The wife of Trayvon Martin’s shooter Shellie Zimmerman, 25, was charged with perjury Tuesday, accused of lying when she told a judge that the couple had limited funds during a hearing that resulted in her husband being released on $150,000 bond.
Shellie Zimmerman has been released on bond for a third-degree felony charge which could carry a sentence of up to five years in prison and and up to $5,000 in fines. George Zimmerman had been released on $150,000 bond due to misleading testimony by George and his wife.
Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s attorney, said the couple had been confused and fearful when they misled court regarding their finances.
Just four days after Zimmerman bonded himself out, his wife transferred about $85,500 from her account into his. Zimmerman had also instructed his wife to pay off all of their bills from jail prior to his release.
A state attorney investigator met with credit union officials and learned that she had control of transfers to and from her husband’s account.
Jeffrey Neiman, a former prosecutor spoke regarding these transactions and possible laws that may have been broken “cash transactions in excess of $10,000 usually trigger a reporting requirement by the bank to multiple government agencies – including the IRS.”
If Mrs. Zimmerman intentionally structured the financial transactions in a manner to keep the offense under $10,000, not only may she have committed perjury in the state case, but she also may have run afoul of several federal statutes and could face serious federal criminal charges,” Neiman wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
During the bond hearing, Shellie Zimmerman testified that they had limited funds for bail as she was a student he wasn’t working. Prosecutors say they actually had then already raised $135,000 in donations from a website George Zimmerman created.
Zimmerman was ordered by the court to return to jail where he has been since turning himself in on June 3. He didn’t perjure himself, but Lester said he knew his wife was lying. “Does your client get to sit there like a potted plant and lead the court down the primrose path? That’s the issue,” Lester said in revoking Zimmerman’s bond. “He can’t sit back and obtain the benefit of a lower bond based upon those material falsehoods.”
Zimmerman will have another bond hearing on June 29.
De la Rionda presented to the judge during the revocation hearing a partial transcript of telephone conversations Zimmerman had with his wife from jail, days before the original bond hearing.
In the arrest affidavit, they also spoke about small amounts when really, prosecutors said, they were referring in code to thousands of dollars that Shellie Zimmerman withdrew from her account to pay the bail bondsman.
