George Zimmermann, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin dead in a case that has stirred up a controversy about the role of stand your ground laws and racial stereotyping, has had his bail revoked by a judge:
Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester has revoked George Zimmerman’s bond in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman now has 48 hours to turn himself in to authorities.
The decision came after the revelation that Zimmerman and his wife may have conspired to lie about thousands of dollars in donations they’d collected before his bond hearing.
In a new motion, prosecutors accused Zimmerman and his wife of lying to the judge during a bond hearing about money they collected for his defense.
Prosecutors allege Zimmerman’s wife knew about the donations her husband had collected through a PayPal account, but didn’t mention the money at his bond hearing.
The account ultimately collected about $200,000, his attorney later revealed.
“Defendant has intentionally deceived the court with the assistance of his wife,” the motion says. “During the jail phone calls both of them spoke in code to hide what they were doing.”
Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda told the judge today that “this court was led to believe that they didn’t have a single penny” at the earlier bond hearing.
Zimmerman’s wife “flat out lied to this court,” de la Rionda said. Lester agreed, revoking Zimmerman’s bond. He must turn himself in, the judge said.
Argument on the bond issue came after Lester heard argument about whether he should seal key evidence in the case from the public, including the names of witnesses and the statements Zimmerman made to law enforcement.
De la Rionda started out arguing for the sealing of the names of civilian witnesses in the case.
“These witnesses are scared to death to comply,” he said. De la Rionda acknowledged that such information is usually public in Florida, but said “this is a very unique case.”
This interesting part of a JustOneMinute post:
MORE: Alice H provides the state’s motion, which includes snippets of recorded calls from jail between Zimmerman and his wife. I would use the phrase “lying weasels” to describe their conduct in hiding this money from their lawyer and the court, but “scheming, lying weasels” seems more apt. And I could add “stupid”, too.
Since this case is the epitome of a case that hinges on credibility, I’d say no matter what the explanation (or CYA explanation?) it will not be helpful to George Zimmerman.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.