KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — A central Florida defense attorney who briefly represented George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case is accused of witness tampering in a juvenile rape case.
Osceola County Sheriff Marcos López says Hal Uhrig was arrested Monday and charged with solicitation to commit perjury and witness tampering.
López represents a man accused of raping a child when she was 9.
The sheriff says the lawyer arranged a meeting with his client, the victim, and her father, where he asked the father to write a letter stating the rape never happened.
The sheriff says the lawyer also told the man to avoid being served with a subpoena and lie during a deposition.
"The point of the meeting was to keep the rapist from going to jail,” López said during the news conference, the Associated Press reported.
According to the AP, the victim’s family notified the state attorney’s office in July about Uhrig’s requests, and the sheriff’s sex crimes unit opened an investigation.
The victim's father met with Uhrig again, but the news outlet reported this time wearing a recording device.
The AP reported that Uhrig had the father read a script off a computer screen that was his client’s defense of the rape charge during the meeting.
