Why was Zimmerman's cousin afraid of him?

The man charged with the murder of an unarmed black teenager in Florida, George Zimmerman has now been accused of molesting his younger cousin. She kept her accusations to herself until now because she was afraid of him, she says.?

By Frances Robles,?McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) / July 17, 2012

George Zimmerman and attorney Don West appear before Circuit Judge Kenneth R. Lester, Jr. during a bond hearing at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford, Fla., June 29.

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/AP

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Despite a last-minute rush to the courthouse by the defense to keep a witness?s damaging story out of public view, prosecutors on Monday released a recorded statement from George?Zimmerman?s?cousin, who said?Zimmerman?molested her for 10 years, beginning when she was 6 years old.

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Like most other witnesses in the case, the woman?s name was not released. Dubbed ?Witness 9,? she is 26 and lives in central Florida. She called investigators shortly after?Zimmerman?was arrested in the shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin to say that?Zimmerman?and his family were racists. The evidence released Monday shows she also called a state attorney about three weeks later with more serious allegations.

She told investigators Jim Post and Jim Rick that her family and?Zimmerman?s?lived in different states, but inappropriate incidents of a sexual nature took place during annual visits until she was 16. Although just two years younger than?Zimmerman, she said she was scared of him because he was bigger, older and stronger.

She described him as a charmer who made everyone laugh and love him. He was different, she said, when alone with her behind closed doors.

When she was 6 and her family was in the process of moving from Louisiana to Florida, she said, she and her sister were sent to stay with the?Zimmermans?at their home in Virginia. The children would lie on sofas under blankets to watch TV, and?Zimmerman, she claims, would use the opportunity to fondle her and penetrate her with his fingers, even though there were other people in the room.

?That?s my earliest memory of him trying to do things. He would reach under the blankets,? she said. ?He was bigger and stronger and older. I was a kid. I didn?t know any better.?

Arguing that the allegation was irrelevant to the murder charge,?Zimmerman?s?defense attorney, Mark O?Mara, had two hearings before Seminole County Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester in an effort to seal the witness statement. Lester twice ruled against him.

O?Mara filed a motion Monday morning to put a stop to the judge?s ruling just minutes before the statement?s scheduled release. Absent an order from the court to hold off, the Duval County state attorney, trying Zimmerman?on a second-degree murder charge for the killing of Martin, released the statement, along with audio of more than a hundred phone calls?Zimmerman?made from jail.

?Now that this statement is part of the public record, the defense will vigorously defend Mr.?Zimmermanagainst the allegations,? O?Mara wrote on his website. ?In the next several weeks, there will be reciprocal discovery filed regarding Witness No. 9?s statement.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/QntXw0lM5HY/Why-was-Zimmerman-s-cousin-afraid-of-him

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