$1M bond for Zimmerman

RSS Feed

$1M bond for Zimmerman

July 5th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

A Fla., judge has set the bond for the man accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin at one million dollars. MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts reports.

A Florida judge granted bond Thursday for George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed teenager Trayvon Martin. It’s the second time Zimmerman has been given bail ahead of his trial.

Judge Kenneth Lester set bond at $1 million, but Zimmerman will only need to come up with 10 percent, with the rest provided by a bail bondsman, NBC News reported.

It’s not clear when Zimmerman will be able to post the money. While defense attorney Mark O’Mara acknowledged to NBC News last week that there is more than $200,000 left in Zimmerman’s legal defense fund, O’Mara said after the ruling Thursday that Zimmerman could not make a $1 million bond.

“He’s not getting out of jail right now,” O’Mara told NBC on Thursday, adding that his family does not have enough collateral to support a million-dollar bond.

O’Mara also said last week that his firm had already started spending some of the $200,000-plus in Zimmerman’s defense fund on legal costs.

George Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, is indicating that it may be very difficult for his client to come up with ten percent of the $1 million bond set by a Fla., judge on Thursday. NBC’s Jamie Novogrod reports.

Zimmerman, 28, has been in jail since last month, when prosecutors told the judge that Zimmerman hid from the court the fact he had raised $135,000 in online donations. The judge then revoked the $150,000 bail he had granted on April 20.

From June: Judge revokes Zimmerman bail

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Martin, 17, who was killed as he walked through a gated community in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26. Zimmerman claimed he shot the teen out of self-defense after Martin punched him and banged his head against the sidewalk.

In his written ruling, Lester noted the evidence on Zimmerman’s conduct outside of jail that the court was given during last Friday’s three-hour bail hearing.

Zimmerman’s defense team “presented evidence about his good behavior while on electronic monitoring after his release on bond,” Lester wrote. While he went on to list Zimmerman’s breaches of the court — including deceiving the court on his finances, which he said was “akin to violating a bond condition” — Lester later wrote in his ruling, “This Court does not fear that the Defendant would pose a threat to others in the community if released.”

Conditions of his freedom include refraining from criminal activity, alcohol, and contact with Martin’s family; not getting a passport or going to the Orlando-Sanford airport; and checking in with the pre-trial release department of the court every 48 hours.

Zimmerman also is not allowed to leave Seminole County without authorization, and he will be subject to electronic monitoring at his expense, Lester wrote.

Judge: Zimmerman ‘tried to manipulate’ judicial system
The judge made clear that even though he was granting bond for a second time to Zimmerman, he was not forgiving the defendant’s deception.

Zimmerman “tried to manipulate the system” during his initial bond hearing, he wrote, going so far as to mislead his own attorney “as to his ability to pay counsel. No member of the Defendant’s family who had knowledge of the Defendant hiding funds alerted the court,” Lester wrote.

In addition to failing to disclose the funds he had collected in April, Zimmerman also neglected to disclose a second passport he had in a safe deposit box, which Lester also made note of in his ruling Thursday.

“Mr. Zimmerman has completed discredited himself with this judge as far as bond or bail goes,” legal analyst Jeff Deen told Orlando’s WESH-TV. “The fact that this judge believes it’s even possible Mr. Zimmerman might abscond is the entire reason this bond amount is the way it is.”

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said, “Trayvon’s parents would rather that the killer of their unarmed child remain in jail until the trial, however they respect the ruling of the court and the strong message this judge sent that deference to judicial integrity is paramount to all court proceedings.”

The Martins understand this “is not a sprint to justice, but a long journey to justice” for Trayvon, Crump said.

The June 29 bond hearing, which was Zimmerman’s second, provided more details on what happened the night Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, encountered Martin.

“The reality of what happened that night is that my client had his nose broken -– or fractured -– and it was bleeding all over the place,” Mark O’Mara said, according to NBC News. He presented a medical report written by a physician’s assistant the day after the shooting that said Zimmerman’s nose was “likely broken.”

Martin “got shot because — and he was killed because — of his own doing,” O’Mara added.

But the prosecution argued Zimmerman had jumped to conclusions about Martin, who was returning to his father’s girlfriend’s home carrying iced tea and Skittles that he had gone out to purchase in the rain that night. Martin was unarmed.

“The state’s contention is what he, the defendant, was doing is he was targeting; profiling,” Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda said. “He was trying to act like a police officer, but he wasn’t obviously authorized to act like a police officer.”

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge. His wife, Shellie, was charged with perjury after investigators discovered she had helped cover up the $135,000 the couple raised to help pay for legal fees and living expenses.

There is no indication when Zimmerman’s murder trial might take place.

NBC News’ James Novogrod contributed reporting from Sanford, Fla. msnbc.com’s Elizabeth Chuck contributed from New York.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook