Judge Lester revoked Zimmerman's bond last week because Zimmerman and his wife lied to the court about their financial status during a bond hearing, claiming he was indigent and without funds for the bond while they both knew website donations were over $150,000 at the time, or the amount of his bond. Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, responded that he realizes that Zimmerman's "credibility has been tarnished, and he will have to rehabilitate it."
O'Mara first stumbled, saying he wants a do-over bail hearing so he can "explain why what happened seems to have happened." Today, O'Mara realizes that Zimmerman and his wife must make some sort of admission in order to obtain bond for him and to try to avoid perjury charges for his wife. O'Mara's blog writes that "Zimmerman acknowledges that he allowed his financial situation to be misstated in court." O'Mara is forced to make this partial admission due to the prosecution's evidence:
The audio recordings of Mr. Zimmerman's phone conversations while in jail make it clear that Mr. Zimmerman knew a significant sum had been raised by his original fundraising website.O'Mara realizes that both Zimmermans must apologize to the court. But, it's not really Zimmerman's fault that he and his wife lied to the court. Nope, O'Mara suggests the blame lies with the public who believe that Zimmerman hunted down and murdered an unarmed teenager:We feel the failure to disclose these funds was caused by fear, mistrust, and confusion. The gravity of this mistake has been distinctly illustrated, and Mr. Zimmerman understands that this mistake has undermined his credibility, which he will have to work to repair.This is not the first time that O'Mara blamed the public. Days after the bond hearing, when Zimmerman told O'Mara that his donation website had raised over $200,000 while Zimmerman claimed in court he was indigent, O'Mara stated that this was not deceit but an "oversight" given "everything he is going through over the past few weeks."At the point of the bond hearing, Mr. Zimmerman had been driven from his home and neighborhood, could not go to work, his wife could not go back to a finish her nursing degree, his mother and father had been driven from their home, and he had been thrust into the national spotlight as a racist murderer by factions acting with their own agendas. None of those allegations have been supported by the discovery released to date, yet the hatred continues.
Blaming the public does not explain the evidence of lies against the Zimmermans. Blaming the public does not show Zimmerman accepting responsibility for his lies that did not happen by mistake, but were coordinated in recorded conversations with his wife.
The test that Judge Lester used to revoke bond requires that "all information" provided by Zimmerman "shall be accurate, truthful, and complete, without omissions, to the best knowledge of defendant." This test is based on a Florida rule on pretrial release:
All information provided by a defendant in connection with any application for or attempt to secure bail, to any court, court personnel, or individual soliciting or recording such information for the purpose of evaluating eligibility for or securing bail for the defendant, under circumstances such that the defendant knew or should have known that the information was to be used in connection with an application for bail, shall be accurate, truthful, and complete, without omissions, to the best knowledge of the defendant. Failure to comply with the provisions of this subdivision may result in the revocation or modification of bail. However, no defendant shall be compelled to provide information regarding his or her criminal record.The judge explained that he revoked bond because the Zimmermans were aware of the amount of money available, as evidenced by 4 conversations by the Zimmermans before the bond hearing. The Judge stated how Zimmerman cannot sit in court silently while his wife testifies falsely to the court and his attorney makes false representations to the court, and then revoked bond based on those "material misrepresentations that the court relied upon."While O'Mara sets out to rehabilitate his lying client, he should remember that Judge Lester is not just concerned with express lies, but also lies by omission:
"Does your client get to sit there like a potted palm and let you lead me down the primrose path?" he asked Zimmerman's lawyer. "That's the issue."The judge also stated that if Zimmerman wants another bond hearing, it would be important for Zimmerman to testify to explain to the court what happened:"If he wants to explain subsequent to that, you may reset this for a bond hearing to give him an opportunity to explain to the court what happened and at this time, it would be important for him to testify about what transpired."The prosecution's evidence of lies and misrepresentations was so strong that the judge also was surprised that the State had not yet filed charges against Shelly Zimmerman.The prosecution's evidence included Shelly Zimmerman's testimony at the bond hearing under oath that she was not aware of any financial means that could be used to assist in paying the bond cost. She also testified that to her knowledge, it was correct that she and her husband did not have money to make a bond amount. Shelly Zimmerman also testified that she did not have an estimate as to how much money the donation website had collected. The prosecution's evidence shows her statements to be lies and potentially a conspiracy between the two to have a secret stash of cash to pay the full amount of bond should Zimmerman skip town. Even if skipping town sounds unreasonable as Zimmerman was monitored after he was released on bond, Zimmerman's two prior lawyers dumped him because they did not know where he was, and maybe he believed that he could pull that trick again.
