I didn’t find anything that specifies a mandatory minimum sentence for perjury in FL, so it apparently is still possible that even if convicted she could walk free out of the courtroom. I’m sure the prosecution, if they want to use this as leverage against Zimmerman, will threaten to go after the maximum penalty for his wife if he doesn’t plead, though.
I dunno whether anyone cares much about if the transactions were legal in and of themselves, but the timing of shuffling the money among accounts could be evidence of of the Zimmermans’ intent to deceive the court of the extent of Gorge’s financial resources.
I’m sorry. You are correct. I assumed she was only charged with misdemeanor perjury when she bonded out for $1,000. It seems kind of odd that she was charged with a felony when Casey Anthony was only convicted of a misdemeanor.
After reading your link, I think a lot of the Zimmerman witness better get lawyers if they don’t already have one. It looks like they could be in trouble if they tell a different story under oath than what they told the police.
I don’t think Zimmerman’s wife will let him do that for her. She strikes me as being one of those “do or die” chicks who are willing to wreck their own lives over some stupid, inconsequential shit just to keep a man’s affection.
I also think Zimmerman is in too deep now to take plea deal. He has his fans to think about. He’s not going to want to disappoint them by bowing down to The Man.
But this all speculation.
Not to mention that if he is convicted of a crime, he won’t have all those juicy book/movie/exclusive-interview deals to profit from.
That is how it works, right? If he is convicted or takes a plea related to Martin’s death, he won’t be allowed to profit from that, right?
Structuring is a specific federal crime that means making transactions to avoid filing a currency transaction report. That crime requires currency transactions. If she had done that, she would have been dead to rights guilty of a serious federal crime. She may still be guilty of something else, but it is a far weaker case.
She may or may not be able to influence his decision, but she can’t stop him from taking a plea bargain if that’s what he wants to do. For me, choosing between keeping my wife out of prison and pleasing a bunch of anonymous internet fans would be a no-brainer… Um, maybe that’s the wrong term considering that Zimmerman is looking like a better fit for that description every day.
Also, maybe they can make him some kind of offer regarding the money. Like – if he pleas and doesn’t have a costly defense, his wife will be able to maintain a decent standard of living with the money while she waits for him to get out. I’m failing to think how they would make this an official part of the deal, but maybe just introducing him to the idea would be enough – along with a pledge that they won’t go after the money (whether they have any grounds to or not).
With an offer like that he might figure his wife could live pretty comfortably for 3-4 years, and agree to a sentence in that range.
If he’s smart (and he clearly isn’t) he won’t just give her the whole pile at once, or she might decide she has a better future without him (which would be a smart decision, but she’s clearly no Einstein either).
All these possibilities seem more likely to me because it seems that Zimmerman often doesn’t follow the advice from his lawyers.
Zimmerman and his wife may be acting like monumental dumbasses, but that still doesn’t change how little evidence there is to convict him of murder. He will almost certainly walk, so there’s no big impetus for him to take anything but a sweetheart deal.
… or from 911 operators. Doesn’t seem much for taking advice of any kind really.
It’s funny you mention movie deals. As tragic as Martin’s death is, it’s hard not to see this case as playing out as a comedy.
Picture the scene of Zimmerman and his wife talking about the money in his account using “code” that a 2nd grader could crack.
Zimmerman’s surrogates claiming he’d been seconds away from diaperdom and shaken baby syndrome during Martin’s attack on him. Then we see what amounts to a couple of nicks on his head and a paper cut on his nose.
His first lawyers giving a press conference to announce they were quitting, saying they did so because he reached out to Hannity. Like, why did they even announce that?
O’Mara not even hiding the fact that his client lied, but then spun it as a young guy being frustrated at having to prove his innocence. On yeah, and also pointing out that he dreaded going to jail. Thanks dude. That’s a shocker.
The SA’s spokesperson early on, saying the cops can make an arrest any “dadgum” time they want.
The crazy stuff Zimmerman said Martin said to him. All the homey talk, “tonight you die”, “okay, you got it”.
The list goes on and on. This is the most entertaining thing that’s been in the news in a long time, and it sad it had to originate from a teenager dying needlessly.
Is it a crime even if the state (or the Feds) can’t establish that the transactions were done to avoid some kind of tax liability?
I’m just kind of assuming that they shuffled the money around so that if a court officer checked their accounts at the time of the hearing, and didn’t really look any closer, the amounts would show their testimony was “true”. Obviously, the prosecutors looked a lot closer than that, and correlated in other data as well. Maybe in a normal situation a little scam like this might have worked, but Corey probably has half a dozen lawyers to keep busy checking out every little thing every single day.
I’m really thinking Zimmerman is not even a dim bulb – his filament must have burned out a while back.
Judge Lester characterizes the evidence against Zimmerman as “strong.” This supports the speculation that Zimmerman’s own statements and subsequent personal communications provide the smoking gun in this case.
What has been attributed to him so far is self-contradictory and difficult to reconcile with facts in evidence, and given his showing so far it is not hard to believe that he has made self-incriminating statements; a guy that is so much of a schmuck that he’d use such transparent obfuscation while talking on a jailhouse phone is exactly the sort of schmuck who’d incriminate himself in a frank text message or something ridiculous like that.
Actually, now there is, if he wants to keep his wife out of jail. It seems there’s pretty solid evidence against her.
But in general, I agree with you, there’s a very good chance because of the way the law was written that he can walk away from this. How weird it would be if he walks and his wife gets put away.
You might be right, but my gut tells me if he was going to take a deal, he would’ve taken it already.
And if he really cared about keeping his wife out of trouble, he would’ve never put her in the position of lying for him in the first place. She strikes me as being much more loyal to him than he to her.
I’m also not all that confident thae State would want to offer a plea deal. This is where I think politics would definitely come in. Corey has taken flak for her affidavit, plus i’m sure she wants to be the harbringer of justice for the Martin’s too. She’ll want the opportunity to show off in court.
His wife wasn’t charged with a felony before. This is a whole new ballgame.
Since I’ve read elsewhere that perjury is rarely charged even when it happens, it seems to me that there’s a very good chance she’s been charged for the specific reason of putting more pressure on George Zimmerman.
If he pleads out, what would his defenders say?
The Doper defenders. Those who have devoted reams of electronic space proclaiming this guy’s innocence?
How would your tone change if Zimmerman took a plea deal?
As I understand it, this varies from state to state. And there have been several laws attempting to prohibit convicted criminal from profiting that have been struck down as overly broad. Basically, there are sharp people who can figure out roundabout ways to profit from the fame of a criminal, because it’s very difficult to write a law that can stop all the conceivable means.
I’ll look for a cite on this.
That’s a good point.
If he pleads, will we get to see his statement and text messages? Because the suspense is killing me.
Bad move.
If he pleads and has any kind of money left, he will be relieved of it by Benjamin Crump.
One more thing about this. Neither of them might have known she would be called to testify at the time they were making these money arrangements. Again, neither show much evidence of being people with foresight. Even if his lawyer warned them, well… I’ve already mentioned his penchant about not listening to sound advice. And her? Well, she married George Zimmerman in the first place. 