Tag: George Zimmerman (page 15)

Judge Kenneth Lester has issued a written order on the motion brought last week by the state for a gag order. Judge Lester says the lawyers for the parties (the state and Mr. Zimmerman) have acted with the utmost professionalism and no gag order on them is warranted.

He then reminds lawyers "connected to" the case and "their agents" that they are also subject to Florida ethical rules for lawyers on extrajudicial comments and are subject to discipline if they violate the rules. [More...]

One of the reasons I warn commenters here not to attack the character of Trayvon Martin is that I don't think it will come up at trial, and I'm following and attempting to analyze the legal proceedings. Mark O'Mara has made it clear he would not be raising Trayvon's character at trial. If it's not an issue in the legal case, I see no reason to speculate about it.

Today O'Mara makes it clearer. He lists what people won't find on the new website and social media pages he established for the case:

We Will Not Comment On The Character of Trayvon Martin, His Family, or His Supporters

[More...]

Here is the state's motion for a gag order in the George Zimmerman case. The Court's minutes from April 29 state the motion was not "entertained." [More...]

A lawyer for the media is claiming States Attorney Angela Corey missed the 15 day deadline for providing discovery to George Zimmerman. The media wants access to the documents under Florida open records laws, which the media maintains must be made available to it 15 days after the defendant files his request.

When denying requests from the public for the Zimmerman discovery records Friday, Corey's office told Local 6 Florida law allowed her to keep the records secret using a criminal investigative exemption because "no records have been provided to the defendant." But Ponce, who specializes in public record law, believes that Corey can no longer use that reason to withhold records from the public, now that the 15 day discovery deadline has passed.

The problem with the media's argument, according to O'Mara, is that he told Corey to delay giving him the documents and hasn't yet received them. O'Mara issued this statement on the website he established for the case, in which he defends Corey. [More...]

More drama in the George Zimmerman case.

A hearing on Zimmerman's lawyer surprise disclosure on CNN last night that his client's website had raised a little more than $200,000, was addressed at court today. The Judge declined to order a bond increase but wanted more information about when the payments were received. He will make his final decision after receiving the information.

The state asked for a re-examination of the amount of bond and a gag order on O'Mara. The Judge declined the gag order. O'Mara pointed out he hadn't spoken publicly on the facts of the case and "handlers" of the Martin family were still talking to media. I agree with O'Mara, if anyone in this case needs to be restricted in their extra-judicial comments, it's the lawyers for the Martin family. [More...]

Reuters has a lengthy profile (pun intended) of George Zimmerman's life and the burglary reports in the Twin Lakes community.

The burglary reports were posted on the City of Sanford's website and later removed, but not before they were reposted around the internet. You can read them here.

I've gone over the burglary reports several times, and checked their dates against Zimmerman's prior calls to non-emergency and the audio of the 6 or 7 prior calls published at the Seminole County Sheriffs Office. The last time I examined them was after the Affidavit for Zimmerman's arrest issued, because I was curious why the affidavit was worded so oddly:

....During the recorded call Zimmerman made reference to people he felt had committed and gotten away with break-ins in his neighborhood.

Why did the state cast it as a feeling, as if it was a misperception? So I checked. [More...]

Update: NBC 6 Miami acknowledges its mistake for its March 19 report and story with the misleading edit of George Zimmerman's call to police. Apparently, the Today show's erroneous and prejudicial edits were separately done and unrelated. NBC 6 Miami does not address why it waited until April 9 to correct the articles, or why another of its reporters whose byline appeared on one of the stories using the false quote repeatedly maintained on Twitter on April 10 that the producer responsible was not on their team, but from New York (see tweets below.)

The Miami Herald confirms it was Jeff Burnside who was fired, and has his reaction. The Herald credits but does not name the conservative bloggers who outed NBC 6 Miami's March 19 mangling of Zimmerman's quote. They are, as I said in my April 9 post on the topic, Les Jones and Tom McGuire. [More...]

Update: The City of Sanford has rejected the resignation of Police Chief Bill Lee.

Seminole Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester has unsealed documents in the George Zimmerman court file, allowing only for the redaction of witness names. The order is here. This does not unseal police files, just the court file. A hearing on the media's motion for access to police files is set for Friday.

Attorney Mark O'Mara was on CBS this morning. He said that the purpose of George Zimmerman's apology at the bail hearing was not to increase the likelihood of his getting bond, but to address the Martins who had rejected Zimmerman's earlier attempt to apologize. He said had he known that it would upset the Martins, he wouldn't have had his client take the stand as it wasn't necessary to get bond. He basically apologized to the Martins. [More...]

George Zimmerman has posted bond and been released from jail. The Orlando Sentinel says the jail reports he used a bondsperson to make the $150,000. bond.

Here's a photo from Reuters and the Orlando Sentinel. The Seminole County Sheriff issued this statement [More...]:

For some reason, the media wants people to think that witness John, the one who told a Fox News reporter that he was outside the night of the shooting, observed two men wrestling, that the man on the bottom was wearing a red sweater (Zimmerman had a red jacket), cried out to him for help, and he went inside to call 911, didn't come forward with this information until the end of March. Not true. He gave his account to the media the day after the shooting. From his video interview above with Keith Landry of Fox News Orlando on Feb. 27:

"The guy on the bottom, who had a red sweater on, was yelling to me, 'Help! Help!' and I told him to stop, and I was calling 911," said the witness, who asked to be identified only by his first name, John.

John said he locked his patio door, ran upstairs and heard at least one gun shot. "And then, when I got upstairs and looked down, the guy who was on the top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point."

[More...]

As Tom Maguire aptly notes, some of us have day jobs and can't spend two hours watching a hearing. So I didn't watch the George Zimmerman bail hearing live. But I just read CNN's transcript (parts 1, 2 and 3) (again thanks to Tom for the links.)

While it cuts out in places for commercial breaks, it appears to be almost a compete transcript. My thoughts, based on the transcript, are below. I also recommend Tom's analysis which I just finished reading after writing this post. I'll probably add some others views later, or in a new post, since this one is so lengthy. [More...]

CNN has an article on today's bail hearing in the case of George Zimmerman, accused of second degree murder with penalty enhancements in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. CNN reports:

Special prosecutor Angela Corey has the burden of showing why bond should not be set or that it should be high. The burden is referred to as "proof of guilt is evident or presumption of guilt is great." Corey would have to convince [Judge] Lester that a jury would convict Zimmerman.

I think that's an inadequate description. Corey's burden of proof at the bail hearing to establish the "proof of guilt is evident or the presumption great" is not the same burden as applies to a jury. At trial, a jury must find proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman committed the charged crime. Under established Florida case law on bail hearings involving capital and life charges, Corey's burden is higher. [More...]