ABC News has been given a photograph that might make the difference between life in prison and a walk. For weeks, we have been discussing the case and the application of the Stand Your Ground law. As discussed earlier, I think the case was over-charged and I remain doubtful of a conviction. This picture will likely be the single most important piece of evidence in the case. It shows Zimmerman with significant blood on the back of his head — an image that supports accounts from the scene and will be used to corroborate Zimmerman’s account of a struggle with Trayvon Martin where he feared serious bodily injury. [UPDATE: Zimmerman granted bond].
Unlike the photos of Zimmerman at the police station, this photo was taken a few minutes after the fight. Zimmerman’s shaved head could prove Godsend for Zimmerman. Had he had longer hair, the injury would have not appeared so stark.
The photo shows both cuts and a contusion — injuries that would normally be defined as serious bodily injury by many courts in torts cases where head injuries are treated as inherently potentially serious. The original police report said that he was bleeding from the nose and head and that his clothes looked like he had been in a fight. Zimmerman claims that it was Martin who jumped him, punched him, and pounded his head on to the concrete sidewalk.
The prosecutors can still argue that they do not contest the fight but that Zimmerman started it. However, with this photo, the charge of second-degree murder appears even more excessive and undermines Special Prosecutor Angela Corey’s claim that she was not affected by the political pressure to charge Zimmerman. I can understand a manslaughter charge, even with the photo, but no reasonable prosecutor would consider the second-degree murder charge as based on this evidence. Corey clearly must have seen this photo and the reports before her charging of Zimmerman.
The photo should also assist Zimmerman in his efforts to get bail.
Zimmerman, 28, is still being held on charges of second-degree murder of Martin, 17. In my view, a denial of bail would be an abuse and unwarranted given the fact that Zimmerman cooperated at the scene and voluntarily turned himself in.
Source: ABC
think any assault on a record should revoke all gun permits for a few years and require gun safety courses,etc.
not necessarily Once he completed the PTD process his legal record was clean. As someone not convicted he can get a gun legally.
The correct dates for the domestic violence case are: 08/08/2005. Zimmerman files his own petition on 08/09/2005. the protective injunctions on both her and him expired on 08/24/2005.
I may be female, but admittedly I am a bit hesitant of always taking the female side in these issues.
Now that I have the dates, I can move on to check if we can find out more about the precise program. I always feel more comfortable if I have the correct dates, as a lover of figures.
I thought about you. This doesn’t look like interference from father Zimmerman, to me it looks like a completely regular legal process.
leander, there are so many posts now it takes the page too long to load for me to comment easily, so that may be why others have stopped posting too
….but ah, so Georgie has THREE assaults on his record. Two on a woman and one on a police officer. There is something wrong with that picture…….he should have never been able to get a concealed carry gun permit.
I think any assault on a record should revoke all gun permits for a few years and require gun safety courses,etc. If GZ had not had a concealed carry permit we would have been looking at a fist fight at the most that night. Just a damn shame.
My mistake, his birthday is on 5th of October, I got that wrong. I missed a couple of little words above and:
Malisha I obviously didn’t mean many interesting “cases” but many interesting people here, while it is fact that most have moved on.
Happy Birthday George Zimmerman
After a lengthy process first in court over diverse institutions Zimmerman completed a PTD pre-trial diversion program on July 28, 2006, ten days short of one year after the incident with the officer.
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The documents of the felony reduced to misdemeanor are available here
Use link: all case record search.
Notice you have to Zimmerman*s middle name: Michael and you have to check “closed” under “case status”, otherwise you don’t get return. You can even add his birthdate if you like:
ZIMMERMAN, GEORGE MICHAEL
10/05/1983
The assault on officer took place on 07/18/2005, his pre-trial program started in Jan, 2006.
There are two case numbers the one is the felony process:
Case No. 2005-CF-009525-A-O
If you click on the case number you get the details. This process from felony to misdemeanor seems to take about one and a half month and ends with this entriy:
08/29/2005 Request for Administrative Transfer
REQUEST FOR ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSFER TO COUNTY COURT
The more lengthy process is the misdemeanor process:
Case No. 2005-CF-009525-A-O
I have to look at that more closely, but on 12/30/2005 his case is finally accepted for pre-trial deferment, and on 01/12/2006 he is accepted for the PTD pretrail diversion process. On 06/15/2006 the supervision is extended and on 07/28/2006 a nolle prosequi is filed. so I think, can we assume that the program ends at that point.
So he was supervised 6 month and two weeks. with about one half year for the process in the diverse institutions.
