George Zimmerman’s lawyer charged with pressuring rape victim to change her story

The lawyer who represented George Zimmerman during his murder trial has been arrested on witness tampering charges in a child rape case.

Hal Uhrig was charged with solicitation to commit perjury after allegedly setting up a meeting between his client, the victim and her father and asking the victim and her father to write a letter to the state attorney recanting the rape allegations, reported the Orlando Sentinel.

"He wanted to make sure this guy didn't go to trial for rape," said Osceola County Sheriff Marcos López.

The 75-year-old Uhrig, who works for the Maitland-based Defense Group, also asked the victim, who was 9 years old at the time of the assault, and her father to avoid being served with a subpoena to testify in court and to lie during a deposition, investigators said.

The victim reported the request to the state attorney in July, and her father met with the defense attorney on another occasion while wearing a recording device.

Uhrig can be heard on that recording asking the victim's father to read from a script that appeared to be his client's defense, but the attorney denied the allegations and insisted the evidence was faulty.

"Didn't happen," he told WOFL-TV. "Be happy to hear the recording."