http://www.cbsnews.com/...
CBS news report that George Zimmerman has entered a written plea of not guilty to the charge of second degree murder that he faces. He was not present in the courtroom. The judge set a date of August 8th for a pre-trial hearing.
In related news, his attorney tried to clarify what's happened to the 200K that Zimmerman raised through his homemade website.
In another development, O'Mara said that of the $200,000 raised by Zimmerman's now-defunct website, just under $50,000 is being used for his security and setting up his living arrangements in hiding. The other $150,000 has been turned over to an independent administrator to manage.
This "is being used" present tense grammar seems like a bit of spin on the part of defense lawyer Mark O'Meara, since we had already learned that shortly after the bond hearing that this fund existed and that same amount was no longer available to be set into a trust account. Seems likely the money was already spent at that time. If not, then the question arises how it is only "being used" now since if it was available that maybe it should have been put into a trust account. IANAL but wonder what others here think should have been done regarding this matter.
We'd also heard that at least $5,000 of that money was used to pay for his bail and get him out of jail on bond. This would seem to indicate he or someone he trusted had knowledge or control of the funds at the time he was claiming he and his family were indigent. Some have speculated that George's brother may be the one who had access to the Pay Pal account since his mother, father and wife all testified at the bond hearing while the brother did not.
The judge took some time to consider revoking or raising his bond, but ultimately let the matter stand. This episode reflected both on George Zimmerman, his family, O'Meara and the judge himself.
George has kept a low profile since retaining O'Meara and getting out on bond. His whereabouts are unknown to the public, but he wears a GPS ankle device by order of the judge.
What else has been going on? without links, I can informally relate the following:
Little new has been revealed to the public regarding the case in the last week or so. Sanford Fl named a new interim police chief while Bill Lee still collects a salary while on leave. On a 3-2 vote, with the mayor being the swing voter the city council seems to have tacitly reversed it's no-confidence vote when it refused a letter of resignation from former chief Lee. Non-voting city manager Bonaparte had hoped that the letter would be accepted, citing as one reason the fact that Lee was on a leave of absence pending an investigation that the DoJ is not in any hurry to complete.
The new interim police chief claims he is going to review the actions of the department, but isn't exactly saying he's going to get to the bottom of things regarding what happened in the Tayvon Martin shooting.
The DoJ hasn't announced anything new, and no one has reported anything that indicates there is much of an ongoing investigation into Norm Wolfinger and the Sanford PD's actions on the night of the shooting.
FWIW, it's been noted that in the affidavit from special prosecutor Corey charging Zimmerman with Murder 2, there are a lot of references to sworn statements from officers and investigators in the case, leading some legal-savvy types to suspect that, since policemen and detectives don't really like to give sworn statements until they have to, and prosecutors are usually fine with that until their own trail strategy is set and a trial date is closer, that there may have been some kind of internal affairs style investigation inside the Sanford PD prior to the charges being filed by Corey. IANAL, however and cannot really comment on this other than to note it here in passing.
Rush transcripts are out from CNN on the testimony given at the bond hearing, and can be found with a simple google search.
What jumped out at me was what was also reported here:
http://southflorida.sun-sentinel.com/...? page=2
Gilbreath also said the state had a witness who reported seeing the shadows of two people running, one chasing the other, but could not identify who they were.
Gilbreath was the investigator who was a signer of the afidavit charging Murder 2. He was questioned in a lengthy session by O'Meara at the bond hearing, in a "surprise" move by the defense.
The significance of this witness cannot be understated, since this flies in the face of what have heard about Zimmerman's account of how the fight started. Regardless of who may have been chasing whom, the shooter seems to claim he was approached from behind and after a short verbal exchange was knocked to the ground where the fight finished. A foot chase doesn't fit into his self defense narrative if he is the chaser and it isn't his recollection of events if he was the one chased.
It's possible the "foot chase" witness saw the earlier portion of the "chase" where GZ got out of his car and ran on the path where Trayvon had taken before, but this was more like a case of "following someone's path" than a foot chase between two people occupying the same general space at the same time.
There was one partial exchange that seemed linked to this witness, but the question was incomplete. De La Rionda is the prosecutor, examining the witness that O'Meara had earlier grilled.
DE LA RIONDA: Isn't it true, sir, that at least one witness described first chasing another person in the back of that -
GILBREATH: Yes
.
(this is from cnn's rush transcript of the bond hearing.)
We don't know much more about all this yet, however.
The last significant thing that happened today was that the defense waived their right to a speedy trial, meaning that the 180 day deadline no longer applies. This also seems to affect when the prosecution has to give the defense discovery, at which time the public might see what evidence the prosecution plans to present at trial.
I'm not a lawyer but one thing worth noting is that the defense hasn't yet signaled if it wants a "Stand Your Ground" hearing or not. I suppose they are waiting for discovery.