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The files about the domestic violence aren’t available,nbut since one of the numbers of this little piece floating all over the net is correct, the other may well be too. The high multiplication factor makes it not so easy to trace the original article or message. But I have to, I find these little details interesting.
Sling is absolutely correct, it does make sense to shift search engines. This is the one, I like best so far: ISeek, Search Terms: “George Zimmerman” “Resisting arrest with violence
The violent resistance in itself suggests that Sling’s emphasis is correct. And then there is this:
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excursus:
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she said he had finally “cried” in therapy, The judge let him off the rest of HIS sentence
Malisha, I know some of these cases over here too. The most interesting I had to do with was a female arsonist, but don’t let me go into details only this. People have well functioning antennae to register expectation. In your case above the guy may have felt the expectation was a sign for remorse. ..t.
But you are right too, many, many interesting cases. But since the contributors here have thinned out, even Otteray Scribe, to mention just one, has lost interest. Thus I thought it suffices in the current context to mention the people I respect most. Sorry, Shano, I forgot you;) I am getting more and more interested in the precise events in 2005.
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concerning anger management, it seems to be a core component of the pretrial diversion process:
TonyC’s words-
“I am VERY one-sided. I am a scientist, an atheist, a civil rights advocate, a progressive, opposed to free market ideology, pro-choice, pro-collective action, pro-equality for women, for gays, for all races, and all because the only side I stand on is that of logic, reality and fairness”
Wow,,thank you (once again) for informing us of your high levels of educational prowess and knowledge. Your I.Q. must be through the roof. (maybe your E.Q. too) Its now obvious to me that you have an above average sense of perspicacity.
What was I thinking when i was demanding that you and others not RUSH TO JUDGEMENT? Sorry Tony for my ignorance.
By the way ,,you’ve based your “one-sided(ness)” on LOGIC.
I’m sure your aware of what LOGIC is–this is for the rest of us who are not as intelligent and well rounded as you defined yourself as being.
LOGIC is a study of valid reasoning.
To have VALID reasoning you need to establish and verify ALL the FACTS pertaining a case. Not just the basic facts.
FACTS are >incontrovertible< truths my friend.
Do you really believe you have ALL the facts to this case as yet?
At the Bond hearing , prosecution used basic facts and ..what happened??
Oh right it was the prosecutors fault,,they bungled it somehow.
Malisha , thanks, I knew there had to be some logical reason why things that defy common sense happen in the courts.
An defendant who is wrongfully harmed only has the hope of justice in the court of public opinion. We shouldn’t need a public uproar for true justice to be done in America . Social media makes it easier but the powerful are very good at lingering in bubbles…
BigFatMike,
“They” know we’re onto them. It used to surprise me that when I discovered something (by careful, painstaking, detail-oriented research) they didn’t go, “OH OH, here, let us correct it so you don’t bust us!” You know why they don’t? Because they are all in it together, in a mutual protection pact.
A girl in Florida was molested by her father and he got a custody order with very little effort, so her older sister, who had been molested by the same guy (who was her stepfather) took her little sister, pretended it was her daughter, and fled to Canada, where she got a job as a live-in nanny, room and board for her, her sister, and a small salary. She was busted after about two years and they took her sister away, but put her in Canadian foster care pending court proceedings. Since she had taken her sister to a psychologist during that period, and the psychologist put in a report to the Canadian child protection authorities to try to protect the little sister, there was the possibility that Canada would protect the child. The Canadian social worker in charge of the case, however, was 6 months close to retirement, and she was called in by her supervisor and told that if she testified about the case, she would lose her pension! She later admitted that the reason this happened was that she had previously gone along with some kind of deal she knew was illegal, to allow some folks to adopt a child without proper investigations. When she had done it, although she knew it was not legal, she did not believe it was BAD for the child or for the parents, but it was still a liability for her. So she said that her supervisor advised her that the judge who had called from Mississippi had told her that WHATEVER SHE NEEDED TO DO, she should do it, and she apparently added the phrase, “because nobody is without sin.” (The Mississippi Judge who ran that case into the ground was not only corrupt, he was a BIG PILLAR of the biggest and richest church in town and he could quote the Bible with the best of them.)
The social worker could not afford to lose her pension.
So the kid grew up with Dad. Learned a lot from him, too.
Corey will NEVER hang her head in shame.
POWER CONCEDES NOTHING.
What she did with the Zimmerman case, however, was dictated by her realization that she could make her career better by charging him rather than by trying to come up with excuses. I’m not thinking this is all about morals; this is about politics.
What Zimmerman DID, however, was both wrong, illegal and immoral, so I’m OK with his being charged no matter who did it and no matter what wrongs they have committed in the past, too.
