Now that George Zimmerman is back behind bars, his donations from supporters have surged.
STORY: George “The Liar” Zimmerman Wants Out Of Jail!
Defense attorney Mark O’Mara told ABC News that Zimmerman’s online defense fund has been receiving about $1,000 a day in donations, but the pace picked up after a judge required Zimmerman to return to jail.
A judge ordered Zimmerman back into custody Friday after prosecutors presented jailhouse tapes of Zimmerman talking to his wife Shelly and allegedly discussing how much money was in his online defense fund. His wife told the court that they had no money to post for bail, when in reality the fund contained over $150,000.
Zimmerman is currently residing in a 9-foot by 7-foot isolation cell in the Seminole County jail.
Zimmerman has about $193,000 in his defense fund, O’Mara said, and that about $20,000 has been spent on living expenses, hotels and security. Zimmerman has been in hiding because of death threats.
The amount of the money being donated has spiked since Friday when the judge ordered Zimmerman back to jail, O’Mara said.
O’Mara said that Zimmerman dreaded going back to jail:
“He didn’t like it when he was there … He’s frustrated that he had to prove his own innocence.”
The court had been expected today to release jailhouse tapes of Zimmerman and his wife discussing the financial status of the defense fund, but the tapes were not released.
A transcript of one on April 16 conversation shows the couple talking in what the prosecution said was a code meant to hide the amount of money available.
For instance, when Shelly Zimmerman says $8.60, she really means $86,000, prosecutors contend.
Prosecutor Bernard De La Rionda noted Shelly Zimmerman actually meant $155,000.
As for Zimmerman’s legal defense fund, they are preparing a second bond hearing:
Zimmerman’s defense team will file a motion today for a second bond hearing. While Mr. Zimmerman acknowledges that he allowed his financial situation to be misstated in court, the defense will emphasize that in all other regards, Mr. Zimmerman has been forthright and cooperative.
At the point of the bond hearing, Mr. Zimmerman had been driven from his home and neighborhood, could not go to work, his wife could not go back to a finish her nursing degree, his mother and father had been driven from their home, and he had been thrust into the national spotlight as a racist murderer by factions acting with their own agendas. None of those allegations have been supported by the discovery released to date, yet the hatred continues.
It must be noted that, when attempting to interpret George’s actions regarding the funds, that he did disclose the existence of the funds five days after the bond hearing, during his first conversation with the defense about the fund.
When the defense team learned of the funds, we disclosed this to the court and to the State Attorney’s Office, and the money was transferred to the Legal Defense Fund, which is now independently managed.
Of the original $204,000 raised by Mr. Zimmerman’s fund, approximately $150,000 was transferred to the Legal Defense Fund. $30,000 was used to make the complicated transition from private life in Sanford, FL to a life in hiding as a defendant in a high-profile court case.
The balance of approximately $20,000 was kept liquid to provide living expenses for the first several months as the legal process unfolds.
Since the independently managed Legal Defense Fund was established on May 3, supporters have contributed more than $37,000.
Of this amount, $2,000 has been designated for household expenses. Less than $300 has been designated for fund management and fees associated with maintaining the conditions of the bond. None of the funds have yet to be allocated to legal expenses. Neither Mr. Zimmerman or the defense team has direct access to the independently managed Legal Defense Fund.
As for the next bond hearing, it won’t happen this week as Judge Kenneth Lester has a “planned absence,” a court spokeswoman said earlier today.
SOURCE: GZLegalcase
