It has nothing to do with the murder case. This was in regard to a bound hearing where the court looks at the facts, including the financial status of the defendant, to determine what bond if any should be set. I can't imagine what George and Selley were thinking after discussing over the phone how much money they had in the various accounts, which at the time totaled $155 (thousand) and then only a few days later thlling the court "We all have no money" (the prosecutors words but to which Shelly agreed).
My guess is they were thinking (at that point) the money in those accounts didn't count for some reason, they didn't have "unfettered access." They were wrong, their lawyer corrected them on it, and before long the accounts were disclosed and the money put into a trust that neither he nor his lawyers could be accessed. He didn't flee, the accounts were disclosed later, after he got out of jail.
As an which nobody seems to have brought up, the $155k total figure doesn't jive with the $208k number for the paypal account alone given a few days after the bond hearing. This would require a significant growth in the PayPal account in those few days or the $155k is in addition to the PayPal account.
According to his lawyer at about 40:00 minutes
here any amount spent has been documented, a cursory breakdown is available
here.
George Zimmerman Legal Case 6/4/12 said:
Of the original $204,000 raised by Mr. Zimmerman's fund, approximately $150,000 was transferred to the Legal Defense Fund. $30,000 was used to make the complicated transition from private life in Sanford, FL to a life in hiding as a defendant in a high-profile court case. The balance of approximately $20,000 was kept liquid to provide living expenses for the first several months as the legal process unfolds.
Since the independently managed Legal Defense Fund was established on May 3, supporters have contributed more than $37,000. Of this amount, $2,000 has been designated for household expenses. Less than $300 has been designated for fund management and fees associated with maintaining the conditions of the bond. None of the funds have yet to be allocated to legal expenses. Neither Mr. Zimmerman or the defense team has direct access to the independently managed Legal Defense Fund.
The judge apparently doesn't agree that it was meaningless. And the Bail-Bondsman that collects 10% when a bond is set higher than a defendant can afford definitely does not agree.
Obviously the judge thought it relevant to his bail bond, he revoked bail. However I suspect it will be less meaningful to the murder trial.
That question is predicate on: When has a defendant ever failed to disclose substantial funds in a legal defense fund at a bail hearing for a murder charge? This isn't fishing, the line was already in the water with a fish on the hook. the prosecutor simply reeled it in. We'll see in the next hearing if they throw it back.
Indeed we will. However I do look askance at a prosecution that is so interested in finding fault with these fund finances and not so interested in fulfilling their obligations in the prosecution affidavit as Alan Dershowitz commented on and I linked earlier.
Is is really consistent? George seems to have simply left out a few substantial details. Like the $200k, why does george's story not explain how he got south of the tee.
Actually that had me wondering too, however I thought 'John's' witness testimony explained it: they were moving during the fight, he stated it sounded like it was farther away and then got closer until they were right outside his back door on the ground. As the distance between the sidewalk and where they ended up outside that back door is something on the order of 10 yards (maybe 20?) I don't see it as much of a discrepancy at this point.
It's easy to avoid contradictions by simply omitting the incriminating parts. But when it comes to the murder charge, none of the preliminaries really matter. The critical question is whether George was reasonably in fear for his life at the time he pulled the trigger. And that brings up the question of why the witness turned his back on George at this critical time when George was having the life beat out of him.
My guess is it has something to do with why no one else tried to help either: it's a rough neighborhood and the best thing to do is to call police and lock yourself in the house. It also sounded like John was rather surprised TM didn't break it off when he told him he was calling police, which might have mitigated any interest in further involvement on his part.
I don't dispute any of your facts. But Trayvon was quite literally in his communal back yard when he stopped running.
Do you think he stopped walking as well at that point? What brings him back near the 'T' for the fight? GZ has to go past him, then (probably) finish the 911 call on Retreat View Circle and then head back to his truck, even walking TM ought to have been down at the other end, if not inside already. There's not much time for much chasing around.
Was the passport also part of that plan to protect his family? George sounds like a very thoughtfully guy.
Frankly I think the prosecution and some of their admirers made fools of themselves over the 'passport issue.' Just googling around I saw a couple of places that were actually convinced he was going to run and were counting down whether he was in custody up until the moment the web site (I guess prisoner status is online somehow in Florida?) updated his status.
If you go to that link of the court audio I linked above, the judge addresses it at about 46:12, and gives it all of about twenty seconds. GZ gave the second passport to his lawyer a few days after he got out of jail and his lawyer thought he'd filed it and hadn't, but had documentation suggesting so and the Judge found the explanation reasonable.
I suspect at this juncture that one is a lead zeppelin.
Seriously though, O'Mara had talked to George about the bond hearing before George was talking to his wife on the phone call that was recorded. The evidence for this comes from George using the same range figures for the expected bond amount that O'Mara told the press the day before the hearing. Why isn't George confiding with O'Mara concerning the PayPal account at this time?
I dunno, from O'Mara's statements in court it sounds like they didn't know for sure whether they would have 'unfettered access' to it, and it turns out they
don't. They also might not have thought the state had any claim on other people's money that had been freely donated. They were wrong, but the net effect? Zilch. Nobody ran, they didn't spend it all on outrageous things, it now sits in trust and
grows. It doesn't look to me like it has done them much good so far, only opening them up to attacks from the prosecution.
At any rate the judge says he wants to hear from GZ on this issue, O'Mara wants a new bond hearing, so my guess is we'll hear about it from the man himself in a little while.
