Cash settlement for the Martin Family?

UPDATE!

Rene Stuzman of the Orlando-Sentinel is reporting today that,

That secret homeowners association settlement with Trayvon Martin’s family may not remain secret much longer.

The 12 page document was filed on April 4th, the same as the Writ by Defense so it may be part of the official record for the Appeals Court to consider if it accepts it.

After the filing the Clerk informed Crump that according to rules, it did not meet the criteria to remain sealed and that it would be released to the public in 10 days.  You can read her letter here:

Letter from Seminole County Clerk of Court

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-trayvon-hoa-settlement-not-confidential-20130408,0,5675871.story

for the rest of the story.

The Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Orlando reported on Friday, that details of a secret settlement between the Martin family and the HOA at Retreat at Twin Lakes had been 

reached. The purported settlement said to have been in excess of 1 million dollars, was reached several months ago.

The information came to light when Attorney Benjamin Crump filed some papers in court to add to the Zimmerman case. The details of the settlement and most of the details were redacted, so the details are murky. The documents were to be kept under seal but the Judge has given Crump 10 days to argue as to why, otherwise the all the documents will be released to the public.

There has been a lot of speculation as the reason for the filling since George Zimmerman was not a party to the settlement or named in the agreement. The settlement had a non-disclosure clause and this filling may breach the agreement, but it is believed that Crump wanted the settlement on the record to demonstrate that he was indeed the opposing counsel, and bolster his case for not having to submit to a deposition, after the Defense filed a Petition for Writ from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, to force Crump to testify under oath in a deposition.

Some legal analyst are seeing this filling as to late to affect the Writ, as it was not part of the record at the time the Judge had rendered her ruling baring Crump from testifying. If that is the case then Crump revealed information of the settlement needlessly, and revealed something that the family may have preferred to remain confidential.

“It is understood and agreed that the payment made herein is not to be construed as an admission of any liability by or on behalf of the releasing parties; but instead the monies being paid here under is consideration for avoiding litigation, the uncertainties stemming from litigation as well as to protect and secure the good name and good will of the released parties,” the settlement said.

The next few days will be interesting as we should hear word from the Appeals Court regarding the Writ and to see if public opinion of the Family will change after the revelation of the settlement.

The Trayvon Martin Case, Update 26: You Have Been Weighed In The Balances and Found Wanting

Thank you, Mike for your insightful look at the latest developments.

UPDATE!!!

According to papers submitted to court today, the Martin Family has reached a settlement with the HOA at Retreat Twin Lakes. The settlement said to be to north of 1 Million dollars was reached a few months ago, according to Mark O’Mara attorney for George Zimmerman.  You can read the rest here:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/05/travyon-martin-parents-settle-wrongful-death-claim/

Stately McDaniel Manor

I write this article with dread in that this scruffy little blog is in danger of becoming the “all Trayvon Martin all the time” spot on the Internet.  However, there are several new developments that are, as they say in the law, “ripe” for discussion.  In Update 24, I suggested Judge Debra Nelson was worthy of pity.  I may soon have to modify that formulation to suggest that she is, rather, pitiful.  And now, once more unto the breach, dear readers, once more.

THE DEE DEE LETTER:

Enclosed as an attachment to Deputy Special Prosecutor Bernard de la Rionda’s responseto Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara’s motion for sanctions against him(Update 25) was a letter he represented as having been written by Dee Dee, who he called “this teenager.”  This is, in itself, significant as one of the subjects of O’Mara’s motion is the fact that…

View original post 3,963 more words

Mark O’Mara and the Defense go on the Offensive

I was planning in continuing the evaluation of the Defense Team in the George Zimmerman case but, some developments have come up, we will do that in a future post.

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting Attorneys for George Zimmerman Thursday asked an appeals court to reverse the decision of a Sanford judge and allow them to make Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Trayvon Martin‘s family, answer their questions under oath.

read the rest

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-zimmerman-crump-depo-appeal-20130404,0,5726897.story

The Defense Team has decided to go on the Offensive and have filed a 43 page long with a 271 page supporting Appendix, Petition for a Writ of Certiorari from the 5th Appeals Court.  Was is does that mean, the Defense feels that Judge Nelson erred in her decision and are seeking relief from a higher Court.  As Mark O’Mara and Don West said:

“A civil lawyer with a vested interest in the outcome of the case should not be allowed to keep evidence from law enforcement; potentially influence significant witnesses; speak on national television about evidence he claims to exist and witnesses he has spoken with; accuse several law enforcement agencies of dishonesty; otherwise play a central role in the media persecution … yet claim he is not subject to a deposition regarding non-privileged matters,”

Petition is here; http://www.gzdocs.com/documents/0413/petition.pdf

Appendix;http://www.gzdocs.com/documents/0413/appendix.pdf

Certiorari is a Latin word meaning “to be informed of, or to be made certain in regard to, this is in regards to the Defense’s attempts to depose the attorney for the Martin family Benjamin Crump.  Mr. Crump who was first made a witness by the Judge, and ordered to be deposed regarding the circumstances surrounding Witness 8,  sought an attorney and on the day of his deposition filed for an order of protection, to keep him from having to submit to a deposition.

