Althouse: "I listened to 2 minutes of [Zimmerman's] cousin's calls and didn't believe a word she said. She was tentative and her tears sounded phoney."

July 17, 2012

"I listened to 2 minutes of [Zimmerman's] cousin's calls and didn't believe a word she said. She was tentative and her tears sounded phoney."

"That of course, is just my opinion," says TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt. "I'm pretty surprised Judge Lester ordered their release."

Go here for details and to listen to the calls.

47 comments:

chickelit said...: I listened. Audio is insufficient to judge authenticity. I "heard" a wry smile in the middle, equidistant from the tearful beginning and end.

It's a "he said she said" scenario anyways.

Why is this relevent?; 7/17/12, 4:35 PM
Lyle said...: Even without the actual recording the reported parts of it are fishy as heck.

Poor George Zimmerman.; 7/17/12, 4:35 PM
edutcher said...: I take it the blog being TalkLeft, she'd already judged them all guilty.; 7/17/12, 4:40 PM
rhhardin said...: I took it as the murder case falling apart.; 7/17/12, 4:41 PM
traditionalguy said...: Z can't catch a break these days.

Is the DA going to argue that Z was planning to feel up the hoodie boy who resisted him?

The publicity will poison the Jury panels against believing Z.

Z may finally earn the famous jury verdict of, "Not Guilty but should be in jail anyway."; 7/17/12, 4:42 PM
MayBee said...: edutcher- Jeralyn is a Democrat, but also a criminal defense attorney. I believe she was assigned to be on Timothy McVeigh's defense team.
She is also friends with Hunter S. Thompson's widow and is a big believer in marijuana legalization and gun rights.

No, she doesn't find "them all" guilty.; 7/17/12, 4:43 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I take it the blog being TalkLeft, she'd already judged them all guilty."

Speaking of a rush to judgment....; 7/17/12, 4:44 PM
Lyle said...: edutcher,

In the comments section there has been some of that, but Jeralyn, even if she is a progressive, is terribly fair to people, left, right, or whatever.

I bow to the lady.; 7/17/12, 4:47 PM
jr565 said...: It's funny how people keep arguing that Trayvon's recent past where he was getting in trouble at school, selling drugs, fighting with a bus driver, dealing drugs, having burglary tools on him are all irrelevant and how could anyone possibly bring it up.
Yet, what Zimmerman may have done as an 8 year old is somehow completly relevant.
Also, even if true, it's hardly rape. WE're talkinb about little kids. I remember when I was a kid I went to someone's house and their daughter who was my age, kept showing me her butt and vagina, and then kept trying to fondle me and kiss me. Being a little kid, I just found it to be annoying and icky. Girls were still gross. But that wasn't "rape". Kids that young don't yet get the concept. (hey I wonder if she's single, maybe I can give her a call).; 7/17/12, 4:47 PM
MadisonMan said...: Why is this relevant? That's a good question.

Throw stuff at the wall and see if it sticks.; 7/17/12, 4:49 PM
Bender said...: Someone needs to explain why this totally unethical, should-be-disbarred-yesterday prosecutor is allowed to try this case in the media with these constant disclosures?; 7/17/12, 4:51 PM
chickelit said...: traditionalguy offered: Z may finally earn the famous jury verdict of, "Not Guilty but should be in jail anyway."

So you see Z as another OJ? I've always admired your trial lawyer's respect for due process but I scoff at your judgement in this case. You've said all along that Z deserved punishment, but for what?; 7/17/12, 5:01 PM
edutcher said...: MayBee said...

No, she doesn't find "them all" guilty.

I was referring to the Zimmermans, solely.; 7/17/12, 5:12 PM
traditionalguy said...: Chicklit... it's only my hunch that Z is not an innocent type of guy. That and the dead 17 year old he said he had to kill.

He needs only to stick to his perfect story and he will be freed. Then Florida SWAT teams can machine gun down the thousands of chanting black lynch mobs that every one seems to be so afraid of coming out of our imaginations at midnight.

At this point, it all seems more of a joke than a problem.; 7/17/12, 5:21 PM
Revenant said...: Personally, I'm waiting for him to eventually be accused of Satanism and membership in al Qaeda.; 7/17/12, 5:23 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: I see that edutcher didn't bother to click on the linky.

Hint: George Zimmerman's cousin isn't trying to defend him. Quite the opposite.; 7/17/12, 5:23 PM
Paul said...: So according to her she was 6 and he as 7 when this started?

Were they 'playing doctor'?

