Former Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman has decided to appeal the ruling of a Sanford judge, who last month threw out his libel suit against NBC Universal.
A notice of appeal appeared Tuesday in the case file in Sanford.
Zimmerman, 30, had sued the media giant in 2012, accusing it of defaming him in five news reports following the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old whom Zimmerman killed in Sanford Feb. 26, 2012.
Zimmerman’s lawyer, James Beasley Jr. of Philadelphia, had argued that the media company falsely portrayed Zimmerman as a racist.
But on June 30, Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson threw out the case. She ruled that in four of those reports, although editors had shortened Zimmerman’s 911 call to a dispatcher, eliminating some of his words, the deletions were insignificant.
She also ruled that Zimmerman would never be able to prove another claim: that the network falsely reported that he used a racial epithet during the call.
That’s because, Nelson wrote, an FBI team of audio experts had already studied the recording and could not identify the word at issue.
Beasley was not available for comment this morning.
rstutzman@tribune.com or 407-650-6394