Mr. Crump through his attorney, Bruce Blackwell submitted a 15 page sworn Affidavit that he hoped would serve as a substitute to a deposition.  The Judge accepted this and blocked the deposition, by telling the Defense to file a Motion if they wanted to depose Mr. Crump who she declared “opposing counsel of sorts”, due to the family having hired Mr. Crump to seek and pursue a lawsuit against Mr. Zimmerman.

The Defense then filed a Motion for Reconsideration as instructed by the Judge.  The Motion was denied, without any oral arguments or written explanation.  That brings us to the present and the Defense with this Petition are hoping that the 5th Circuit of Appeals will finally grant the opportunity to depose Mr. Crump about Witness 8 and other claims that he has made on several TV and personal appearances.  As Jeralyn Merritt from the Talkleft Blog and renown attorney said:

 Crump has been burning both ends of the candle for far too long. It’s time for the court to snuff out the flame on one end. If he wants to play investigator, share his results with the public, and make grand public announcements that state officers and officials have lied, and George Zimmerman is guilty of cold-blooded murder, he shouldn’t be allowed to play hide and go seek when asked to provide information as to the reliability of his claims. He made the decision to go public with his dubious claims, which were relied on by the state in filing charges against Zimmerman. He filed an affidavit, parts of which are either mistakenly or intentionally inaccurate. Whatever privilege he might have had as to Witness 8 by virtue of his representing the Martin family had he not gone public, should be deemed waived. He has made himself a witness, and neither the attorney-client nor work-product privilege should protect him.

You can read the rest of her breakdown of the Petition at here

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2013/4/4/20850/61773/crimenews/Zimmerman-Files-Appeal-Over-Benjamin-Crump-s-Deposition

Jeralyn and other legal experts have opined that Judge Nelson had erred in blocking the deposition of Crump, on the waiver issue alone.  As Mr. Crump who was not representing Witness 8, so no privilege afforded there, could only claim “attorney work product” privilege from his representation of the Martin family, but he waived those privileges, by allowing a crew from ABC to be present and divulging the contents in the many TV appearances he made.

There are a couple of nuggets already gleamed from the Petition, one is that unlike prior testimony from the parents and Crump, the Petition claims it was Crump who was the first one with substantial talks with Witness 8.

On the Petition is also revelation that ABC News and Matt Gutman, had a 25 minute tape of the interview of Mr. Crump and Witness 8, but they have since destroyed all but the 5 minute segment that was posted on the ABC website on Feb. 28th, 2013.  This 5 minute bit is also curiously missing from the recordings that Mr. Crump turned in the FBI in March of last year. No indication was made as to when this occurred, though it seems like something that was unlikely to happened, as that tape could have become evidence and are proof of an ongoing exclusive in the case.

BDLR also responded to the second Motion requesting sanctions against the State. This one stemmed from the interference of State in allowing the video deposition of Witness 8.  Unlike his previous answer which was insulting, full of wrath and very unprofessional, this one was tame.  The excuses given are lacking in law, for instance BDLR claims he never notice that the 2 notice sent by the Defense, both made it clear that they were going to videotape the proceedings, in accordance with Florida law. The claim that the Witness was scared or that the Defense had not done a prior video deposition should prove insufficient enough that MOM, West should prevail in this case.

Another day full of excitement in this case and we are still 2 months to go before trial start.   We shall see what the response from both the State and Crump’s Attorney will be in the next few days, I will be here to recap.  In the meantime got get the Popcorn.

Evaluating George Zimmerman’s Defense Team

The trail of George Zimmerman is set for the 10th day of June, which is a little over 2 months from today, we are going to do an evaluation of the Defense Team.  I will start from the day Mark O’Mara was hired to the last Motions that have been filed.  My criteria will be:

• On Motions- successful, failure, any attached decision
• Hearings-Pleadings successful
• Preparation
• Effectiveness
• Public Relations

As you can see these categories are not necessarily objective, I will attempt to be as objective as possible.  Now IANAL so, some ratings will be the consensus of others who are lawyers mixed with mine own opinions and understandings.

Disclosure, I am unabashedly supporting GZ, but I will attempt to tamper any preferences that I may have to present as clear a picture as I can. I have no special access to any insider information, all will be derived from information readily available on the net, and any files that I have save for reference, all publicly accessible information.

