Zimmerman, Inc.

[Lemon Drop]

George Zimmerman might get his bond raised or revoked for failing to disclose to the court or to his attorney that he had $200K in donations gathered online. At the time of his hearing he claimed that his family would have to scrape together the $15K he would need to get out of jail and that he was otherwise broke.

His attorney, one of Florida's top criminal defense lawyers, had offered to do the case pro bono. Prior to the hearing he said he hadn't seen the accounts but thought they had a couple hundred dollars in them.

Who is funding George Zimmerman and what do they hope to get out of it?

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/27/27...judge.html

[$tevie]

It seems odd to me that, since it was all over the news that Zimmerman had set up the web site, nobody had ever inquired as to the amount of money that might be in it but chose to be satisfied with what they "thought" it held. This seems like a gaffe on the part of the court and the lawyers to me.

As for who is funding it, to me an amount of $200,000 sounds perfectly reasonable to have been raised from many smaller donors, since this was a national story. Kickstarter projects have raised more than that with about 1/100th of the publicity. You just need folks who care enough to click on a button.

[Lemon Drop]

I think it's a lot given that the ownership control and planned use of the funds wasn't clear and he lied publicly (through his uninformed attorney) about the existence of the money.

He had credibility issues before but hopefully the court sees that this guy with hidden resources who isn't even straight with his defense attorneys maybe shouldn't be out of state on a low dollar bond.

[hal]

$tevie wrote:
It seems odd to me that, since it was all over the news that Zimmerman had set up the web site, nobody had ever inquired as to the amount of money that might be in it but chose to be satisfied with what they "thought" it held. This seems like a gaffe on the part of the court and the lawyers to me.

As for who is funding it, to me an amount of $200,000 sounds perfectly reasonable to have been raised from many smaller donors, since this was a national story. Kickstarter projects have raised more than that with about 1/100th of the publicity. You just need folks who care enough to click on a button.

I agree - doesn't surprise me at all. Why didn't they check this out before setting bail?

[Lemon Drop]

The question was asked. In court. Zimmerman lied about it in court, and so did his family members if they knew the funds existed.
He has control of the funds, his attorney had no way to gather that knowledge without the aid of Zimmerman.

[OWC Jamie]

Hang him for lying.
We don't even want to know what he knew when.
Speculation is good enough.
Just hang the cracker.

[Lemon Drop]

The case file is ordered to stay public, and law enforcement and attorneys can talk to the media all they want.
Judge has no concerns about that.

[cbelt3]

billb.. he's not a cracker. He's a spic ! Jeez... get your apellations right !

Me... I'm a Honky :biggrin:

[mrbigstuff]

I don't mind that he has raised money on the web for his defense and I don't mind where it's come from. the question that bothers me is why people are donating to him.

[Lemon Drop]

mrbigstuff wrote:
I don't mind that he has raised money on the web for his defense and I don't mind where it's come from. the question that bothers me is why people are donating to him.

I agree. He did nothing illegal until he told the court he was indigent and would have a hard time raising funds for bail. We'll see how that plays out.

A few people commenting have said they donated to him because they believe in the right to self defense. So I assume this is a political statement in support of the "stand your ground" law and they view Zimmerman as a martyr for the cause.

Since it hasn't been shown in court that this actually was self-defense, that may or may not work out for them.
OR - it's a response to the support the Martins are getting from people involved in civil rights and victim's rights.
It's an ugly truth that there are people who aren't sad that Trayvon Martin is dead.