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To: zeestephen
Serino literally recommended a Manslaughter charge against Zimmerman.

And to respond to this point specifically, the charging document is necessary and presented to the prosecutor as a matter of course, not necessarily because the investigator actually believes a crime has been committed. The reason for this is that there is a difference between "police charges" and "court charges". The police are not capable of determining the actual charge, or even whether or not a crime has occurred. They are trained to determine probable cause "in the field", but every significant charge must be screened by a prosecutor.

As I said before, I have prepared charging documents (in which I recommended, as a matter of course, that the arrested be charged with XYZ) and presented them to the prosecutor where I recommended verbally that the arrested not receive "court charges" because I personally did not believe probable cause existed.

To summarize, since I blather on, when presenting something like this to the prosecutor, you sort of present the "worst case scenario" of charges, because the prosecutor has the final say, and they must be provided with that worst case to be able to determine the final outcome.

90 posted on 07/14/2013 2:29:38 PM PDT by 101stAirborneVet
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To: 101stAirborneVet
From the Orlando Sentinel - 12 December 2012:

“Just above Serino’s signature, the veteran investigator wrote, ‘I believe there exists probable cause for issuance of a capias charging George Michael Zimmerman with manslaughter.’”

I am still searching for the whole affidavit.....

92 posted on 07/14/2013 2:35:42 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: 101stAirborneVet
Just to follow up.....

Is this something Defense attorneys attack you for in court?

I mean, sometimes you recommend a charge, but you don’t really believe it?

Then, sometimes you recommend a charge, but, this time, you really, really DO believe it?

That sounds completely nuts to me!

95 posted on 07/14/2013 2:42:37 PM PDT by zeestephen
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