George Zimmerman trial briefly halted after court Skype account bombarded with calls

These are the dangers of broadcasting court proceedings to the outside world: this morning during the very serious murder trial of George Zimmerman, things came to a screeching halt after Skype — which was being used for remote witness testimony — was suddenly overwhelmed with incoming call requests. As you can see in the video below, criminal justice professor Scott Pleasants had only made it two or so minutes into his testimony before calls came pouring in. Constant Skype alerts and pop-up notifications made it impossible to continue. “Turn down the volume,” said Judge Debra Nelson.

“Is there another phone that we can call into that is a landline that we will not have the pop-ups of people calling?” Clearly flustered, she ordered attorneys to “hang up the phone” and find another number with which they could contact Pleasants — one free of interruptions. Testimony eventually resumed over a cellular connection. Attorneys could have easily avoided the entire headache by limiting incoming calls to the account’s contact list.