The prosecution also recorded phone conversations between Zimmerman and his wife while he was in jail before the bond hearing showing that Zimmerman was supervising the deposit and transfer of money from the donation website to various personal accounts:
During some of the calls to his wife, Shelly Zimmerman, Defendant discussed the amount of money sent to PayPal through the website, which was deposited into Defendant's Credit Union account, and at Defendant's direction transferred into his wife's Credit Union account. Even though Defendant was in jail at the time, he was intimately involved in the deposit and transfer of money into various accounts. Defendant was directing the show and used his wife, who willingly participated, to complete the transfers. During two of the calls, Shelly Zimmerman is at the Credit Union, and in one Defendant speaks directly to the Credit Union official.The prosecution stated that the Zimmermans used a code to discuss how much money was available from the donation website, where $8.60 equals $86,000 and $155 equals $155,000:George Zimmerman: "In my account do I have at least $100?"The Zimmermans also discussed how to pay the bond using coded language to hide the true amount of money:Shelly Zimmerman: "No."
George Zimmerman: "How close am I?"
Shelly Zimmerman: "$8. $8.60."
George Zimmerman: "Really? So total everything how much are we looking at?"
Shelly Zimmerman: "Like $155."
George Zimmerman: If the bond is more than 15, pay the 15. If more than 15 pay 10 percent to the bondsman.In addition to the prosecutor's evidence of coded chats between the Zimmermans, the smoking gun reported last month that it obtained a letter that Zimmerman wrote to a "supporter" while he was in jail before his bond hearing. Zimmerman wrote:Shelly Zimmerman: You don't want me to pay $100.
George Zimmerman: I don't know.
Shelly Zimmerman: All right just think about it.
George Zimmerman: I will.
Shelly Zimmerman: That's what it's for.
"My attorney seems cautiously optimistic about me receiving bond tomorrow and I will put funds received through my website towards my bond."If this letter is authenticated, then Zimmerman is stating his plans to use website donations for his bond the day before his bond hearing.O'Mara also stated that the recorded phone chats were not an effort by the Zimmermans to deliberately hide money but "more of an innocent misunderstanding" because Zimmerman was "hesitant to use a bondsman to secure his release, due to the fear of an outsider knowing his whereabouts." O'Mara continues that Zimmerman and his wife did not use the money for anything and that indicates "there was no deceit." No, it does not prove the absence of deceit, and it's also not true.
That oversight of website donations that the Zimmermans did not use for anything paid for part of Zimmerman's bond. The Zimmermans paid bond by using $5,000 from website donations and the rest from a second mortgage on a family home.
Zimmerman is "frustrated because he now has to come out of hiding," but at least he's making more money:
Mark O'Mara said Zimmerman's online defense fund has been receiving about $1,000 a day in donations, but the pace picked up after a judge required Zimmerman to return to jail.
__________________________
Zimmerman’s lawyers
delay request for
new bond hearing
Lawyers for George Zimmerman have delayed filing for a new bond hearing, despite announcing on Monday that they would do so that day.
Zimmerman, 28, is in a Seminole County jail awaiting trial on second degree murder charges in the killing of Trayvon Martin, 17. Zimmerman bonded out of jail in April, but that bond was revoked after the judge learned from prosecutors that Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, misled the court in the April 20 hearing at which his $150,000 bond was set. At the time, the Zimmermans claimed to have no income and no assets. But prosecutors later learned, through taped phone conversations and bank records, that a fund George Zimmerman set up through a website had raised at least $135,000, which was sitting in Shellie Zimmerman’s credit union account.
A post on the GZLegalCase.com website on Tuesday read simply, “Mr. Zimmerman’s legal defense team has decided to delay filing a motion for bond. A hearing will not be scheduled for a couple of weeks, and we will file a the motion well in advance of the hearing.”
That means Zimmerman could spend weeks — or more — in a 67-foot cell at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, Florida while his lawyer, Mark O’Mara, considers requesting a new trial. Whether the judge would allow Zimmerman out on bond a second time, after Zimmerman’s lawyer admitted his client allowed his finances to be misrepresented before that same judge, is another matter.
“Some judges would say, look, the consequences of falsity are for others to decide, based on prosecutorial discretion,” Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida, told theGrio. Coffey said the judge could put aside the issue of whether Zimmerman misled his court the first time, and determine that the “sole question is whether [Zimmerman] is a flight risk, or a danger to the community, etc. Of course the next time, the bond could considerably higher.” But, he added, “you could see a situation where a judge says [to a defendant,] you essentially perpetrated a fraud on the court and abused the latitude the court gave you [in granting bond] so you’re not gonna get a second chance.”
Natalie Jackson, an attorney for Martin’s parents, had a theory as to why O’Mara delayed his filing for a new bond hearing. “I believe the defense has decided against (for the moment) putting him back on the stand, until they can craft an honest — but non-harmful to their case — apology to the court,” Jackson told theGrio. Simply stated: at another bond hearing, George Zimmerman would be forced to take the stand in an attempt to explain away his ‘material falsehood’ to the court. That’s risky business for the defense team.”
Whatever the cause for the delay, the question of a new bond hearing will have to wait for now. Judge Kenneth Lester, who is presiding over the Zimmerman case, is away from the court for a pre-scheduled absence.
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