© unknownGeorge Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin
George Zimmerman's alleged racial prejudice returned as a central issue to the Trayvon Martin murder case on Monday as Florida prosecutors released a statement from a witness accusing the defendant of bias.
The woman, known only as "Witness 9", also accused Zimmerman of molesting her when they were children, in an explosive document that his legal team fought hard to keep suppressed.
The newly revealed allegation of racism comes only days after the release of other court documents that appeared to show the FBI discounting race as a factor when Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighbourhood watch captain, shot dead the unarmed black teenager during a confrontation in a Sanford gated community on 26 February.
Zimmerman's family, the witness told detectives, shared his alleged views.
"Him and his family don't like black people if they don't act like white people," she said. "They like black people if they act white."
Lawyers for Zimmerman, who has a Hispanic mother, have always denied that he was motivated by race and insist he was acting in self-defence when he fired the fatal shot because Martin, 17, was attacking him.
But race was a recurring theme during the six weeks of public protests that followed the original decision by police in Sanford to release Zimmerman without charge. It was only after a special prosecutor was appointed in April that he was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
He is currently free on $1m bond.
Mark O'Mara, Zimmerman's lead attorney, had asked circuit court judge Kenneth Lester to keep Witness 9's statement sealed because, he said, the allegations it contained were uncorroborated and unlikely to be used by prosecutors at trial.
The claims of sexual abuse were particularly likely to inflame public hostility towards the defendant, O'Mara said, making it increasingly doubtful he would receive a fair trial.
In the statement, released by state attorney Angela Corey on Monday after Lester denied O'Mara's motion, the woman claimed Zimmerman began molesting her when she was six, and continued on and off for another 10 years.
"He's about two years older than I am," she said, claiming it started when the children were under a blanket watching television at Zimmerman's parents' house.
"He would reach under the blankets and try to do things, and I would try to push him off because he was bigger and stronger and older," she said.
Judge Lester has still to rule on another motion from the defence demanding that he remove himself from the case because of "disparaging" remarks he made against Zimmerman following his most recent bail hearing.
In a written ruling, Lester, who increased the defendant's bail from $150,000, said Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, had deliberately misled the court by failing to disclose tens of thousands of dollars they received in public donations.
"The defendant is manipulating the system to his own benefit. The evidence is clear the defendant and his wife acted in concert ... to conceal their cash holdings," he said.
Lester said he also believed that Zimmerman was a flight risk. Shellie Zimmerman, 25, has since been charged with perjury.
On Lester's order, recordings were also released on Monday of more than 120 phone calls that Zimmerman made from jail while he was incarcerated in April and May.
Zimmerman's trial is not expected to take place before next year. He faces up to life in jail if convicted.
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