Free Republic

A woman has come forward with allegations that her ex-wife, a New York State Senate candidate, verbally and physically abused her.. Brandi Morgan, 36, alleges that Amanda Kirchgessner, 34, the Democratic candidate for New York’s 58th Senate district, repeatedly threw objects at her; threatened to strangle her; pushed and grabbed her, and threatened to kill her animals if she left their marriage.... Morgan and Kirchgessner were married from 2008 until 2016. She had taken Kirchgessner’s name, but changed it back after the divorce was finalized. She says that their relationship changed in 2011, after Kirchgessner was charged with driving while...

Amanda Kirchgessner, a progressive Democratic candidate contending for a seat in the New York State Senate representing the 58th District, has been accused of several instances of domestic violence and abuse during their marriage. Kirchgessner’s ex-wife, Brandi Morgan, has told the Ithaca Times that Kirchgessner participated in a pattern of abusive behavior during the latter years of their marriage, which officially ended in 2016. The allegations include grabbing, pushing, throwing objects, verbal abuse, intimidation and possible threats against Morgan and their pets.... Morgan has chosen to come forward and gave the Ithaca Times permission to use her name despite her...

(CNN) — Mark O’Mara, the attorney who successfully defended George Zimmerman in his second-degree murder trial this year, will no longer represent his notorious client. “I am not representing George Zimmerman in his recent domestic altercation case or his impending divorce case,” O’Mara told CNN. Although Zimmerman’s murder trial is over, his legal battles are far from over.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence uses real 911 recordings made by Zimmerman and his neighbors the night Zimmerman shot Trayvon, an unarmed 17-year-old black youth from South Florida. The words, "Our laws should protect victims. Not create more. Stand up to stand your ground laws in 26 states," appear on the screen in the video, released Monday. Zimmerman's call to a Sanford police dispatcher is heard, followed by a call from one of his female neighbors. She told the dispatcher she was afraid to go outside to see what was going on as Zimmerman, 29, and Trayvon struggled outside...

I’ve watched the “Stand Up to ‘Stand Your Ground’” PSA several times now. The PSA features a dramatic reenactment of the encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. While the PSA uses actual audio from George’s non-emergency call and witness 911 calls, the visual details of the reenactment are wildly inaccurate and they are unsupported by the actual evidence. By airing an interpretation of events that are easily dismissed as factual fantasy, the proponents for changes in the self-defense statutes in various states are actually damaging their arguments. I have stated that Florida Statute 776 can use some polishing to...

We have listened to President Obama's comments about the verdict in the Zimmerman Case. People are focusing on this quote: "Trayvon Martin could've been me 35 years ago." To focus on this one line misses the nuances of the President's message, which includes comments about how African Americans view the Zimmerman Case in the context of the history of racial disparity in America. For more than a year, we have been listening to the conversation about this case – from voices on every side – and we have become very sensitive to the racial context that surrounds this case. We...

Mark O'Mara is modern-day America’s answer to Atticus Finch. Don West also deserves enormous credit, yet he does not have the detached and martyred air that Mr. O'Mara shares with Atticus. Mr. West could not contain his exasperation when faced with an incredibly unprofessional prosecution and judge. Mr. O'Mara, in an equally valid response, chose to keep his Zen. Mr. O'Mara betrays a steely toughness with a Giuliani-esqe lisp. During the news conference after the verdict, a reporter from the Times of London tritely asked, “You mentioned something about George wanting to get his life back there’s one person who’s...

Thanks to the media’s habit of showing beatific, outdated photos of Trayvon Martin, many Americans who only casually followed the trial of George Zimmerman incorrectly believed him to have been younger than he actually was at the time of his death. In a Friday interview, Zimmerman’s lead defense attorney, Mark O’Mara admitted that he was one of them. Speaking with CNN correspondent Martin Savidge, O’Mara denounced what he called a “wonderfully created and crafted public relations campaign” by the attorney for Martin’s family, Benjamin Crump and his allies. According to O’Mara, had they not injected a racial element into the...

George Zimmerman's lawyer literally flipped a prosecution witness -- a gray, foam dummy -- to re-enact the defense's version of the confrontation that ended in the death of Trayvon Martin, straddling the mannequin and bashing its head against the floor as stunned jurors looked on Wednesday. The mannequin was initially introduced by prosecutor John Guy during cross-examination of defense witness Dennis Root, a former law enforcement officer who testified as an expert on defensive use of force. Guy used it to show how, if Martin were straddling Zimmerman, he would have had difficulty reaching for a gun holstered at his...

Day 13: Defense Attorney Mark O'Mara News Conference

SANFORD, Fla. - As controversy over the $200,000 George Zimmerman raised on PayPal took center stage Friday, Special Prosecutor Angela Corey's decision to ignore legal questions raised over whether she's obeying Florida's public record law went largely unnoticed. But the issue of whether Corey has the legal right to continue preventing the public from seeing the evidence she says proves Zimmerman committed the second degree murder of Trayvon Martin seems to be coming to a head. The special prosecutor's office on Friday refused to make that evidence public -- even though an attorney fighting for the public's access insists Friday...