Zimmerman Prosecutors To Face Whistleblower Lawsuit From Fired Florida State Attorney Employee

[trublu992]

Source: Huffington Post

NEW YORK, July 16 (Reuters) - A former employee of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey's office plans to file a whistleblower lawsuit against George Zimmerman's prosecutors, his attorney told Reuters on Tuesday.

The action will put pressure on Corey, who already faces criticism from some legal experts for the unsuccessful prosecution of the case, which led to the acquittal of Zimmerman for shooting unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman's defense has also called for sanctions against her and her prosecution team.

Ben Kruidbos, Corey's former director of information technology, was fired after testifying at a pre-trial hearing on June 6 that prosecutors failed to turn over potentially embarrassing evidence extracted from Martin's cell phone to the defense, as required by evidence-sharing laws.

"We will be filing a whistle blower action in (Florida's Fourth Judicial District) Circuit Court," said Kruidbos' attorney Wesley White, himself a former prosecutor who was hired by Corey but resigned in December because he disagreed with her prosecutorial priorities. He said the suit will be filed within the next 30 days.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/17/zimmerman-prosecutors-lawsuit_n_3607470.html?utm_hp_ref=george-zimmerman

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Interesting?

[madaboutharry]

1. If the allegations in his termination letter are true,

he will have a hard time prevailing.

[7962]

2. He was given an award for "meritorious performance"

just 2 months before. He was fired because he blew the whistle on her incompetence. Read up on this woman and her past. She has tried to get Alan Dershowitz fired because of what he said about her. She is a train wreck, imo. If what he said is true, she may be in trouble.

[DWinNJ]

6. We will have to wait to see how this plays out.

A “meritorious performance” review doesn’t indicate or prove anything. Often someone who is thought of as a great employee will have been up to something subversive for a long time without being caught. In other cases an employee does something so egregious that it overshadows past performance.

[7962]

8. Here's a link to a short story about her I found

It is on National review, and there is some editorializing, but if the stories are true, she's trouble. I wouldnt want to work for her. But then again its Florida!

http://nationalreview.com/article/353633/angela-coreys-checkered-past-ian-tuttle/page/0/1?splash=

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. The “Meritorious Service” award …

Was in the form of a pay raise, which in the public sector is the only way pay increases are distributed. The legislature designates a pot of money for pay increases and everyone not in a disciplinary proceeding gets one. This only says that in the two months before his termination, his performance/conduct was satisfactory.

(And this is coming from a public sector HR Professional that has seen this happen time and again.)

Plus think about it … Everyone’s performance is satisfactory, or even good; until it isn’t. Mr. IT Guy was fired for poor performance … working in a law office and disclosing priviledged material to opposing counsel is poor performance. Secondly, this isn’t even a whistle-blower case. Whistle-blower rules are very specific as to whom and how disclosures are to be made, for this very reason. No one should be able to circumvent the process because of their imperfect understanding of what should be “right.”

[7962]

19. If it doesnt qualify, then the suit will be dismissed, I imagine.

Of course, we may not know for a year the way things go.

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. I'm just telling you not to place too much stock ...

in the pay raise equals "everything was fine til I did my act of conscience" B.S. line.

In one phase of my care, I crafted such arguments and in another, I defended against the arguments. In both phases, I know it was B.S.

[valerief]

3. Florida. They'll be true, whether they're true or not. nt

[Bjorn Against]

4. From what I understand the state did turn the data over

They turned over the bin file, it was encrypted but it was also encrypted when the state got it and the state is not required to unencrypt it for the defense. None of the stuff would have been admissable in court anyways.

[HeiressofBickworth]

10. It's been stated on other threads

The report furnished to the prosecutor based on the source documents/files is "attorney work product" and is not subject to release in discovery. I worked for an engineering company and one of my functions was to respond to records subpoenas. I had a checklist of what was NOT to be released. "Attorney work product" was on the list.

I understand what the complaint is, but there is no requirement to turn over attorney work product. All the law requires is to turn over source documents, not reports based on the source documents which were requested by the attorney.

[Sand Wind]

5. Racism is there , I always got that certitude. Nt

[Gman]

7. Kruidbos is a liar, a thief and a cheat

According to his dismissal letter. He's grasping at straws. He has no case.

[HeiressofBickworth]

9. I know very little about Corey

My first glimpse of her was the post-trial press conference. I turned the TV on when I got home and her face was the first one I saw. She was smiling and speaking in such a jovial voice, I thought at first the prosecution won the case. She seemed pretty pleased with herself and the team. It took a minute to check the crawler at the bottom of the screen to see that the verdict was instead, not guilty. Melding the two impressions left me confused. Was she pleased with the verdict? Sure seemed so to me.

[Tutonic]

13. Yeah, Corey seems to be drinking her own kool-aid concoction.

But regarding the issue of Mr. IT, she was not in the wrong. He ain't gonna prevail.

[Incitatus]

11. What does the contents of his phone have to do with anything?

Did the prosecution get to see the pictures/texts saved on Zimmerman's phone?

Are we to believe some kind of embarrassing things on his phone make his murder justifiable?

[naaman fletcher]

15. The contents aren't the point

The point is that they were supposed to be shared, even though it turned out that none of it was admissible at trial.

The point has been made repeatedly that the prosecution is in the clear because they turned over the source file, but not the unencrypted output. I have no idea if that is true or not (i.e. what the legal standard is in Florida).

[mwrguy]

14. Snowden Jr. didn't want Zimmerman to get what he deserved

They should do more than fire him. Prosecute him for obstruction or whatever they can come up with.

[Myrina]

16. Wow, that whole place sounds like a cesspool!!

[1StrongBlackMan]

17. This case …

Is going nowhere. And Mr. IT Guy’s pressing it will make him unemployable.