Today, June 28th, is DAY #15 (of 3rd week) State of Florida V. George Zimmerman case. [Yesterday] … it was simply not a very good day at all for the prosecution. The primary State witnesses today were Rachel Jeantel, Jenna Lauer, and Selma Mora. The first had her credibility substantively destroyed, the second was powerfully–almost humiliatingly–co-opted by the defense, and the third provided testimony entirely consistent with the defense’s theory of lawful self-defense. (continue reading)
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Today, June 28th, is DAY #15 (of 3rd week) State of Florida V. George Zimmerman case. [Yesterday] … it was simply not a very good day at all for the prosecution. The primary State witnesses today were Rachel Jeantel, Jenna Lauer, and Selma Mora. The first had her credibility substantively destroyed, the second was powerfully–almost humiliatingly–co-opted by the defense, and the third provided testimony entirely consistent with the defense’s theory of lawful self-defense. (continue reading)
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Today, June 28th, is DAY #15 (of 3rd week) State of Florida V. George Zimmerman case. [Yesterday] … it was simply not a very good day at all for the prosecution. The primary State witnesses today were Rachel Jeantel, Jenna Lauer, and Selma Mora. The first had her credibility substantively destroyed, the second was powerfully–almost humiliatingly–co-opted by the defense, and the third provided testimony entirely consistent with the defense’s theory of lawful self-defense. (continue reading)
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The New York Daily News runs an article mentioning who is now the attorney representing Rachel Jeantel.

….And, wait for it…. it’s one of the original players from the Origin of the Scheme Team, Rod Vereen:

“She really doesn’t want to be here,” Jeantel’s lawyer, Rod Vereen, said before she took the stand.

It showed. At one point, the key prosecution witness blurted out, “That’s retarded, sir.” That came after defense attorney Don West claimed Martin attacked Zimmerman. (link)

Who is Rod Vereen? Well we know him well, we wrote about him over a year ago. The associations highlighted explain how Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s dad, was put into contact with Benjamin Crump, the proverbial head of the “scheme team”, and along the way the cast of characters is quite interesting.
As well as one seeking political office in Miami-Dade. (more…)

Daryl Parks Doth Protest TOO Much…. This is MUST WATCH video… Quite a long way from Benjamin Crump proclaiming that “race was the 600lb gorilla in the room”.  Now the “Scheme Team” is in full desperation/recovery mode:

Oh but it gets better. Why, because we are Treepers. We NEVER forget. EVER.

So with that in mind, how about a little trip down memory lane with Daryl Parks speaking on March 23rd, 2012 to the National Association of Black Journalists.  (more…)

Today, June 28th, is DAY #15 (of 3rd week) State of Florida V. George Zimmerman case.  [Yesterday] … it was simply not a very good day at all for the prosecution. The primary State witnesses today were Rachel Jeantel, Jenna Lauer, and Selma Mora. The first had her credibility substantively destroyed, the second was powerfully–almost humiliatingly–co-opted by the defense, and the third provided testimony entirely consistent with the defense’s theory of lawful self-defense.  (continue reading)
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Stella has now completed uploading the remaining FOIA statements from our exhaustive 9 month back and forth with the Miami-Dade School Police Department. The Tree House has a Scribd account which can be located HERE.

All of the documents are now posted to open public review. However they are, in many cases, “redacted“.
Meaning when you are reading the transcribed text when you see the “- -” symbol in the body of the text, there is a portion omitted by the transcriber at the request of legal counsel for the Miami-Dade Public School System.   Here is a summary of the latest FOIA release using the text from the initial follow up inquiry: (more…)

This one should interest Mark O’Mara

Sanford Police Department, Sergeant Randy Smith, who was assisting Detective Chris Serino, in the Trayvon Martin case, and who shortly thereafter became Lieutenant Randy Smith, before quickly retiring in January of 2013, appears quite happy to have excluded this information about Trayvon’s interactions with the police department from the Victimology report produced by Serino.
We were wondering who was the decision maker into not including Trayvon’s diverted, and unofficial, criminal record from the case assembly. Was it Serino, or was it Randy Smith? Here is  Smith’s own sworn affidavit to the internal affairs division of M-DSPD. This should interest Mark O’Mara and Don West quite a bit.
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With ongoing efforts still in the works, where we are debating/arguing legal distinctions between FERPA and HIPAA as it pertains to public releases of this information, we have secured “redacted” copies for immediate review.
Where you see “– –” symbols this implies the redacted portion of the transcript. The redactions include terminology of reference to: “Diversionary Programs”, “Baker Acts”, and/or “Crisis Intervention Teams, or CIT”.
However, with the redactions, and yet understanding what is redacted, you can clearly see the footprint of what was, and perhaps still is, taking place. These affidavits surround an internal affairs investigation begun by M-DSPD Chief Charles Hurley into leaks coming from his School Police Department following the publicity around Miami-Dade school, Krop Senior High School, Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin’s behavior was diverted from a criminal record by “diversion”, including falsification of police reports, to avoid contact with the Criminal Justice System.
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Sworn affidavit of former Miami-Dade School Police Dept. Police Chief Charles Hurley about the encounters between M-DSPD and Trayon Martin who was a student at Krop High School.
In the affidavit Chief Hurley outlines his specific construct of using diversionary programs, including Crisis Intervention Teams, and The Baker Act, to keep young black males out of the criminal justice system.
As a result of Chief Hurley’s instructions Krop High, School Resource Officer, Darryl Dunn, falsified police records and referred criminal behavior to school discipline.
[scribd id=150440037 key=key-k5tnrc3xh650464kqqr mode=scroll]
Two of the diversionary incidents revolved around Officer Dunn falsifying the jewelry found in Trayvon’s backpack as “found items”. Meaning he intentionally kept them away from police reporting and put the jewelry in the property room. (more…)