I had not followed this story either. So I took a few seconds Kevin to do a rather fast search on it outside of Salon (which YVHO seems to be less than perfect source of informantion)
Based on following, maybe worth some time looking into as a parrell case to Zimmerman and Martin.
Stand Your Ground: Before Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, there was John McNeil
http://www.republicmagazine.com/news...hn-mcneil.html
Is John McNeil the Black George Zimmerman?
http://loop21.com/life/john-mcneil-g...orge-zimmerman