Bill Lee, Sanford Police Chief, Steps Down Temporarily Over Trayvon Martin Case

HARDBALL'S CHRIS MATTHEWS [to Jasmine Rand, attorney for the Trayvon Martin family]:  Let me ask you this about what you have been able to discover from prosecutors or the D.A. down there, the state`s attorney. You said -- I heard from our producers, that they are not going to use the "Stand Your Ground" defense in this case. They`re just going to use standard self-defense.  What`s your understanding what their case is, from their point of view?

RAND: And I actually had a one on one meeting with the assistant state attorney, Pat Whitaker, about two days ago now.  And that is correct. What he told me, thus far, is that they do not intend to use the "Stand Your Ground" or Castle Doctrine, and that they are looking at strict self-defense. What concerns me about what I heard from state attorney is that when I began the conversation, as an open-ended question, why hasn`t an arrest been made, the state attorney told me he is continuing to investigate the claim, to see whether or not there is a valid claim for self-defense.


When asked whether or not is his job to prove Zimmerman`s defense, he said, well, no, it`s not. I understand that he is looking at the case from all different angles. But he didn`t begin the conversation by saying, "I`m looking to see if there is enough evidence to prove manslaughter or murder". He began the conversation saying, "I`m looking to prove a claim of self-defense" and his word choices are indicative to me of his mindset.

With the city manager temporarily suspending the police chief (and looking for a temporary replacement) instead of arresting George Zimmerman for what is, from the abundance of evidence (911 tapes, phone records), obviously a homicide tells me that the city of Sanford and the state of Florida is circling the wagons, preparing for a long siege, trying to get on top of damage control in order to protect their own and continue their corrupt ways.
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