And why now? Oh, I bet she wants to SELL HER STORY! $$$ brings alot of people out off the woodwork.; 7/17/12, 5:26 PM
Cedarford said...: In other news tradguy might be interested in, a hispanic that greatly outweighed the 3 black "children" he met while collecting cans didn't have a weapon.
The 16 year old child beat him to death while the children Trayvons age videod it and admitted to a little stomping action.
Either the innocent little Trayvons of Chicago were just doing it for fun...or the evil older and heavier Hispanic must have brought it on himself by "stalking them".; 7/17/12, 5:40 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The cousin first said Z was a racist.. and the later up the ante with "molestation" accusation from when they were pre-teens.

I've only watched Law and Order, LA Law and Matlock.. so I dont really know how that works... but - I recall the word prejudicial that fake judges never failed to frown upon.; 7/17/12, 5:42 PM
Cedarford said...: Is what happened up in Chicago another "joke" to tradguy?

(It doesn't actually seem like a joke given the time and angst he has poured into his many posts about the poor black child Trayvon.); 7/17/12, 5:43 PM
William said...: I agree with tradguy to some extent. Perhaps a more circumspect or discreet person could have followed Trayvon in such a way as not to provoke a confrontation. I've seen the video of Trayvon in the grocery store, though. His behavior invited eyeballing. Further, I don't think you can say much for Trayvon's prudence or judgement if he jumped on Zimmerman because of the surveillance. It was a rash, stupid act.....This latest revelation doesn't make Zimmerman look good, but it doesn't make him look guilty of second degree murder. It seems malicious to release such informationon Zimmerman.; 7/17/12, 5:47 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Someone needs to explain why this totally unethical, should-be-disbarred-yesterday prosecutor is allowed to try this case in the media with these constant disclosures?

Florida Sunshine Laws.

I thought they only had to do with accountability in government.; 7/17/12, 5:54 PM
george said...: I stand by what I said before. The city of Sanford knows they are facing massive civil suits from the detective they demoted and the police chief they ran off on top of the huge one from Zimmerman once this is all over. Their only hope of avoiding a judgment is to get George to plead to something so they are going to pull every dirty trick in the book. It would also help stave off the riots that will likely follow. They see this as their only way out at this point.

You have to remember that contrary to what Tradguy would have us believe several people have already been chased out of their homes due to threats --- and some of these people such as those at the address Spike Lee tweeted aren't even connected to the case.

I think the prosecutor is going down as well and the judge is skating on thin ice as they try to manufacture something here. The chances they will overreach to the point of criminality seem really high at this point and their behavior certainly bears monitoring.

It should also be remembered that this was all ginned up in the hopes of building momentum to repeal Stand Your Ground. The police and prosecutors had made the correct decision and were pressured politically to pursue this case.

So far there has not been a single piece of evidence produced that points towards Zimmerman doing anything wrong and yet he is still being prosecuted. This isn't just some silly little incident to be glossed over. It is every bit as much a racial lynching as any hanging that occurred in our nation's past and it is happening right now in slow motion.

To quote Slow Joe --- "this is a big fucking deal."; 7/17/12, 6:01 PM
Chuck66 said...: My newspaper had a wire service article that said the FBI did an investigation to find out if Zimmerman was a "racist".

No word if they are investigating Jerry Sandusky to find out if he is a homosexual before charging him.; 7/17/12, 6:10 PM
Michael K said...: George, for a moment, I read your name as garage and couldn't believe my eyes.

"I take it the blog being TalkLeft, she'd already judged them all guilty."

No, she has been an excellent source of unbiased info on this awful case. I think from what I read one day when I spent hours at conservative tree house. that she is one of the best sources on the story. It took me about four hours to go through all the stuff at that site.

This may have started when Zimmerman complained about that detective who has been prominent in the case beating up a homeless black man. The city and the local cops seem to have it in for him and that may be the reason.

The story is here.

In order to understand how horribly obvious was the creation of this false racism, including lies by omission, you must (re)familarize yourself with the former Sanford Florida case of a black homeless man named Sherman Ware. Ware was beaten by 21-year-old Justin Collison, outside a local Sanford Bar on December 4th, 2010:

Collison was captured on a YouTube video leaving a Sanford bar Dec. 4, walking up behind an unsuspecting Ware and punching him in the back of the head. That drove Ware’s face into a utility pole, and he then hit the pavement.

He was taken to a Sanford hospital, where he was treated for a broken nose.

Sanford police questioned Collison that night and had possession of the video but did not arrest him. He was arrested one month later after news organizations began airing the video. – Orlando Sentinel

Justin Collison’s father is a Sanford police lieutenant and his grandfather is former Circuit Judge Kenneth Leffler, one of several heirs to a land fortune in Volusia County. Collison was not arrested on the night of the beating. The non-arrest created a considerable stir in the community as it was perceived he was given favorable treatment due to his father’s status within the police department, and his powerful family connections.

