Philadelphia Attorney Handling Libel Case of George Zimmerman Against NBC
By Justin Udo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After being found not guilty of murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin (see related story), George Zimmerman is set to go back to court as he takes on a major news organization for its alleged alteration of his 911 calls.
Philadelphia lawyer Jim Beasley represents Zimmerman, who is pursuing a civil lawsuit against NBC-Universal and several reporters.
"What NBC did was, they took the 911 call, edited out sections of up to 45 seconds at a time, and then spliced together unrelated sections of the audio to make it sound like Mr. Zimmerman was chasing Mr. Martin because he was... 'black' is the word that was used," Beasley tells KYW Newsradio.
The case against NBC was filed back in December, but put on hold pending the outcome of Zimmerman's criminal trial.
Beasley says as part of the suit they are asking for monetary damages plus a retraction from NBC.
The reporters being sued have been fired by NBC since the incident.
Calls to NBC for comment were not immediately returned.