The fact that Corey was chosen for the special prosecutor’s job in this case was an indication that she was the one chosen by the Gov to do what needed to be done. Part of her job may be to cut a deal with the feds so Wolfinger can get out relatively unscathed. We shall see. I put nothing past any of them.
What was done to Marissa Alexander is exactly the reason that I say we do not need new laws. THE LAWS WE HAVE are being applied by corrupt courts, disgraceful prosecutors, cover-up thugs of all denominations, and such a collection of psychopaths that it turns my stomach. New laws do not change that because the new laws are applied by the same rogue’s gallery and they are the ones
they are the ones
They are the ONES
with the big guns.
This current Zimmerman prosecutor also prosecuted this case, wow, she should hang her head in shame. I think it is a huge conflict for her- look who gets to claim SYG, not a black women defending her children, but a son of a magistrate who killed a black teen does:
Marissa Alexander, the 31-year-old mother of three, denied a “Stand Your Ground” defense against her abusive husband, faces a 20-year prison sentence on Friday.
Her ex-husband and father to two of her children, Lincoln Alexander, arranged a phone interview with her from jail on Monday evening. Earlier that evening, State Attorney Angela Corey contacted Loop 21 to dispute a “misleading” story she said Marissa, her family and her attorney have given to the media.
Marissa sticks by the details of her story; that in 2010, she fired a gun to prevent a fight between herself and her estranged current husband, Rico Gray. She responded to Corey’s statements to Loop 21, talks about the “Stand Your Ground” law and pledges to continue fighting for her children.
Marissa and her family say they are preparing for an appeals process.
http://loop21.com/life/marissa-alexander-talks-angela-corey-her-case-and-her-kids
@Malisha, you go girl! Let’em know we’re on to their criminal selves!
Thank you Malisha!
A little bit about diversion programs that people get put into rather than doing jail or prison time: they are big business.
In Harford County, MD, some judges have set up diversion programs for people to go to the state mental hospital for 6 months at a pop and Medicaid pays for it. The hospital was going under until this arrangement began to perk up their business.
In the same county, back in the late 1980s or early 1990s, a toxicologist working for the federal government was charged with child sexual abuse and child abuse and assault and battery for beating up his 11-year-old step-daughter to convince her not to “tell” anyone what he had done. When he was convicted he elocuted to what he had done: taken her to the garage, undressed her, sexually assaulted her, and “licked her all over” with his tongue, BEFORE the beating. His sentence was therapy AND he had to pay for the victim’s therapy as well. He went to 3 sessions (the plea deal was 2 years for him and as long as it took for the victim) and then his lawyer made a motion for him to be relieved of the rest of the therapy because, she said he had finally “cried” in therapy, The judge let him off the rest of HIS sentence. Two weeks later he made a motion to be free of his need to pay for the step-daughter’s therapy because if HE was cured in three weeks, why should the GIRL keep going to all that expensive therapy? And during this time, he was petitioning for custody of his daughter, 7 years younger than the step-daughter, and he got an order from the judge that said the 11-year-old was not permitted to talk to her younger sister about what their common father/step-father had done.
So much for diversion programs.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky gave asylum to the little four-year-old, based on emergency circumstances, so she wouldn’t have to visit Daddy Dearest after he was cured of pedophilia by having cried in therapy,
Who knows what Zimmerman’s program was like. Maybe he learned to yell “Help Help” whenever he was stressed.
Anon, that’s fair, I agree with you it is “THE STATE” and it is called THE PEOPLE. I agree.
The distinction, however, is that it is not MARTIN v. Zimmerman.
The people elect their prosecutor; the prosecutor represents the state and he is a state officer. We are all, sadly, aware that most prosecutors do not give a half a damn about THE PEOPLE, so your point is well taken, at least with me. (Actually, it should read “People of the State of Florida versus…”)
In the mid-90s there was a prosecutor in Rockland County, NY by the name of Kenneth Gribetz. He prosecuted people who got in his way; if someone committed a crime, however, he was only interested if it actually interested him. You can guess.
We collected a ton of data on what he had done — real crimes, many of them very clear criminal violations of the civil rights of the PEOPLE of the county. Nobody cared. Then all of a sudden he was indicted for running a mobbed-up gambling operation. (That’s not all he ran.) He did a plea deal with the feds — he would plead guilty and instead of being sentenced, he would go to Israel and never come back. He’s back. Some lawyers probably got his whole thing undone; it was probably only cosmetic, to get the folks off his back, to let the statute on 100 other crimes run out, etc., and to protect others who had protected him.
Not only is he back, but he’s back THERE, in Rockland County NY, and I understand he is practicing LAW again.
