A Miami woman has hauled a veteran prosecutor and others from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office into federal court, accusing them of bullying her into testifying during the resentencing of a notorious Liberty City gang leader. In a new complaint, she says recorded jailhouse calls captured a prosecutor talking about making her “unavailable” so her earlier testimony could be used instead, and she says the fallout left her with anxiety and post-traumatic stress. The lawsuit is the latest twist in the long, messy legal saga surrounding Liberty City gang leader Corey Smith and the state’s abandoned push for the death penalty.
Recorded calls at the center of the suit
Tricia Geter Pinder, described in the complaint as a key witness and ex-girlfriend of Corey Smith, says she was pressured to take the stand again in 2024. The lawsuit claims jail calls caught former Assistant State Attorney Michael von Zamft talking with convicted inmate Latravis Gallashaw and saying he would “find a way to make her unavailable” if she refused to cooperate. Her attorney, Ariel Lett, told CBS Miami the recordings “give chills down your spine.”
The complaint goes further, alleging von Zamft and others threatened Geter Pinder’s life, warned her that convicted murderers would come after her, and threatened to jail or prosecute her. According to the filing, that campaign of pressure left her with serious emotional distress.
Prosecutor removed after judge’s rebuke
This lawsuit drops into a case that had already blown up inside the courthouse. A previous judicial order led to prosecutors being removed from Smith’s resentencing and to von Zamft’s resignation soon after. Circuit Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson wrote that the record raised red flags about “witness testimony manipulation” and “severe recklessness,” and she cited recorded calls and coordination among witnesses as key evidence in her order, according to The Associated Press. Her findings derailed the state’s death penalty efforts in Smith’s case and forced the State Attorney’s Office to regroup.
Who the suit names and next steps
The new federal complaint names current and former members of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, along with a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputy described in the filing as a liaison between prosecutors and Geter Pinder. The State Attorney’s Office confirmed that three of the defendants still work there, according to CBS Miami. The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office also confirmed the deputy remains employed but declined to say more.
Von Zamft, who was disqualified from the resentencing and later resigned, has publicly denied the allegations. He has said he has not yet been formally served with the lawsuit.
Why this matters to Miami
Local defense lawyers and court watchers say that if the allegations hold up, they strike at the heart of how prosecutors use jailhouse witnesses and how much faith juries can put in those testimonies, especially in cases built around Liberty City violence. During the resentencing fight, court records and local coverage highlighted the judge’s blistering language and a tangle of disputed witness meetings and phone calls, as reported by Local 10. Now, the civil suit is reviving long-standing questions about how the State Attorney’s Office polices its own and what this means for other prosecutions that leaned on the same circle of witnesses…