The jailing of George Zimmerman for misleading the court concerning the amount of money on hand for posting bail seems more than just a bit strange. The court stated that bail was being revoked because the defendant had stated that he did not have great resources to pay for a high bond. What the defendant said was true at the time that he said it.
The wife has since been charged with perjury in the 3rd degree (a felony) because she also, supposedly, misled the court concerning the availability of resources to the Zimmermans. This charge carries a possible sentence of five years and/or a 25,000 dollar fine.
The entire matter is strange. The prosecutor seems to be on a vendetta to punish George Zimmerman and anyone associated to the first degree of relation with him. The judge also seems to be at least somewhat complicit. It was known that considerable money had been contributed to the Zimmerman defense account, solicited publicly on the internet even before the judge established the 150,000 dollar bond requirement. Nothing was being done secretly.
The money was being raised, ostensibly to meet bail bond requirements and to defray legal expenses for a trial that may well never take place. Mrs. Zimmerman could not have given a precise amount in the account because the contributions of five, ten, and twenty dollars were coming in fairly rapidly. It is known that they were not poor, but also that they did not have massive resources.
The prosecution is also making a case about the mendacity of Mrs. Zimmerman due to the fact that a "second passport" was discovered in a safe deposit box. Mr. Zimmerman's passport in force was surrendered, and it is stated in the passport that it is a replacement passport for a lost or stolen passport. El Gringo Viejo has experience with such an event. Once a replacement passport is issued, the previous passport becomes void. If that lost or stolen passport is somehow recovered, it remains the property of the holder, although it cannot be used. At any airport or entry point into the United States it will be shown to be invalid. It should be noted, for instance, that the Zimmermans had put the old dead passport into a safe deposit box, and did not even have the document at their home.
We still have, for instance, my brother's passport, which was recovered at the time of his death. We still have the Gringo Viejo's voided passport that served to replace another passport that was stolen fifteen years ago. It was returned, punched out, at the time the State Department sent my renewal (not replacement) passport some time back.
The entire issue bespeaks of something out of Keystone Kops, and could be construed as a form of a sop to the professional race-baiters. The charges could not withstand analysis by testimony and evidence in a court any more than the charge of 2nd degree murder in the Martin boy's shooting. We would recommend sending some more money to the defense account, but given the nature of the bench in Florida, it might be possible that the court would move to confiscate the account.
Just some thoughts while texting in my brain.
El Gringo Viejo
The entire matter is strange. The prosecutor seems to be on a vendetta to punish George Zimmerman and anyone associated to the first degree of relation with him. The judge also seems to be at least somewhat complicit. It was known that considerable money had been contributed to the Zimmerman defense account, solicited publicly on the internet even before the judge established the 150,000 dollar bond requirement. Nothing was being done secretly.
The money was being raised, ostensibly to meet bail bond requirements and to defray legal expenses for a trial that may well never take place. Mrs. Zimmerman could not have given a precise amount in the account because the contributions of five, ten, and twenty dollars were coming in fairly rapidly. It is known that they were not poor, but also that they did not have massive resources.
The prosecution is also making a case about the mendacity of Mrs. Zimmerman due to the fact that a "second passport" was discovered in a safe deposit box. Mr. Zimmerman's passport in force was surrendered, and it is stated in the passport that it is a replacement passport for a lost or stolen passport. El Gringo Viejo has experience with such an event. Once a replacement passport is issued, the previous passport becomes void. If that lost or stolen passport is somehow recovered, it remains the property of the holder, although it cannot be used. At any airport or entry point into the United States it will be shown to be invalid. It should be noted, for instance, that the Zimmermans had put the old dead passport into a safe deposit box, and did not even have the document at their home.
We still have, for instance, my brother's passport, which was recovered at the time of his death. We still have the Gringo Viejo's voided passport that served to replace another passport that was stolen fifteen years ago. It was returned, punched out, at the time the State Department sent my renewal (not replacement) passport some time back.
The entire issue bespeaks of something out of Keystone Kops, and could be construed as a form of a sop to the professional race-baiters. The charges could not withstand analysis by testimony and evidence in a court any more than the charge of 2nd degree murder in the Martin boy's shooting. We would recommend sending some more money to the defense account, but given the nature of the bench in Florida, it might be possible that the court would move to confiscate the account.
Just some thoughts while texting in my brain.
El Gringo Viejo