See, that’s only part of the problem.
The same feds (different office of course) who prosecuted Gribetz are the feds looking into what Wolfinger did in the Zimmerman case.
More it changes, more it’s the same thing.
“It is the PEOPLE versus ….”
I don’t know the origin of the phrase “People versus…” and I would be interested. Professor Turley? Nal?
Anyway, I find it a terribly arrogant, bullshit, biased, craptastic, completely fucked up phrase that turns the Constitution on its head.
The People? THAT’S THE FUCKING JURY.
The People is not the Prosecutor representing the State with all the guns and subpoena power and all the abuses that come with that. That’s the State.
Truth in advertising would call these cases, “The State Versus”.
Calling it “the People” is a euphemism that whitewashes the truth.
I’ve walked into a courtroom twice whose docket carried an entry “People versus Anon” and in both cases, it was shocking to consider that according to simple linguistics, at that moment, that day, I was considered an enemy of the People and I had to defeat the People.
It’s bullshit.
It’s the People versus the State and it always has been.
Shano, Tony C, Leander (plenty of others): Your contributions to this discussion have affected me deeply and given me not only a great deal of intellectual “property” but also views of worlds in which valuable ideas can live and grow and even create good things. The way this case has actually DECREASED the universe for me has been ameliorated by the way your comments on this case have INCREASED the universe for me.
Bosco, I’m not ignoring you; I’m refusing to accept you as an authority on anything. In fact, your self-proclaimed stance of not being pro-Zimmerman but simply being “pro Justice” rings false to me. OK? I do not believe you, see? And I am not, as Tony C says, “on Trayvon Martin’s side,” but I am on the side of THE PEOPLE. This case is not “Martin versus Zimmerman.” It is the PEOPLE versus Zimmerman.
Could ANYTHING that comes out at trial change my mind about Zimmerman’s accountability for the unnecessary death of Trayvon Martin? I think only ONE thing. That is:
IF the defense proved that the tape of the call from Zimmerman to the police at about 7 pm on 2/26/2012 was faked or forged, and that it was Trayvon MARTIN’S GUN that shot the bullet(s) that killed him, then I would say,
“WOW, that whole story about Zimmerman spotting and following Martin was a fake? WOW, that DOES change things. Zimmerman probably IS innocent!”
Short of that, Bosco, the combination of (a) the call and (b) the gun mean, to me, that there is no set of facts that could make me see the killing as an act of self-defense.
On that point my mind is made up. If you think that’s unfair, so be it.
@Bosco: I am VERY one-sided. I am a scientist, an atheist, a civil rights advocate, a progressive, opposed to free market ideology, pro-choice, pro-collective action, pro-equality for women, for gays, for all races, and all because the only side I stand on is that of logic, reality and fairness.
I am not on Travyvon’s side because he is a minority or teen, I have read of teens (black and white) that I believe deserve life imprisonment. I am on his side because my best estimate of reality is that Zimmerman was the aggresor and murdered Trayvon Martin, who had done nothing wrong to attract Zimmerman’s attention, and was acting in self-defense in response to George Zimmerman.
You are welcome to wait for “all” the facts, I consider the probability that NEW facts will do anything to exonerate Zimmerman so remote that they do not change my beliefs at all. To me it makes no difference whatsoever what Trayvon Martin did or did not do to Zimmerman once Zimmerman exited his car, because Trayvon Martin was acting in self-defense and in accordance with the Stand Your Ground law.
Malisha, I will say this to your response. You will, of course, ignore my factual points (and questions) as you have been doing.
Due to our countries past regarding this sort of issue, I WILL NOT come to any conclusion on a public forum or in my mind until we get all the evidence , DETAILS and the facts to this case.
I’m neither pro or con Zimmerman.
I’m neither pro or con Martin.
I am pro JUSTICE FOR ALL.
I am against any RUSH TO JUDGEMENT because of what has happened not that long ago in America a FEW TIMES.
1)Is it helpful to know Zimmerman’s background? yes
2)Would it be helpful to know Martins background? yes
Some here who have already decided that Zimmerman is a cold blooded murderer would also agree with #1 and be in total disagreement with #2.
I posted (not printed) Tony C’s words to show that he has unfairly come to a conclusion. IF there is a trial and IF HYPOTHETICALLY there is undeniable factual proof and evidence that exonerates Zimmerman of murder ( NOT SAYING THAT I THINK THAT)
Do you think someone like Tony would admit he was wrong for rushing to judgement?
I doubt it.
His character here shows that,,,yours too Malicious .
Malisha, great posts! really, everyone has posted very interesting information and opinions……