Zimmerman Trial Outcome Poll

[Carl N. Brown]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/12...-with-perjury/
"Wife of George Zimmerman released on $1000 bond after being charged with perjury", Fox News, 12 June 2012.

Shellie Zimmerman (25) was arrested for knowingly making false statements about the couple's finances during the April bond hearing (perjury). She was released on $1,000 bond.

An arrest affidavit for Shellie Zimmerman said that records show in April she transferred more than $85,500 from her bank account into her husband's account. The affidavit also said that jail call records show that George Zimmerman instructed her to "pay off all the bills," including an American Express and Sam's Club card.

[Loosedhorse]

Actually, not a bad thing for Z. Allows her to take the hit on credibility instead of him.

Perhaps the prosecutor will try a "knew or should have known" angle on Z, concerining the mysterious appearence of $85k into his bank account--or even try to leverage his wife into testifying that Z did know. Not sure spousal privilege will apply if they try to make a case for conspiracy.

[Carl N. Brown]

Or, the prosecution will offer a deal: take the plea deal we offer, or your wife goes to prison for 5 years.

[LewPO1]

Or, the prosecution will offer a deal: take the plea deal we offer, or your wife goes to prison for 5 years.

That was my reaction when I saw that Mrs Zimmerman had been arrested.

[cambeul41]

Or, the prosecution will offer a deal: take the plea deal we offer, or your wife goes to prison for 5 years.

If the prosecution did, might it not backfire? It should.

[Johnny Dollar]

It sure should! But the Z discomfort is being enjoyed by certain segments.

Everybody stand back!! I've got a match and will quickly put this puppy out of its misery!

[cambeul41]

My community college classes in Detroit are nearly all Black. The devil in me has prompted me to bring up the Zimmerman/Martin case when discussing the need for accuracy in note-taking and reporting or the problems connected with projection.

They admit to having heard of the case but seem to have absolutely no interest in discussing it. Blah. Don't, however, think that these adult Detroiters are reluctant to dispute the facts with the prof.

[Mr. James]

Or, the prosecution will offer a deal: take the plea deal we offer, or your wife goes to prison for 5 years.

That's my view. Corey stepped in it big time by grossly overcharging, and now they've found a lever to put Mr. Zimmerman in prison without having to prove a thing re: Mr. Martin.

I hope my cynicism is misplaced.

[bruno2]

Now it is really getting sticky. They are going to get their plea and conviction.

[Selena]

Now it is really getting sticky. They are going to get their plea and conviction.

Which means from here on out the heel hounds of the vindictive state will have free hand to kill the poor sap on any excuse.

[Johnny Dollar]

The Miami Herald is reporting this morning that extensive checks on Zimmerman were made by at least 10 Special Agents, at up to a dozen gun dealers,range employees and even private investigators.

I suppose we should be surprised?
The bolding is mine.

The FBI dispatched at least 10 special agents to Central Florida to investigate the Trayvon Martin shooting, records filed in Seminole County Court show.

The agents interviewed up to a dozen firearms dealers, gun range employees and private investigators about George Zimmerman, according to a court document filed Friday by Assistant State Attorney Bernardo de la Rionda. Another 11 investigators from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement also joined the probe.

“Two FBI agents showed up here with a picture of Zimmerman asked me if I recognized him,” said gun dealer Khaled Akkawi, who was listed as a witness in the case. “They were pretty much asking along the lines of if he had made racial comments or anything. My employees told me it couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Didn’t the guy have a Sunday school in his house for minority kids?”

Before he shot the unarmed teen, Zimmerman mentored a black child, his family has said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/1...#storylink=cpy

[basicblur]

extensive checks on Zimmerman were made by at least 10 Special Agents

Your tax dollars at work!

I guess since Holder's little gun running Mexican fiasco has been crippled, he's gotta have sumpin' to occupy his time.

[Carl N. Brown]

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...eillance-video
Jeff Weiner and Rene Stutzman, "Shoot Straight owner, now a George Zimmerman witness: 'He bought the gun from us'", Orlando Sentinel, 15 Jun 2012.

Prosecutors on Thursday released to defense attorneys hundreds of pages of new evidence in the murder case....Defense attorney Mark O'Mara received the evidence Thursday....

The news media and public got a list of evidence, but no details.

Here's an intriguing witness on the list: "John Wright, a Sanford private investigator. Wright told the Sentinel he was hired by the Martin family, but declined to elaborate."