More here.

In late 2010 and early 2011 George Zimmerman, the Hispanic Sanford, Fla., man who shot and killed 17-year-old black teen Trayvon Martin, publicly demanded discipline in a race-related beating case for at least two of the police officers who cleared him after the Feb. 26 altercation, according to records obtained by The Daily Caller.

In a letter to Seminole County NAACP president Turner Clayton, a member of the Zimmerman family wrote that George was one of “very few” in Sanford who publicly condemned the “beating of the black homeless man Sherman Ware on Dec. 4, 2010, by the son of a Sanford police officer,” who is white.

TheDC has confirmed the identity of the Zimmerman family member who wrote the letter but is withholding that person’s specific identity out of concern for the family’s safety.

On Dec. 4, 2010, Justin Collison, the son of Sanford Police Department Lt. Chris Collison, was involved in a bar fight at The Wet Spot bar in Sanford. During the fight, which moved from indoors to outdoors, the younger Collison struck Ware.

Guess what role the father played in Zimmerman's case.; 7/17/12, 6:24 PM
ed said...: "George, for a moment, I read your name as garage and couldn't believe my eyes."

Same here. Thought I had an aneurysm or something.; 7/17/12, 7:31 PM
traditionalguy said...: So how is it relevent what some black teens did to someone else in Chicago or what OJ did to his ex-wife and her friend in LA?

No more relevant than what about when some elders of zion did some where else in the world?

But Obergruppenfuhrer Cedarford demands his answer. Don't you know that the inferior people are the same everywhere in Cedarford's struggle to prevail over racial inferiors.

Or maybe we can wake up and simply judge real men for what they did and not judge them by the list of sins of their ethnic group. If that sounds really hard to do, then let a real Court with rules of evidence and a panel of citizen jurors do it for you.; 7/17/12, 7:41 PM
Palladian said...: What are the odds that traditionalguy is Zimmerman's cousin?; 7/17/12, 8:01 PM
Revenant said...: Perhaps a more circumspect or discreet person could have followed Trayvon in such a way as not to provoke a confrontation.

Some myths never die.; 7/17/12, 8:05 PM
traditionalguy said...: Palladian...You surely don't mean the cousin that Z got away with molested in secret at his house for 8 years?

One way you can tell that I am not Z's cousin is because if I was, then Travon would have had the broken nose and the head wounds on the front, no guns needed. Unless I actually wanted to kill the hooded burglar. Then I would have used a gun and a perfect self defense story.; 7/17/12, 8:19 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Then I would have used a gun and a perfect self defense story."

And broke your own nose and pounded your own skull into the pavement to make it really convincing.

But, even then some really sharp independent thinkers wouldn't buy it, because they are really sharp independent thinkers.; 7/17/12, 8:50 PM
Cedarford said...: Gee, tradguy, now you are talking about beating the innocent young child Trayvon you were blubbering for!

As for Chicago, newsflash !
Hispanics as well as Asians and whites are being targeted by "little black children" like Trayvon - every day.
It has reached a boiling point in some cities where blacks and hispanics live side by side.

Pity the disabled Hispanic guy in Chicago did not have a gun to pull out and shoot the "innocent Skittlesless 16 year old black child".
At least he'd still be alive, even as you, the black racists, and progressive jews of the media that push "The Narrative" tried orchestrating a high tech lynching.; 7/17/12, 9:00 PM
Cedarford said...: I think the gist of matters so far is that Trayvon, and both Zimmermans are no prize specimens of humanity, and the cousin sounds like another winner.
But only one of the 4 seems to have had a "Go to Jail" card issued...but got shot before he could arrive at black thug Grad School.; 7/17/12, 9:07 PM
Michael K said...: I don't think it need be said that Z is sorry he signed up for neighborhood watch.

It sounds like he didn't realize that Collison was going to get revenge.; 7/17/12, 9:27 PM
Fen said...: Perhaps a more circumspect or discreet person could have followed Trayvon in such a way as not to provoke a confrontation.

Steal doesn't melt.

Rush to War.

No WMDs found.

