Quote:
Originally Posted by Riot
Ah, I see! I didn't know it worked like that ... thanks.
I think his defense lawyer is doing a great job - seriously. Got permission for Zimmerman to wear a suit in court, instead of prison garb; got permission for Zimmerman to make a public apology to the family ... he's doing a good job.
Even if the judge doesn't punish Zimmerman, geesh, it goes to his honesty. And the judge refused a press coverage info freeze. So I guess they think they can still find a jury there? We'll see.
|
Practically every defendant will try to "play poor" at the bail hearing because the lower your net worth, the lower your bail will be. I doubt there has ever been a defendant who overstated his net worth. They all understate it.
And if a defendant had some money that he thought nobody knew about, I highly doubt he would disclose it.
As Brian said, omitting $150,000 in cash is hardly a minor omission. But as I said in my previous post, we don't know the last time Zimmerman had checked his website, so we don't know if he knew how much was in there. I would have to think that someone knew how much was in there, whether it be his wife, his parents or whoever.
I guess the question is who knew what, when? O'Mara may have asked Zimmerman if he had any money when they first met. I assume Zimmerman told him he did not, and Zimmerman may have had very little money at the time. The bail hearing was around 12 days after they first met. How much of the $150,000 was raised during that 12 days? I don't know if O'Mara then asked Zimmerman the same question again before the bail hearing. O"Mara may have had no idea that Zimmerman raised $100,000 or whatever the amount was during that 12 day period.
I'm sure somebody knew how much money was in there (on the day of the bail hearing), but we don't know who knew. The one thing we know for sure is that Zimmerman knew there was at least some money in there, even if he thought it was far less than $150,000.
I'm obviously not a criminal defense lawyer, so I don't know if it is a big deal for a defendant to lowball his net worth, whether it is a major lowball or a minor lowball. It might be one of those things where you don't have anything to lose by lowballing. It might be one of those things where the worst thing that can happen to you if you get caught is that they raise your bail. I guess the judge probably has the authority to revoke the bail entirely, but I don't know if that is common or not. I certainly wouldn't expect that in this case because the prosecutor did not ask for the bail to be revoked.