On the other hand, it should not be surprising. Under rules of discovery, there are supposed to be no dramatic surprises as common in TV dramas. In fact, when the prosecution sprung undiscovered evidence on the defense in the Ruby Ridge trial, the judge stopped the trial to give the defense time to examine the evidence for rebuttal and fined the government. Also, under the Brady and Giglio rulings, and the Jenks Act, there are categories of exculpatory evidence that the prosecution is obliged to turn over to the defense in time to be useful in preparing a defense.

What we may not hear about is evidence that that O'Mara turns over to Corey, depending on what kind of discovery rules they are operating under.

[Carl N. Brown]

http://www.inforum.com/event/article...roup/homepage/
"Polls: Public opinion on George Zimmerman shifting", Orlando Sentinel, INFORUM, 17 Jun 2012.
Rasmussen Reports, national survey:
March- Zimmerman guilty of murder: 33%; acted in self-defense: 15%.
May- Zimmerman guilty of murder: 24%; acted in self-defense: 40%.

Rasmussen:
One of the reasons that we track it over time is that in the heat of the moment people have a visceral reaction. Then they learn a little more about it and get away from the horror, sometimes those reactions change.

What started the outrage was a carefully orchestrated PR campaign by the Martin family, their lawyers, and PR consultants to try the case in the court of public opinion.

The Martin photos, released by his family through a public relations professional, showed an adolescent boy – not a 17-year-old. Those of Zimmerman were from a 2005 arrest when he was 65 pounds heavier. ... Since then, more-recent photos of Martin and Zimmerman have been published. ...

As exculpatory facts come out favoring Zimmerman (which is inevitable considering how extreme and biased the charges made by attorney Crump were), public opinion is swinging back the other way.

[Johnny Dollar]

It appears the Herald will be done only when Zimmerman is completely destroyed. George does seem to display a incredible lack of common sense on "open mics" to put it mildly.(And kindly). A real maroon. You can't make stuff like this up,as Dave Barry would say.

The latest in the saga:

Wife to Zimmerman: You’re gonna have a great life

Jailhouse calls demonstrate that Zimmerman was the mastermind behind getting his wife to move large amounts of money out of his accounts. His wife was charged with perjury after she said under oath that the couple had no money.


By Frances Robles
frobles@MiamiHerald.com

George Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, is facing perjury charges of lying under oath about money her husband raised online, but bank records and recorded jailhouse phone calls released Monday show it was George Zimmerman who called the shots behind an elaborate, if sloppy, scheme to hide money.

Zimmerman’s calls from jail to his wife show that in the days before his April 20 bond hearing, he went to exhaustive lengths to give her instructions on changing passwords so she could move money out of his accounts. He advised her to always transfer less than $10,000 — an apparent quest to not raise red flags — and recruited his sister and another person to help.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/1...#storylink=cpy

[basicblur]

Sanford PD video released as part of discovery yesterday.
Saw it on Anderson Cooper 360 last night, along with Mark Geragos and Sonny Hoston discussing the video.
Hopefully the video above was the full video - Anderson Cooper's show did not show the entire video-the edited video on Cooper's show is the third video on the page at the link below.
Apparently the police took Zimmerman back to the scene the day after the shooting to walk them through it - this is that video.

Geragos says video helps Zimmerman and as such, will never see the light of day at trial (prosecutor won't go near it). Hoston says it helps the prosecutor - Geragos tried to bet her on it, and stated the only reason she thinks it will help the prosecutor is she thinks the prosecution has evidence we're not aware of, but so far, every time that assumption has been made the prosecution has come up empty.
Geragos and Hostin discussing case here (first video on page).

In the past, Geragos seems to be one of the better, most accurate legal experts discussing this case.

[Carl N. Brown]

Video posted here:
http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/06...Channel=117764

Video and article posted here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1614983.html
Mike Schneider, "George Zimmerman's Reenactment Of Trayvon Martin Shooting (VIDEO)",

Asssociated Press, 21 Jun 2012.

[basicblur]

I managed to slug through the article at HuffPo, but it was tough.
I certainly hope investigator Sereno's statements were just lies, hyperbole, etc being used in order to trip Zimmerman up in his investigation. If his statements were not such, then they are simply speculation on his part, and unfortunately, are being used as statements of fact by the media and Zimmerman bashers.

The only thing tougher than reading the article (and Sereno's statements), was the reader comments.

I lost track of the number of face plants I did while going through the reader comments...

[Carl N. Brown]

^ That matches many of my experiences with HuffPo too, but they did confirm my impression that Serino is on a hobby horse.

