Lawyer who represented George Zimmerman arrested in Florida

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- A central Florida defense attorney who briefly represented George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case is accused of witness tampering in a juvenile rape case, sheriff’s officials said.

Hal Uhrig, who works for The Defense Group, was arrested Monday on charges of solicitation to commit perjury and witness tampering, Osceola County Sheriff Marcos López said during a news conference.

hrig, who represents a man accused of raping a child when she was 9, arranged a meeting with his client, the victim and her father, the sheriff said.

“The point of the meeting was to keep the rapist from going to jail,” López said.

“The attorney instructed the victim and her father that they should do three things. Write a declination, basically a letter, to the state attorney saying the rape didn’t happen; avoid being served with a subpoena so you don’t have to go to court to testify; (and) lie during your deposition and say the rape didn’t happen,” López said.

The victim’s family told the state attorney’s office about Uhrig’s requests in July and the sheriff’s sex crimes unit began investigating. The girl is now a teenager, the sheriff said.

The child’s father met with Uhrig again, wearing a recording device, the sheriff said. The attorney asked the father to read a script on a computer screen that was apparently his client’s defense of the rape charge.

Uhrig, 75, was arrested Monday as he was getting into an elevator at the courthouse in Kissimmee, officials said. Uhrig later told Orlando TV station Fox-35 that he is “not guilty of this.”