The Miami Herald is reporting that one of the jailhouse phone calls released yesterday, which Zimmerman lawyer Mark O'Mara tried to get sealed, suggests that O'Mara knew about at least $37,000 of donations, or more than the amount needed to cover the low bail which he advocated and obtained.
In a phone call recorded April 14 between Zimmerman and a friend named Scott, the two discuss the new defense lawyer and the attorney’s vision for an upcoming bond hearing. Zimmerman tells his friend that he told his new attorney, Mark O’Mara, that he tried to transfer $37,000 from his online legal defense fund site, but could not complete the transaction because of PayPal rules that prevent transfers larger than $10,000.
He twice mentions telling O’Mara about the money.
When O'Mara told Zimmerman that he would have him declared indigent, Zimmerman told him about the money:
“He said he’s going to have me declared indigent,” Zimmerman told his friend. “I told him I didn’t think that would be possible, because there was one sizable transfer I tried to make. It got stopped. You know, $37. He said: ‘Well that doesn’t matter. Right now you’re not working. You’re not providing an income for your family. You’re probably not going to be employable for the rest of your life.’”
Zimmerman told his friend that O'Mara only knew about the $37,000, which would have covered the $15,000 needed for the bond amount advocated by O'Mara in court at an April 20 bond hearing, or several days after this April 14th jailhouse phone call.
Here is transcript of part of call:
"I trust him, um. I did tell him that, you know, we did try to make one transfer of 37, and that it got held up because it's over the 10, you know?" said Zimmerman.
"Uh, huh," replied his brother.
"So, he knows about that," Zimmerman said.
"Does he know the volume?"
"No," replied Zimmerman.
"Okay, I'd like to keep that with us," said Zimmerman's brother.
"I think so too," Zimmerman responded.
At the bond hearing, O'Mara took testimony from Zimmerman's wife about how the "couple was broke." Here are
some of the questions asked by O'Mara of Zimmerman's wife:
O'MARA: I discussed with you the pending motion to have your husband, George, declared indigent for cost, have I not?
S. ZIMMERMAN: Yes, you have.
O'MARA: Are you of any financial means where you could assist in those costs?
S. ZIMMERMAN: Not that I'm aware of.
O'MARA: I understand that you do have other family members present with you and I'll ask them questions of them but have you had discussions with them of at least trying to pool together some funds to accomplish a bond?
S. ZIMMERMAN: We have discussed that, trying to pull together the numbers of the family to scrape up anything that we possibly can.
Days after the bond hearing, "O’Mara declared to the court that Zimmerman had actually amassed a small fortune in donations."
O'Mara's response to this story is that he did not know about the money:
“I recall now some conversation of a transfer, but I don’t recall a specific amount,” O’Mara told The Miami Herald. “If it was $10,000 or $100,000 or $30,000, I would have remembered. It’s not the type of thing you would risk your license to practice law over.”
He stressed that the recording shows that Zimmerman was keeping him “at an arm’s length” regarding the funding he had raised. He does not think the recording is clear-cut about whether Zimmerman told him about the money.
“I would have remembered $37,000,” he said. “I can’t imagine not remembering. It puts my credibility on the line.”
There's more than credibility on the line here. There should be an investigation of what O'Mara knew and when did he know it? Did O'Mara suborn perjury from Zimmerman's wife? Did O'Mara present false statements to the court when he advocated for the low bond based on Zimmerman not having any money? Judge Lester revoked bond because Zimmerman sat like a potted plant, allowing his wife and attorney to argue he did not have any money. And now O'Mara might have done far worse.
It might turn out to be the case that Zimmerman needs a new lawyer, not a new judge.