Posted on 06/01/2012 11:50:10 AM PDT by Lurker
ORLANDO, Fla. (WLS) - Prosecutors asked a judge Friday to revoke the bond of the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Prosecutors said in a motion that 28-year-old George Zimmerman and his family misled them about his finances when testifying during a bail hearing that allowed him to be released from jail on a $150,000 bond. Prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda asked for the revocation during a hearing to help determine if prosecutors and the defense can stop the public release of certain documents in the case.
During the bond hearing in April, Zimmerman's relatives testified they had limited funds. Zimmerman's attorney said several days later that he had discovered his client had raised more than $200,000 from a website. At the time of the hearing, about $135,000 had been raised, and that money wasn't disclosed at the bond hearing.
"This court was led to believe they didn't have a single penny," said Prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda. "It was misleading and I don't know what words to use other than it was a blatant lie."
Defense attorney Mark O'Mara said it was an innocent misunderstanding and that Zimmerman wasn't using that money for his expenses and wasn't sure what he could use the money for. He said Zimmerman used the houses of his parents and grandmother as collateral for the bond.
Prosecutors also said in the motion that Zimmerman didn't disclose he had a second passport. Zimmerman turned his passport over to the court at the bond hearing as a measure that would prevent him from fleeing the country.
Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder and claims self-defense. Zimmerman shot Martin last February during a confrontation at a gated community of townhouses in Sanford, Fla., where Zimmerman lived and where Martin was visiting his father's fiancee.
The delay in an arrest for 44 days prompted protests nationwide and led to Sanford's police chief stepping aside so emotions could cool down.
At Friday's hearing, De la Rionda and O'Mara also asked a judge to stop the public release of witness names and statements made by Zimmerman to police officers. Those documents normally are part of the public record under Florida law.
"What's occurring, unfortunately, are cases are being tried in the public sector as opposed to in the courtroom," De La Rionda told Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester. "We are in a new age with Twitter, Facebook, and all these things I've never heard of before in my career.
Everybody gets to find out intimate details about witnesses that never occurred before. Witnesses are going to be reluctant to get involved."
A consortium of more than a dozen media groups, including The Associated Press, asked the judge to ignore the request, saying such records are presumed to be publicly available under Florida law.
Rachel Fugate, an attorney for the Orlando Sentinel, cited the Casey Anthony trial as an example of a highly publicized case in which a jury was able to be seated despite intense media coverage. The Florida mother was acquitted last year of killing her 2-year-old daughter.
"Discovery in Florida has traditionally been open ... and Florida hasn't encountered problems seating juries and giving defendants fair trials," Fugate said.
O'Mara said Friday on a website that he doesn't expect the case to be ready for trial until next year.
O'Mara said he expects to call on 50 witnesses who need to be deposed before he decides whether to file a "stand your ground" motion which would ask for a hearing before a judge without a jury. At the hearing, Zimmerman would argue self-defense under the Florida law which gives wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat in a fight if people believe they are in danger of being killed or seriously injured.
The Associated Press Contributed To This Report
I believe they are setting him up for murder too.
They knew and that is what upset them -- the amount of grassroot support he has. O'Mara said that the $150,000 bond was already quite high for a case like this. So knowing about it at the hearing shouldn't have raised the bond any further.
Usually a request for revocation of bond is because the defendant is a flight risk -- but O'Mara already had the passport and PayPal money in his possession from as far back as April -- and the prosecution knew it because they had been notified.
This d&p show yesterday was done to attack GZ's credibility. Clearly, even though he will probably not take the witness stand in his defense, they are trying to challenge the credibility of the statements that he gave to the police which will play a large part in the trial. Unfortunately for the prosecution his statements are corroborated by witness statements and forensic evidence which they can't make go away.
April 20th was the date of the bail hearing, and the date the bail amount was set. Zimmerman had been jailed since the 11th or 12th. Zimmerman's internet site (therealgeorgzimmerman.com) was "live" days before that, on April 9th.
Zimmerman was released on bail the night of April 22nd. So, from the 12th through the 22nd, whatever was done with PayPal account was done through his wife, and she seems to have had a handle on the funds accumulating there.
The first passport, the one reported lost or stolen in 2004, was turned over to the court on April 20th, during the bail hearing. The other one was in O'Mara's hands before a hearing before Lester on the following Friday, April 27th, but that hearing was on the press motions to unseal the court files. O'Mara brought up the existence of the website, to the court, at that hearing. (Judge wants to know more about Zimmerman finances | Fox News, April 27, 2012). But, O'Mara did not mention the second passport, which he says he had with him, in the courtroom, at the time.
With regard to the funds accumulated in the PayPal account, the judge's issue is that the family, Zimmerman's wife in particular, deliberately misled the court. He also assigns responsibility to George Zimmerman, based on his knowing (via his wife) that there was 135 thousand dollars or so (at the time those two spoke), and then not telling O'Mara or the court.
