George Zimmerman got away with murdering Trayvon Martin based on dumb arguments from his attorneys like, Trayvon Martin was armed with a sidewalk and used it to attack Zimmerman. The prosecution bringing the case against Zimmerman failed to show the absurdity of that argument, and they allow the jury to walk away thinking Trayvon really had a sidewalk in his back pocket.
Zimmerman smiled when the jury came back with a not guilty verdict, and he left the courtroom a free man. But apparently not free from the bill. According to The Orlando Sentinel, the bill from Zimmerman’s lawyers has arrived, and I doubt the check will be in the mail anytime soon.
O’Mara took on the case in April 2012, saying he would represent Zimmerman at no charge. Then he discovered that Zimmerman and his family were raising funds via a website and that money was pouring in, at least initially.
Throughout the case, even after the trial, O’Mara said he and West had not been paid a dime, although they hoped to be someday.
In an interview this week, O’Mara said Zimmerman paid them “a minute amount” after the trial.
O’Mara is still hopeful, he said, that there might someday be money he and West can collect.
In truth, they have already benefited financially from Zimmerman’s legal-defense fund. Several months ago, O’Mara reported spending $52,550 on “law firm support and infrastructure.”
O’Mara and his spokesman never provided a detailed accounting as to what that included, but they said it was such things as more computers, upgraded software, new phones and improved office security.
West and O’Mara also formed a private partnership, Timber Run Enterprises LLC, and bought the building next door to O’Mara’s Concord Street office in downtown Orlando. That building, like O’Mara’s office, is a former single-family home for which the lawyers paid $270,000.
I can just hear hundreds of literary agents chomping at the bit, remembering the Juror B37 book deal that went tits up, trying to think of a way to get a Zimmerman book deal past the public. I know how those vultures think.
O’Mara said he’d take the case for free then wanted in on the donation gravy train? Didn’t the fund raising start immediately? He didn’t know they were milking the whole thing for fun and profit? Gee, hard to feel sorry for him.