Reply to Thread

Zimmerman due in court today at bail hearing - Orlando Sentinel

By Rene Stutzman and Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel

5:49 a.m. EST, June 29, 2012
SANFORD – George Zimmerman is due back in court today with a request that he again be freed on bail.
The 28-year-old Sanford man is at the center of one of the most prominent civil rights criminal cases in the country.


He's awaiting trial on charges of second-degree murder for killing Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, who was walking through Zimmerman's neighborhood the evening of Feb. 26.
Zimmerman says he fired a single shot in self-defense after the teenager attacked him. Critics accuse him of racial profiling. He had called police, describing Trayvon as suspicious then began following him, according to authorities.
Zimmerman was arrested April 11 but Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. ordered him released on $150,000 bail a week later.
But that was before he learned that Zimmerman had an on-line fund-raising campaign that was raking in $1,000 a day.
At an April 20 bond hearing, Zimmerman's wife, Shellie Zimmerman, testified under oath that she and George were broke. In reality, according to prosecutors, they had transferred at least $135,000 between accounts in the days just before the hearing.
The day she testified, according to records produced by Special Prosecutor Angela Corey, Shellie Zimmerman had $57,000 in her personal bank account.
Trayvon's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, plan to be at today's hearing, according to their attorney, Benjamin Crump.
"We're waiting to see if Zimmerman might take the stand," Crump said Thursday. "It'll be an interesting day tomorrow."
Attorneys for more than a dozen news companies also will be at the hearing. That's because O'Mara has asked the judge to prohibit the release of several public records, including 150 phone calls Zimmerman made from jail and the statement of "witness 9".
She's believed to be Zimmerman's former girlfriend who told Sanford police that Zimmerman has "racist ideologies", according to a police report.
Check back for updates. The hearing is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m.
[email protected] or 407-650-6394. [email protected] or 407-420-5171.