Good question about the check. Maybe O'Mara advanced some of the bail money to the bail bondsman, so Zimmerman could get out sooner. Days later, Zimmerman repays the advance. Ten thousand dollars came from the family, using their home as security for a loan, and I doubt they could arrange all of that between Friday, April 20, and Sunday, April 22rd.
My bad. I misread the whois database. That domain was registered on the 8th, not the 12th.
Still this Paypal component is a real head-scratcher. I just re-read their rules of service. It just doesn't add up. There is no way George opened that account on the 8th, and pulled $135k out on the 20th. If that happened, his website had to be tied to someone else's long standing, high volume, account.
Reading through the Prosecution's Motion looks like they are continuing to play with some very 'loose facts'.
The state is asserting that funds were in the account, not that they were liquid. And it goes on to assert that George's wife knew there was over a hundred thousand dollars there, but didn't offer that information during the bail hearing.
-- Reading through the Prosecution's Motion looks like they are continuing to play with some very 'loose facts'. --
I think the prosecutors are liars.
According to their motion.....
"I think the prosecutors are liars."
So do I. But this would be epically pathological.
Watching Corey's news conference speech, I too concur, they are paid deceitful liars.
finally, someone GETS it!
I was at my parents’ house yesterday so I saw the “news” report about this. They had an audio clip of Zimmerman’s wife saying that as far as she knew they had no money - and used that to paint Zimmerman as an untrustworthy liar. I wonder if any of them knew how much money had been donated at that point. And if the money was set up for a defense fund, wouldn’t it be legally bound to be used for that? If he had to report money for his defense as if it was money he could use to jump bail, then shouldn’t Obama be reporting as income/assets all the taxpayers’ money that’s been used to keep his eligibility records from being seen? I mean, if money for somebody’s defense is considered personal income?
If he was really going to jump bail, wouldn’t he just do it in the 48 hours that they give him to turn himself in? They know he’s not going to jump bail. For one thing, if the passport they’re giving him grief over is already expired, then he’s shown that he was not going to jump bail using that passport when he could, and he CAN’T at this point even if he wanted to.
I trust the media even less than I trust the judges in this country, and I trust the judges as far as I can throw the whole darn lot of them. This is a third-world banana republic at this point.
You got it. It’s a highly selective accusation on the part of the prosecutors. They just have to, are desperate to nail him, is the logical conclusion. On anything, jaywalking if that works.
In GA both Obama and his attorney showed contempt for the court after they ignored Judge Michael Malihi’s order to appear in court.
The response? Crickets. Right after the judge ruled Obama eligible to be on the ballot on the basis of ZERO - no - evidence. A sharia ruling based on “judge’s knowledge”, apparently.
Why no contempt charges? IIRC, the judge refused to certify the court record so it could go to another judge to have contempt charges decided.
And on the issue of Obama’s eligibility to be on the ballot, the superior (cough) court ruled him eligible before their clerk even allowed the plaintiffs to file any motions. The case was literally decided before it was even filed.
That’s what we call a “show trial”. It’s supposed to not be done in this great, lawful, “equal protection” country we’ve got here. Then again, this country is under a foreign enemy combatant, and he has filled the position of Attorney General with a man whose sole job is to make sure that the judicial system DOESN’T administer justice.
Can’t lie or mislead the judge. That’s bad no matter where you are. Judges get prickly about folks being coy.
Yeah, you're right. The information was all over the Intertubes, where a fossil judge could scarcely be expected to be able to access it...
I'll bet the judge's granddaughter knew about Zimmerman's donation website ten minutes after it went on line.
You're just saying that because it's true...
I went to Washington for that. I doubt you did.
Either lying to courts is bad, or it's not.
LOL! Professional liars whining about being "lied" to.
Classic.
The actual recording was released this weekend. I don’t read big media.
Just because Zimmerman is innocent of any wrongdoing and totally justified for the shooting, doesn’t mean he can’t be a slimy idiot too. He was recorded on the the phone talking to his wife in code trying to hide how much money he received form donations. Now the prosecution can use that to say, if he lied about that, what else is he lying about?
Supporters of stand-your-ground laws couldn’t of asked for a worst representative for self-defense.
IOW, they didn't want a bond approved if there was any chance at all he might be able to meet it. Isn't there something in the Bill of Rights about that?
Ah, here it is. Amendment VIII: "Excessive bail shall not be required
Good Point. The Constitution just doesn't seem to matter to these people. This bond was excessive for what the court knew about his financial situation at the time. When the prosecutor and the court believed GZ to be penniless and destitute, the court hits him with a $150,000 bond. How was he expected to pay that???
The only way he was able to bond out was through the charity of his parents and perfect strangers. Well his financial situation is still the same. He's still dependent upon donations and the charity of others while facing a year of legal bills to boot.
So then Mr Rionda, given the fact that his finances consist of charitable donations from perfect strangers, just how excessive do you think that his bond should be??? How deep should perfect strangers have to dig so that GZ can have his Constitutional rights???
So, the funds were liquid, as you point out the state asserted - my error.
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