Soap opera not over: Case of Shellie Zimmerman's shattered iPad ongoing
Photos for Headline Surfer / Georege Zimmerman still has an open case pending against him with Lake Mary police abd that's an alleged incident Sept. 9, in which his estranged wife, Shellie, claims he shattered her iPad while she an her father were moving items from the home the Zimmermans were living in owned by her parents. George Zimmerman was taken into custody that day as shown here, but he was not arrested.LAKE MARY -- The lead defense counsel for George Zimmerman, who was acquitted at trial of second-degree murder in the gunshot slaying of Trayvon Martin in neighboring Sanford, was willing to write out a check to cover $4,400 worth of items his client's estranged wife and her parents claimed were stolen from the home the couple lived in, but Lake Mary cops declined.
That's because police opted not to file charges against him on Wednesday, despite the generous offer made by George O'Mara.
Why?
"It's a civil dispute," Lake Mary police spokesman officer Zach Hudson explained.
"It's a civil dispute," Lake Mary police spokesman officer Zach Hudson explained.
The soap opera case of the Zimmerman heated up weeks after he was acquitted July 13 at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford of the main charge of second-degree murder and the lesser-included manslaughter in the February 2012 slaying of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Among the items claimed in a police report filed in September by George Zimmerman's mother-in-law, Machelle Dean, were an antique chair that belonged to estrange wife Shellie Zimmerman's grandmother, a king-sized bed and several other pierces of leather furniture valued at $3,000.
The items were allegedly removed from a rental home in Lake Mary owned by Zimmerman's in-laws where he and Shellie had shared during the trial and shortly thereafter.
Zimmerman's mother-in-law also claimed in the report that he had defaced the kitchen cabinets by writing on them. But the case went nowhere, however, principally because Lake Mary cops had no eyewitnesses to the thefts, and even one of the missing items allegedly stolen by Zimmerman -- a big screen TV -- turned up in the in-laws' own home. Plus Zimmerman refused to talk to Lake Mary police investigators, instead deferring questions to his trial lawyer, O'Mara.
Zimmerman's mother-in-law also claimed in the report that he had defaced the kitchen cabinets by writing on them. But the case went nowhere, however, principally because Lake Mary cops had no eyewitnesses to the thefts, and even one of the missing items allegedly stolen by Zimmerman -- a big screen TV -- turned up in the in-laws' own home. Plus Zimmerman refused to talk to Lake Mary police investigators, instead deferring questions to his trial lawyer, O'Mara.
The high-profile lawyer offered to write a check to cover all of the missing items, according to a police report supplement, on the basis his "client did not need the extra attention." But Because the cops had no case against Zimmerman, he couldn't be forced to pay either directly or indirectly through O'Mara, police said.
Shellie Zimmerman is shown at a press conference in Lake Mary with her attorney after her estranged husband was taken into cutody by the cops for allergedly smsshing her iPad earlier in the day. George Zimmerman has not beenm charged, though police are still trying to pirce together the electronic gadget to retrieve a video Shellie Zimmerman claims she shot that shows he was overly aggressive with her.
Shellie Zimmerman filed for divorce against George Zimmerman on Aug. 13. Then on Sept. 9, the two were involved in a domestic situation while she was trying to move items out of the same Lake Mary residence, during which she called 9-1-1, alleging he had threatened her and her father and smashed her iPad while she was filming him before he left.
George Zimmerman was not arrested after police caught up with him a short while later, forcing him at gunpoint to lay down on the roadway while they cuffed him and brought him in for questioning.
Lake Mary cops have not commented as to progress, if any, in trying to piece together the iPad to extrapolate the video, to determine if Shellie Zimmerman's claims hold up.