Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, filed a witness list with the court yesterday. The only two witnesses named are with the All Star/Magic Bail Bonds. Legal analyst Bill Shaeffer says this is pretty good indication that the "defense is gearing up for a battle:"
"Clearly, Mr. O'Mara wants to show that Zimmerman has abided by all conditions of release while he was on bond and that the bondsman is secure in writing yet another bond," Sheaffer said.
But will the judge feel secure that the court is not being lied to again in the facts relevant to whether bond should be granted again?
Zimmerman's lawyer likes to focus on how Zimmerman has been a good defendant, "cooperative with authorities" and has maintained his conditions of prior release before his bond was revoked:
O'Mara laid out the case for a new bond hearing on the website, saying Zimmerman had been cooperative with authorities. "He has twice surrendered himself to law enforcement when asked to do so, and this should demonstrate that Mr. Zimmerman is not a flight risk," the site said. "He has also complied with all conditions of his release, including curfew, keeping in touch with his supervising officers, and maintaining his GPS monitoring."
The GPS monitoring device has a little to do with Zimmerman "cooperating" with his first bond release. After all, his first set of lawyers withdrew from the case because they had not heard from Zimmerman, and in fact
lost contact with him for a few days:
“As of now we are withdrawing as counsel for Mr. Zimmerman,” Craig Sonner said. “We have lost contact with him. He has gone on his own.”
Sonner said the last communication he or Hal Uhrig had with Zimmerman was on Sunday. He said Zimmerman was no longer returning the attorneys’ text messages, emails or phone calls, “and therefore we cannot go forward as counsel.”
Judge Lester sees things differently: Cooperation includes the requirement that Zimmerman provide "accurate, truthful, and complete" information to the court when applying for bond release, and not leave out information by omission. This is based on a
rule that Judge Lester
cited as his reason for revoking bond:
All information provided by a defendant in connection with any application for or attempt to secure bail, to any court, court personnel, or individual soliciting or recording such information for the purpose of evaluating eligibility for or securing bail for the defendant, under circumstances such that the defendant knew or should have known that the information was to be used in connection with an application for bail, shall be accurate, truthful, and complete, without omissions, to the best knowledge of the defendant. Failure to comply with the provisions of this subdivision may result in the revocation or modification of bail. However, no defendant shall be compelled to provide information regarding his or her criminal record.
The judge explained that he revoked bond because the Zimmermans were aware of the amount of money available, as evidenced by 4 conversations by the Zimmermans before the bond hearing. The Judge stated how Zimmerman cannot sit in court silently like a potted plant while his wife testifies falsely to the court and his attorney makes false representations to the court, and then revoked bond based on those "material misrepresentations that the court relied upon."
The judge also stated that if Zimmerman wants another bond hearing, it would be important for Zimmerman to testify to explain to the court what happened:
"If he wants to explain subsequent to that, you may reset this for a bond hearing to give him an opportunity to explain to the court what happened and at this time, it would be important for him to testify about what transpired."
Will O'Mara place Zimmerman on the witness stand again this time or
prepare a written affidavit instead to try to do the rehabilitation of his client that his lawyer admits must be done?
The real question to me is whether Zimmerman will testify again at his new bond hearing. When Zimmerman testified the first time it was a complete shock, as criminal defendants almost never take the stand so early, if at all, in a case. Yet, O'Mara took that gamble the first time around so I wouldn't be surprised if Zimmerman testified once again, this time to try to appease the judge and explain he didn't intentionally lie to him, but that these oversights were an honest mistake. He'd likely claim, either on the stand, or in a written affidavit, that he did not consider the funds raised from the website his own money since it was going towards his defense and his attorney and that as soon as he realized he had this second passport, he turned it over to his attorney. The risk in having Zimmerman testify again is prosecutors can cross-examine him, and unlike last time, they'll be prepared and not flabbergasted if he takes the stand. Still, the prosecution can only cross-examine him within the scope of direct examination, so basically they can only ask him about the money in the fund and the passport.
Judge Lester stated, in his order revoking bond, that Zimmerman turning himself in when the original warrant was issued and keeping "authorities abreast of his current location" weighed in his favor, but there were
too many factors weighing against Zimmerman's release, and so the judge revoked bond, and placed him on a no bond status:
There are several factors that weigh against his release: this is a serious charge for which life may be imposed; the evidence against him is strong; he has been charged with one prior crime, for which he went through a pre-trial diversion program, and has had an injunction lodged against him. Most importantly, though, is the fact that he has now demonstrated that he does not properly respect the law or the integrity of the judicial process. Based upon these factors, this Court finds that revocation of the bond is appropriate.
The
probable cause affidavit for the perjury charges against Zimmerman's wife and the
state's motion to revoke bond provide lots of evidence of lies, and also possibly of a criminal conspiracy, that need to be answered by Zimmerman in court on the witness stand. Good luck to Mr. O'Mara trying to prance around his claims that all these lies were mere "oversights."
Update:
Prosecution witness includes president of chain of shooting ranges who wants to "stay the hell away" from this case:
The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel said Friday the witness list includes several law enforcement officers and employees as well as Khaled Akkawi, the president of a chain of shooting ranges.
The newspaper contacted Akkawi, who stated he had no idea why he would be called other than Zimmerman had apparently patronized one of his establishments in the past.
"I want to stay the hell away from it," Akkawi added.
The Sentinel said reports listed included witness interviews by FBI agents, an apparent incident report from paramedics, cellphone records from the father of the victim and a printout of Zimmerman's old MySpace page, which reportedly included disparaging remarks about Hispanics.