pressured him, but sources told The Miami Herald that Barnes and Perkins are black, and Villalona is married to an African-American man. All three, the source said, had been called in by their supervisor and questioned about leaking information in the case.
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Records released Thursday show that Sgt. Barnes, a 25-year veteran of the department, told the FBI that he believed the black community would be “in an uproar” if Zimmerman was not charged. “The community will be satisfied if an arrest takes place,” the FBI quoted him saying. Barnes “felt the shooting was not racially motivated, but it was a man shooting an unarmed kid.”
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Among the other revelations in the nearly 300 pages of records:
• A witness told prosecutors that her son, a minor, had felt pressured by Sanford Police to say the injured man he saw was wearing a red top. The boy’s testimony is considered critical, because it backed up Zimmerman’s allegation that he — wearing red — was being pummeled.
• The day Zimmerman turned himself in to be charged with second-degree murder, authorities confiscated a handgun from his car.
• A gun dealer told police that some time in mid-March, Zimmerman called to say he was afraid for his life and “needed more guns.”
• A police sergeant on duty at the station the night Trayvon was killed said he didn’t notice any injury to Zimmerman’s nose, but said he was “grunting as if in pain.”
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/12/2 ... rylink=cpy
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