George Zimmerman’s legal defense team released a statement regarding Judge Kenneth’s decision to set his bond at $1 million.
STORY: Judge Gives George Zimmerman One Million Dollar Bond!
Zimmerman’s legal team contends that the family does not have anything near $1 million in collateral, and hopes they can work something out with the bail bond company.
As reported by GZlegalcase:
George Zimmerman and his family do not have anywhere near $1,000,000 for collateral so even if we pay the $100,000 fee, the bail bond company will have to agree to work with us on how the collateral would be posted.
We are encouraged we can work this out. We paid $15,000 initially for the first bail fee so an additional fee of $85,000 would have to be paid to post this new bond assuming we can work out the collateral issue.
Although the Legal Defense Fund has approximately $211,000 at this time, there are about $40,000 in payables for defense expenses so far (not including any attorney’s fees) with significant expenses ahead of us for expert witnesses, deposition costs, private security and George’s living expenses. Paying bond and scheduled expenses would effectively wipe out the existing balance.
While it may seem that there is a lot of money in the fund, this will be a very expensive case to defend and it is clear that the fight will be long and hard.
While Mr. Zimmerman has been in jail awaiting his bond hearing, donations to the George Zimmerman Legal Defense fund have significantly decreased.
Supporters have told us they were concerned that the Court would set such a high bond that getting George out of jail could risk wiping out the entire defense account. It appears that they were right.
However, George needs an aggressive defense and to help with that he also needs to be out of jail with his wife and family assisting his legal team.
George Zimmerman is not a threat to his community nor is he a flight risk. However, unless we take weeks or months to appeal Judge Lester’s order setting bail at $1,000,000, the only way George can get out of jail is to pay a bondsman. This is what we intend to do.
Zimmerman’s defense maintains that he acted in self-defense and that he is not guilty of second-degree murder. In the next few hours and days, they will try to get George released on bail.
SOURCE: GZlegalcase