On Sunday, the 26th day of February, 28-year-old George Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.  Zimmerman who was on his way to Target for some shopping observed Martin, who was walking in the rain in the dark and appeared suspicious to Zimmerman.  Zimmerman called the non-emergency number for the Sanford, Fl Police Department to report Mr. Martin.  The events that followed are in dispute and it is not the purpose of the post, I will skip them, until after the shooting.

Zimmerman was detained taken to the SPD and questioned for several hours, he maintained that he was acting in self-defense as Mr. Martin had attacked Zimmerman forcing him to shoot in self-defense, only one shoot was fired but it pierced Mr. Martin hearts causing his death. After questioning based on his statement and those of the witness, Zimmerman was released.  The police determined that there was not enough evidence to warrant charges.  Zimmerman was released as the investigation continued.

Filed Motions

Most motions, filed on behalf of the Defense are common, routine,  procedural motions  so I am not going to consider those in this evaluation.  I will focus instead on those motions that I feel, are most likely to affect the case and/or George Zimmerman.  For instance, Motion to set Bond is a routine Motion but it affects the client, directly and immediately.  I will list the Motion and then describe it briefly and its outcome.

v  DEFENDANT’S  VERIFIED MOTION TO DISQUALIFY JUDGE

• This was the Defense’s first major motion to disqualify the first Judge assigned to the case Judge Recksiedler due to her marriage to Attorney Mark Nejame  who GZ used to find his attorney

The Judge agreed to recuse herself,  and Judge Kenneth Lester was appointed as a replacement.

v  MOTION TO SET REASONABLE BOND

• A Hearing was schedule for April 20^th
  • In the Hearing the Defense got the Prosecution to admit to not having any evidence that contradicted Zimmerman’s statement to the police
  • The Lead Investigator for the Prosecution also admitted to being unable to determine who was the initial aggressor
  • Judge allowed Zimmerman to make a statement from the stand and not be subject to intense cross-examination
  • Robert Zimmerman Sr.  testified briefly, that the screams were those of his son
  • Shellie Zimmerman, Zimmerman’s wife testified about the couples finances
    • This testimony resulted in charges of perjury for Shellie, revocation of bond, stricter rules and new bond set for $1,000,000,000

Judge granted bond in the amount of $150,000 for Zimmerman and allowed him to leave the county due to threats against him

v  MOTION TO BLOCK RELEASE OF PHONE CALLS, WITNESS 9 INFORMATION

• This was one of several Motions that were part on the June 29^th hearing
  • Several news outlets argued  against the Defense, arguing for a release of the information
  • The State’s position was ambivalent on the Motions just arguing, the discovery possible relevancy
  • The Defense try to block at least the calls not transcribe yet by the State, arguing the privacy issue of other parties involves and the irrelevancy of some of the calls
  • Regarding Witness 9 the Defense argued that  any information gather  from her was far out-weighed by the prejudicial content of her testimony
  • He also argued that they information was irrelevant, just incendiary

The Defense lost the Motion, as a result, allegations that GZ and a cousin had play “doctor” when they were 8 and 6, were released.  Roughly 150+ jailhouse calls were released to the public, they portrayed Zimmerman as caring, loving, very much in love with his wife young man. There were calls were GZ and his wife are discussing money received in his PayPal account and using a rudimentary code were directing the movement of the money. This combined with prior testimony resulted in Shellie Zimmerman get charge with perjury.

v  SECOND MOTION TO GRANT BAIL

• The original bond revoked due to the total dollar amount of donations, in his PayPal account and the attempt  to hide the totals of the donations by moving them to between several accounts.
  • The Defense presented evidence from a forensic account that tracked the funds from the PayPal donations. Charted and tracked how much was spent of the funds.
  • One of the EMT’s came and testified about what he saw and the condition of Zimmerman, his injuries and the amount of blood.
  • The Defense provided evidence to refute the Judge earlier claim that the prosecution’s case was strong.

The Judge granted bail in the amount of $1 million dollars, he also changed the terms.  Imposing harsh conditions and verbally accusing Zimmerman of flouting the law and abusing the system.  The Judge declared Zimmerman a flight risk and imposed a 6 pm to 6 am curfew, and that GZ could not approach the Orlando airport.

v MOTION TO RECONSIDER THE ORDER RELEASING JAIL CALLS AND W 9                           INFORMATION

• The defense tried again to block the release of the all the jailhouse calls and the incendiary testimony of Witness 9, as irrelevant and prejudicial

The Judge was not convinced and ordered their release

 

I will continue dissecting the Defense’s Job as soon as the site for the 18th district is up and running,  it is offline.

part II coming soon,

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