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| Fire Angela Corey. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 4 2013, 07:59 AM (139 Views) | |
| Guest | Aug 4 2013, 07:59 AM Post #1 |
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A former employee of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey's office is suing the prosecutor, claiming he was illegally fired after he testified on behalf of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder trial. Ben Kruidbos, the former director of information technology for Corey's office, is seeking more than $5million in damages in the lawsuit filed in Jacksonville, according to a legal documents. Kruidbos was fired after testifying at a pre-trial hearing June 6 that he believed prosecutors had failed to turn over to the defense, as required by evidence-sharing laws, potentially embarrassing evidence extracted from Martin's cell phone. His lawyer, Wesley White, said last month that he would file a whistleblower action. This week he filed a separate complaint to the Florida Commission on Human Relations seeking whistleblower status, which could result in the second lawsuit, White said. White said the lawsuit against Corey, which was filed on Thursday, cited a statute that makes it illegal to fire someone for their testimony when it is given under subpoena. Kruidbos was subpoenaed by the Zimmerman defense team. ‘I cannot find a single other case of that statute being litigated,’ said White. ‘Normally people wouldn't do something like that, fire somebody as a result of testifying pursuant to subpoena,’ Said White, a former prosecutor who worked with Corey. Attorney Wesley White said Kruidbos wasn't surprised by the firing. He had been on paid administrative leave since May 28 from his job as director of information technology for the State Attorney's Office. Kruidbos said that, when he printed a 900-page Florida Department of Law Enforcement report from Martin's cell phone in late 2012 or early 2013, he noticed information was missing. Concerned that attorneys did not have all the information they needed to prepare the case, he said, he reported his concerns to a State Attorney's Office investigator and later to prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda. Kruidbos said he generated a report that was more than three times the size of the one that had been handed over. For example, Kruidbos said that 2,958 photos were in the report given to the defense but that his report contained 4,275 photos. Through his attorney, Wesley White, Kruidbos informed Zimmerman's defense team that the information existed. In court, Kruidbos testified that he was concerned that he could be held liable if all information wasn't shared. 'All the information is important in the process to ensure it's a fair trial,' he said. In a six-page dismissal letter, the State Attorney's Office, Fourth Judicial Circuit, blasted Kruidbos' assertions and motivations. Managing Director Cheryl Peek accused Kruidbos of having erased data from a laptop in violation of the Public Records Law and derided his concern about being held liable as 'feigned and spurious' and 'nothing more than shameful manipulation in a shallow, but obvious, attempt to cloak yourself in the protection of the whistleblower law.' She concluded, 'Because of your deliberate, willful and unscrupulous actions, you can never again be trusted to step foot in this office. Your have left us with no choice but to terminate your employment.' Zimmerman's attorneys were seeking sanctions against the state for not properly turning over the evidence from Martin's phone. O'Mara and co-counsel Don West argued that they needed more time to go through the information found on Martin's phone and asked for a delay, which was denied. Judge Debra Nelson said she would revisit the possibility of sanctions at the trial's end. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2384312/Man-worked-Florida-state-prosecutor-sues-boss-claiming-illegally-FIRED-testifying-behalf-George-Zimmerman.html#ixzz2b0M181K2 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook |
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7:58 PM Jul 10