Fired employee to file lawsuit against Zimmerman prosecutors

[davidn3600]

(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 whistleblower 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.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/us-usa-florida-shooting-lawsuit-idUSBRE96F1EL20130716

[femmocrat]

1. From what I have read, such evidence would be admissable in a civil suit.

I think the judge was wise to rule against it.

[longship]

2. Clusterfuck! No further comment. nt

[Tutonic]

3. He should save his money.

I would have fired his sorry candy ass too if he had testified for the defense. In what universe does he think that his behavior is acceptable? This is the exact kind of employee that no one EVER EVER EVER wants to have on their payroll. Why would an IT guy insert himself in a murder trial? Evidently this blowhard failed to remember that he pledged to observe strict conduct rules. He ain't gonna get a nickel from Angela Corey or the state of Florida.

[Jenoch]

5. I don't know the specifics,

but the OP said he testified at a pre-trial hearing. Should he have lied about the information?

[TorchTheWitch]

4. The prosecution did give it to them

This was what they argued about in court at one point, and the prosecution said that it was given to them in a BIN file in a timely manner. Not their fault that defense didn't know it was there. I definitely remember this because I had to ask someone to tell me what a BIN file was.

[Blue_Roses]

6. This guy is a liar. Here's his 6-page termination letter explaining his conduct

http://m.jacksonville.com/content/information-technology-director-ben-kruidbos-dismissal-letter

more here on this story:

"...Peek’s letter contends that on May 24, Kruidbos wiped clean the information on a computer assigned to him, thereby violating public records law. Kruidbos said he does not know what computer is referred to by the letter.

He said the computer network stores information on a number of backup systems in addition to personal computers."

http://m.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-07-13/story/state-attorney-angela-corey-fires-information-technology-director-who