[Excerpt From Orlando Sentinel] … for the second time in as many days, defense attorneys asked Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson to sanction prosecutors, accusing them of another rule violation.  [pdf available here]

This time was a fight over whether to video record the deposition of the state’s most important witness, a young Miami woman who was on the phone with Trayvon moments before he was shot.

Her deposition was scheduled for 9 a.m. March 13 at a state office in Miami, and the parties were in place, along with a camera and operator, according to new paperwork filed by defense attorney Mark O’Mara, but Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda said no to the video recording.

That happened after defense attorneys had sent two deposition notices to the state,  [The first on March 6th, the second on March 11th] spelling out that the session would be videotaped and identifying the company that would do the recording.

Defense attorneys tried for five hours that day to get de la Rionda to change his position, telephoned the judge in Sanford several times, and after a five-hour delay, began the deposition without the videotape. They did not complete it.

In Tuesday’s paperwork, O’Mara asked the judge to fine de la Rionda $4,000, the amount of money wasted in lawyers’ time, as well as that of the court reporter and video operator during that five-hour delay.  (read more)