Selected not elected.; 7/17/12, 9:33 PM
jr565 said...: Traditional guy wrote:
He needs only to stick to his perfect story and he will be freed. Then Florida SWAT teams can machine gun down the thousands of chanting black lynch mobs that every one seems to be so afraid of coming out of our imaginations at midnight.

the guy passed a lie detector test. His story is ony as perfect as truth is, which is rarely so.; 7/17/12, 9:43 PM
William said...: My remark that Zimmerman could have followed Trayvon with more discretion seems to have caused some head shaking. For the record I don't think Zimmerman is guilty of any type of homicide. But, also for the record, the fact remains that if Trayvon was suspicious enough to be followed, then Zimmerman was negligent to allow himself to be sucker punched.; 7/17/12, 11:15 PM
jr565 said...: Trad guy wrote:
One way you can tell that I am not Z's cousin is because if I was, then Travon would have had the broken nose and the head wounds on the front, no guns needed. Unless I actually wanted to kill the hooded burglar. Then I would have used a gun and a perfect self defense story.

you say that as if you'd have perfect knowledge of future events, and the fact is you'd probably be the guy who got his head smashed against the pavement wishing you had that gun.; 7/17/12, 11:25 PM
bagoh20 said...: " if Trayvon was suspicious enough to be followed, then Zimmerman was negligent to allow himself to be sucker punched."

If you are a responsible neighbor who just called the cops and was awaiting their arrival after following a suspicious person and were now heading back to your car, when the guy suddenly appears, just how do you prevent him from punching you if he's determined that's what he wants to do. In fact, he wants to knock you out.; 7/18/12, 12:02 AM
Lawyer Mom said...: Attempting to explain what can only be called an inexplicable "outcry" delay, she says: "this is the first time in my life that I'm not afraid of him."

Oh, please. He was out on bond before, and he's out on bond again, Miss "Fraidy-Cat."

The real answer is: this is the first time in your life you could capitalize on a made-up story that National Enquirer would only pay you to tell because Job, I mean George, is getting his 15 minutes of infamy.

And the judge clearly wants his 15 minutes, too.

Anna Picoult just got the plot for her next book.; 7/18/12, 12:13 AM
JAL said...: I smell desperation.; 7/18/12, 12:57 AM
amyshulk said...: The Narrative has ticked me off from the beginning, and this reach just seals it. TOTAL Witch hunt against Z. It's both sickening and frightening to see the media and so many on the left who want us all to "play possum" rather than to stand up for ourselves. Truly scary.; 7/18/12, 2:39 AM
Fen said...: My remark that Zimmerman could have followed Trayvon with more discretion seems to have caused some head shaking

Because Zimmerman did not follow Martin.

Also, its either Trayvon & George or Martin & Zimmerman.; 7/18/12, 3:18 AM
Fen said...: No, she has been an excellent source of unbiased info on this awful case. I think from what I read one day when I spent hours at conservative tree house. that she is one of the best sources on the story. It took me about four hours to go through all the stuff at that site.

Agreed. And I have a strong bias against Jeralyn over her censorship of new commenters.

But TalkLeft (and JustOneMinute) were my go-to blogs for all the information the MSM was hiding from us. Most objective reporting to me found. Jeralyn did good.; 7/18/12, 3:22 AM
Rusty said...: Shorter trad guy.
This tragedy won't be over till Zimmerman is dead.

And the fact is that somebody, sometime is going to off him and call it justice.
He got his death sentence now you can wait with breathless anticipation for his execution.
I despise the mob.; 7/18/12, 7:17 AM
Jason said...: I'm responding to edutcher's post in yesterday's rape joke thread, but it's more on topic here:

I had remarked that traditionalguy was willing to cut Red Army troops some slack for the mass rape of German women and girls in 1945, but wanted to throw the book at Zimmerman, despite the utter lack of evidence that he wasn't acting in self defense.

traditionalguy: But my position was that Zimmerman needs to go to trial and the Jury will sort it out and end the wild speculation. Zimmerman told too perfect of a story for me.

So we're going to hold people in prison for months so we can have a trial to "sort it out," even though there's no actual evidence that he committed a crime? There's no evidence he's lying? You're going to throw a man in jail for months because his story matches up too well with the evidence? Because his story's too good?

Let me ask you this: If a jury acquits Zimmerman, are you willing to go serve every minute in jail that you condemned him to? Are you going to pay his legal bills? Are you going to make up for his lost wages? Are you going to compensate him for his time in jail on your witch hunt?; 7/18/12, 10:37 AM
William said...: @fen: I didn't mean to be calling Zimmerman by his last name and Trayvon by his first name as a way of subtly generating sympathy for Trayvon. It's just that Trayvon sounds more like a last name than Martin, but you're right in your observation.....I'm sympathetic to Zimmerman. There's so much hyperbole in the invective that has been hurled against him that fair minded people, by way of over compensation, tend not just to exonerate him but to idealize him. Zimmerman can be an innocent man of flawed character and judgement.; 7/18/12, 11:37 AM