I just did a search of the 90 articles I have saved as text files on the Martin case: only HuffPo calls Chris Serino "Sereno".

[Carl N. Brown]

In the Zimmerman case, which so far has only been tried in the court of public opinion, NBC news gave us their famous edit of Zimmerman's call to the police dispatcher, from:

Zimmerman: ....This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.
Dispatcher: OK, and this guy is he white, black, or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.

to:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black.

That moved the narrative from Zimmerman was alerted by Martin's behavior, to Zimmerman was alerted by Martin's race. More drama. Right out of the screen writer's guild Writer's Handbook.



Now we have Sandusky's lawyers preparing an appeal of his conviction based on the fact that the jury was shown an NBC "interview" with Sandusky that was edited from:

Costas: Are you sexually attracted to young boys, to underage boys?
Sandusky: Am I sexually attracted to underage boys?

to the "Today" show version:

Costas: Are you sexually attracted to young boys, to underage boys?
Sandusky: Am I sexually attracted to underage boys?
(looped to repeat)
Costas: Are you sexually attracted to young boys, to underage boys?
Sandusky: Am I sexually attracted to underage boys?

Again: more drama, in keeping with the screen writer's guild Writer's Handbook.

Remember these examples next time you read anything in the "news" from our advocacy journalists.

My second rule: on anything, find at least three sources not quoting each other but three independent sources who did their own research.

[basicblur]

The neighborhood watch volunteer accused of killing unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin passed a lie detector test, according to newly released documents.
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/06...ate-77322.html

Shucks - I don't see a comment section under the story!
'Course, it doesn't matter what comes out 'bout this case, the Zimmerman haters are just going to copy and paste the same replies they post at every site.

I did so look forward to reading some of the comments!

[Johnny Dollar]

Here is another article about the test AND 127 comments to reflect on! Enjoy,BB!

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/...etector-421395

A day after killing Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman passed a police lie detector test when asked if he confronted the teenager and whether he feared for his life “when you shot the guy,” according to documents released today by Florida prosecutors.

According to a “confidential report” prepared by the Sanford Police Department, Zimmerman, 28, willingly submitted to a computer voice stress analyzer (CVSA) “truth verification” on February 27. Investigators concluded that he “has told substantially the complete truth in regards to this examination.”

Zimmerman, the report noted, “was classified as No Deception Indicated (NDI).”

An example of the comments:

Ron Reale · Top Commenter
They will jail him for 15 years for lying about the money he had. Once they have you in their sites, you are doomed, and he was stupid for lying about the money.
He should be freed, and a parade should be held to congratulate him for all the future crimes he stopped, and people he protected, by removing an up-and-coming self-described thug from the earth.
Ron Reale

No beating around the bush from our man,Ron!

[basicblur]

...AND 127 comments to reflect on1 Enjoy,BB

Damn you JD...

Actually, I read a couple of 'em, and this isn't the crowd I'm looking for...maybe I'll just cruise on over to HuffPo for some laughs and face plants...

[Johnny Dollar]

Whatever tickles your fancy!

[basicblur]

They're now off to the races (at HuffPo)!

The more I read, the better Z (and the worse Det. Serino) sounds!
Like this little exchange:
Serino: "Had you told this child that you were neighborhood watch... we probly wouldn't be here right now. Does that, did that ever register to you at all?
"Um... why didn't it occur to you to go ahead and tell him... Did it ever occur to you to go ahead and actually ask this person what he was doing out there?"
GZ: "No sir."
Serino: "Was it fear, precaution, safety, all of the above, or... Tell me what was going through your head."
GZ: "I, I, I didn't want to confront him, and, 'cause, it wasn't my job."
Serino: "Mkay... So... By not, what were your.. Your job's not to really do anything at all..."
GZ: "Right..."
Serino: "... when it comes to that kind of thing. It wasn't your job to monitor him either."

HUH?
Sounds like GZ gave the right answers - as a neighborhood watch, he's supposed to observe only, not confront Martin (as he told Serino).
I dunno what Serino's deal is - is he just not that intelligent, doesn't think Zimmerman is, or does he just have a chip on his shoulder when it comes to neighborhood watches (and "wannabe" cops)?

Sounds like GZ was repeating to Serino probably what's in your friendly neighborhood watch guide!

And I just love how folks are now ranting 'bout how different this would have turned out if GZ had only identified himself as neighborhood watch - probably a lot of the same folks that earlier wanted to crucify him for being a wannabe cop!