ORLANDO, Fla. — George Zimmerman won’t be prosecuted for allegedly throwing a wine bottle at his girlfriend, officials said Friday.
Zimmerman, 31, was arrested Jan. 9, accused by Lake Mary, Fla., police of aggravated assault. But Friday morning the state attorney’s office reported that the woman, 28-year-old Brittany Brunelle, had recanted her story and refused to cooperate. As a consequence, it is dropping the case.
Zimmerman is the former neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted of second-degree murder for shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, on Feb. 26, 2012.
This is the second time in just over a year that Zimmerman has been arrested, accused of flying into a rage and becoming violent when a girlfriend breaks up with him. In both cases, the woman changed her account, stopped cooperating, and prosecutors closed the case without filing charges.
Neither woman was injured.
The first incident was Nov. 18, 2013, when he was accused of pointing a shotgun at Samantha Scheibe, then locking her out of the house. The second was this incident on Jan. 5, when Brunelle accused him of throwing a wine bottle at her and breaking her phone.
In between those arrests, Zimmerman was accused of threatening to shoot a driver during a road rage incident. That case also resulted in no charge.
Police body-camera video released Friday shows Brunelle telling Lake Mary police the night of the incident that Zimmerman is “insane” and “a psychopath” but that she does not want to prosecute. Police arrested him four days later anyway, saying they feared there would be more violence between the two, according to an arrest report.
But Brunelle continued to be uncooperative, according to Friday’s prepared statement from the state attorney’s office. She refused to appear when prosecutors asked her to come in for an interview, according to the statement.
When they issued a subpoena, she did appear with her attorney and either told them or handed them a statement saying that Zimmerman had not thrown a bottle at her and that she never feared him, the statement said.
Lake Mary police got involved about 11:30 p.m. Jan. 5 when an officer heard breaking glass and saw the woman drive away from Zimmerman’s Lake Mary home without turning on her headlights.
When officers pulled her over, she told them that Zimmerman had just thrown a wine bottle at her and broken her phone, body-cam video shows.
The fight happened while she was breaking up with Zimmerman, according to a police report.
She and her 5-year-old son had lived with him for about two months, she said, but were moving out. Zimmerman had insisted that she return a painting, she told police, and she did, but while she was at the house, Zimmerman started yelling at her, she said, and took away her phone.
He threw it and the bottle at her, she said.
He had bought the wine to impress her, she said.
“Why that man is not locked up is beyond me,” she said.
Brunelle told police that she and Zimmerman had been strictly friends and roommates, although, they had sex one drunken night.
The day before the blowup, she said, she had told him she was leaving, and he became suicidal and took too many pain pills.
“The man needs help,” she said. “For the benefit of this neighborhood, watch this guy.”
