Judge in Zimmerman’s Case Refuses To Step Down, Denies Request To Disqualify Him

The judge presiding over the George Zimmerman case, who was charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, has denied Zimmerman’s motion to disqualify him from the case.

Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester wrote in a letter Tuesday morning that the motion was “legally insufficient.”

This was Zimmerman’s second attempt to remove a judge from his case. His  first was successful.

Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara filed in the motion in July, based on remarks Judge Lester made during a bond hearing that O’Mara claimed were disparaging, and said Lester was bias against his client. Lester said during the July 5 bond hearing , after a bond granted in April was revoked and Zimmerman was rearrested — that Zimmerman had “flaunted the system” by misleading the court to believe that he and his wife were broke, when the couple had in fact been sitting on $135,000 donated by supporters.

O’Mara said his decision to file a motion was based on his client having no faith he would have a fair trial.

“Mr. Zimmerman has lost faith in the objectivity of this Court and has a reasonable, well-founded fear that he will not receive a fair trial by this Court,” O’Mara wrote.

George Zimmerman is charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of Trayon Martin on February 26th.  Martin was unarmed, however Zimmerman says he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense.

Lester, in an eight-page order filed in July that granted Zimmerman a second bond of $1 million, pointed to Zimmerman’s earlier, questionable behavior, including concealing a second passport and the secret funds.

“Notably, together with the passport, the money only had to be hidden for a short time for him to leave the country if the defendant made a quick decision to flee,” Lester said. “It is entirely reasonable for this court to find that, but for the requirement that he be placed on electronic monitoring, the defendant and his wife would have fled the United States with at least $130,000 of other people’s money.”