Attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family doesn’t have to answer Zimmerman lawyers’ questions

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Sanford, Fla., judge on Thursday said no to defense attorneys for George Zimmerman, who had asked a second time that the attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family be required to answer their questions under oath.Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson made that ruling in a three-sentence order that offered no explanation.

In her earlier ruling, three weeks ago, she wrote that Zimmerman’s attorneys had failed to show that they could get the information from no other source, that it was relevant or crucial to the case.

Zimmerman is the 29-year-old former neighborhood watch volunteer charged with second-degree murder for shooting Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford.

Zimmerman says he acted in self-defense.

His attorneys wanted to question Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Martin’s parents, about a young Miami woman who was on the phone with Martin just before the shooting and about the circumstances surrounding a March 19, 2012, interview with her that he recorded.

During it, she lied about her age, saying she was 16 when she was 18, and that she had missed Martin’s wake and funeral because she was in the hospital.

Crump objected to being deposed by Zimmerman’s attorneys, saying that information is protected by attorney-client privilege and because it was part of his work product. He also argued that it isn’t relevant to the criminal case.