The Zimmerman website generated around $200,000 that was not disclosed prior to the judge granting bond of $150,000, and after a court hearing where Zimmerman was portrayed as indigent. Zimmerman's lawyer said he did not learn about the money until this week. Zimmerman's family testified at the bond hearing that they did not have the financial resources for the $1 million bond requested by the prosecutor. The family members now say that they did not know that the "website money was 'available'" at the time that they had testified at the bond hearing and so they did not disclose the money to the court.
The prosecutors asked Judge Lester to increase his bond, but Judge Lester needs more information before he decides whether to raise or revoke Zimmerman's bond:
Florida Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester said he wanted to know more information about the money and what Zimmerman knew before deciding whether to revoke or raise his bond. He said he would to that at a hearing after O’Mara gathers the information.
Zimmerman
knew he had the money.
Although Zimmerman spent some of the contributions on living expenses, about $150,000 remains, O'Mara said Friday. O'Mara said he has put the money into a trust he controls until a final decision is made about its use.
The question is when did Zimmerman know he had over $200,000? If he knew before the bond hearing, then he sat in court and listened to the case being made that he was indigent.
O'Mara stated that he was not sure that even Zimmerman knew how much money was in the paypal account.
“Certainly we had acknowledged he did not have funds available to him and these were,” said O’Mara, who said he learned of the money Wednesday. “I’m not certain he thought they were available to him, because even after bond was granted, it was the family trying to come up with enough money for the bond. If they thought they had full easy access to it, they simply could have used that.”
It seems that O'Mara has not directly asked Zimmerman what he knew and when he knew. Not only does that affect further his credibility, but it defeats the purpose of bond. It's crazy that O'Mara, who is supposed to be a lawyer with a good reputation, is taking the approach of not asking questions of Zimmerman and his family and operating based on assumptions.
As the Martin family attorney stated:
Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said Zimmerman's failure to reveal that he had the money shows that he is being dishonest.
"If his testimony at the bond hearing is any indication of what is to come, then the lying has already begun," Crump said.
The court was also asked to unseal the Zimmerman criminal case file. Judge Lester decided that the file would be unsealed, but the attorneys can file motions to seal a particular file. The judge also denied the prosecutor's request for a gag order on the very chatty O'Mara.
UPDATE:
AlyoshaKaramazov posted interesting comment about receiving statements when any money is deposited in a paypal account. Unless some other practice in Florida, Zimmerman had to know he had the $200,000. This is consistent with Zimmerman's family saying that they did not know that the "website money was available," and thus did not disclose to the court, indicating they knew about the money, a fact that they would have to have obtained from their son. Yet, Zimmerman sat quietly while his lawyer made the case he was indigent.
UPDATE: 9:20 am
About $5,000 from the website contribution was used in making bond, O'Mara said. The rest came from a loan secured by a family home.
Zimmerman's lawyer, O'Mara further claims Zimmerman's silence about this $200,000 was a mere oversight:
Asked whether knowledge of the money might have made a difference to Lester, who presided at Zimmerman's bond hearing, O'Mara said, "It might have."
O'Mara could not explain why Zimmerman didn't disclose the funds, but said he didn't think his client had meant to deceive anyone.
"If that was an oversight by him, then it was. And quite honestly, with everything he's going through for the past several weeks, if that's the only oversight he's committed, we'll deal with it, Judge Lester will deal with it," he said.
UPDATE: 9:45 am
O'Mara snarking about charging $1,000 an hour for Zimmerman case? New website set up for Z:
O'Mara also said that with the Internet gifts, he now expects to be paid. He bills $400 an hour, he said, and predicted this is a $1,000-an-hour case. He's already spent 130 hours on it, he said.
When asked about comments by an attorney for Trayvon's family, who criticized his failure to earlier disclosure of the Internet gifts, O'Mara pointed out that he family also is accepting donations via a website.
"Everyone is seeking donations in this case, including the Trayvon Martin family," he said.
He noted that he set up a new website for his client, http://www.gzlegalcase.com.
UPDATE: 10:45 am
Judge will revisit bail issue if turns out Zimmerman family had "control of the money at the time" of Z's bail hearing where he was declared indigent.
UPDATE: 2:50 pm
At bond hearing, prosecutor asked Zimmerman's family what knowledge they had about money raised at website and their responses are not consistent with what family said today (so much for their credibility at trial):
Assistant state attorney Bernie de la Rionda did ask the family members briefly about the website, which was called “The Real George Zimmerman” and offered a vague defense of the Feb. 26 killing in Sanford, Fla. But each one pleaded ignorance and the prosecutor quickly moved on.
“You don’t have any knowledge of the web site, do you, in terms of the money?” de la Rionda asked Zimmerman’s mother, Gladys Zimmerman.
“No,” she replied.
His father, Robert Zimmerman, said likewise: “I have no idea if there’s money, how much money or who has access to it.”
His wife, Shellie Zimmerman, said the same: “Currently, I don’t know.”
UPDATE: 10:25 pm
O'Mara says Zimmerman knew there was money in account, but did not know if money was available for spending on bond even though Z spent part of the money on rent.
“The question is whether he felt that needed to be disclosed.… It was an oversight.”
Zimmerman must not have thought the money was readily available for spending, O’Mara said, although Zimmerman had spent some of the funds on rent and on preparing his current safe house. $5,000 went toward posting bond.
The fact that Zimmerman didn’t use the money to post the bond immediately — he was actually released two and a half days after the bodn hearing — demonstrates he didn’t intend to deceive the court, O’Mara said.