I just read the abc news story linked to by AClockWorkMelon. Lol. O’Mara is still whining about Zimmerman not paying him.
Not that I feel sympathy for the lawyer, but it really takes some fuckupness to stiff the guy who pulled every trick in the book to keep your ass out of jail. If that doesn’t give us insight into GZ’s character, then I don’t know what does.
And yet you were summoned just the same.
I’m not sure I agree that Zimmerman has the money but is deliberately not paying the lawyer anyway.
Is that what you mean by “stiffing?”
This has not been settled. O’Mara told CNN that he did have a gun:
O’Mara seems pretty confident that his client does indeed have the money. Otherwise there would be little point in him continuing to whine about it angrily to the press.
Not that this matters anyway. If Zimmerman doesn’t have the money, we can be fairly confident (based on his jailhouse convos) that’s only because he spent it on the wrong things. It’s not like he didn’t have a defense fund.
The point would be to make clear he hasn’t been paid.
His defense fund was used, as I understand it, on his defense. O’Mara remains his lawyer for the pending action of recovering his non-fee legal expenses, an amount that will exceed $300,000.
I am not aware of any particularly frivolous use of the defense fund money. He spent it – once O’Mara took over, anyway – on legal expenses, because it was fenced off for that purpose. Zimmerman could not access it directly.
What “wrong things” do you contend he bought?
The option of walking to the convenience store and buying a can of iced tea and Skittles.
I imagine, when you typed this, it seemed ironic, or tragic, or rueful, or some adjective other than “utterly meaningless.”
But try parsing it again.
“What wrong things did Zimmerman buy?”
“He bought the option of walking to the convenience store and buying a can of iced tea and Skittles.”
See? Utterly meaningless. Granted, it seems to say nothing, but in reality, it’s meaningless.
Actually, that’s not true. The police said they found a gun, just that it was in his truck.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/09/10/mark-omara-fires-george-zimmerman/
Obviously, he had plenty of time between when she called 911 and when the police arrived to put the gun in his truck and his lawyer, or I guess former lawyer, has said he had the gun during the incident but didn’t misuse it.
BTW, the post is not meant as a knock on you or a suggestion you’re being dishonest. It’s merely to point out that either some of the media, who claimed the police said there was no gun were misrepresenting the police or, more likely, the police were quite understandably being coy with the media.
You know, in your own condescending and self-satisfied way, you bring up an interesting question, one I had not considered. What kind of lawyers did he have? Were they more “upscale”? Are there “upscale” attorneys who are experts in criminal law? Would that even be necessary?
I know he was publicly begging for money on the interwebs, any figures on who much that added up to? His lawyers, they got some kind of hot rep on the street? You were a PD, does anyone actually go into criminal law for the bucks?
The new video from CNN shows (1) Zimmerman smashing the ipad and (2) the red mark on her father’s nose. O’Mara has stated that Zimmerman had a gun on him which matches Shellie’s account. Though, let’s be honest with ourselves: there’ll never be any proof against Zimmerman that will convince you because you’ve already expended an enormous amount of time and intellectual capital on defending him. As for Trayvon, I’m over that, and if you noticed, I did not refer to him as a murderer anywhere in my posts (at least not recently in this thread). So not sure where you’re getting that. I referred to him as a bully, a liar, and a sociopath.
Do you have a link for the video? I found a dashcam video from one of the responding police, but not much was visible.
Of course there could be proof that would convince me. For the record, I’m convinced he’s guilty of speeding, as the required standard of evidence has been met.
As for any other crimes, there’s insufficient evidence to make it acceptable to claim he’s guilty on casual conversation, let alone prove it. It’s the rush to declare guilt in the absence of, or even contrary to, sufficient evidence that bothers me, to put it mildly.
How do you “understand” this? Unless you are privy to how his accounts were handled, you can’t possibly know whether O’Mara was paid his due.
On the contrary, I know that O’Mara has not yet been paid his fees.
But, also, Zimmerman’s defense fund money was used, after O’Mara got involved, on his defense.
I know this because of O’Mara’s announced post-trial motion to recover costs from Florida. He is seeking in excess of $300,000 in non-fee expenses from the state of Florida on behalf of his client. Florida law allows a prevailing criminal defendant to recoup legal expenses, but not fees, paid in an ultimately successful criminal defense.
In shorter words: O’Mara’s fees haven’t been paid, but Zimmerman’s defense fund was used to pay expenses, like expert witnesses and computer animator costs.
???
Everything I’ve read says the iPad is in pieces and has been sent to a tech lab to see if they can extract the video from the pieces. Got a cite for the above?
Actually, upon further consideration, from what I’ve heard, the above isnt’ possible: what video of the incident that was ever recorded was recorded ON the iPad, so it isn’t very likely that the video ON the iPad will show Zimmerman smashing the iPad itself. Perhaps him grabbing it…
It’s like acting. The old joke about meeting someone in New York or L.A., hearing they’re an actor, and replying, “Oh, really? Which restaurant?” has similar overtones in criminal law. It’s certainly possible to make beaucoup bucks as a criminal lawyer. You simply have to specialize in rich people. But like becoming a highly successful actor, there are lots of hopeful people and few such high-paying gigs.
(And of course, the PD has made his choice from the beginning; he’s not even trying for the big bucks). No one is starving, mind you, but striking it ultra-rich is not likely.
No. You can make a lot of money in criminal defense, but you also wind up handling a lot of cases where you never get paid beyond the initial retainer. People in prison are bad at paying bills, for obvious reasons. Having said that, O’Mara will more than recoup any unpaid portion of his Zimmerman fees in new work.
There is a firm in Orlando paying Jose Baez (Casey Anthony’s lawyer) a significant fee just to list his name as “of counsel”* on their website for some fields Baez has never worked in and never will.
*this term means different things in different jurisdictions and contexts but in this context it refers to an attorney who is affiliated with but not an associate or partner of a firm.