Just when you thought it was safe to go into the OT... a Zimmerman thread surfaces

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**Ouze**

Lake Mary police: We don't have enough evidence to prosecute George Zimmerman

By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel
5:50 p.m. EST, November 14, 2013

Lake Mary police on Thursday announced that they could not salvage video from an iPad George Zimmerman tore up during a dispute with his estranged wife and thus he will face no domestic violence charges.

Zimmerman, 30, is the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer acquitted in July of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, whom he shot in Sanford last year. That verdict set off protest marches across the country.

Zimmerman, his estranged wife, Shellie, and her father, David Dean, got into an altercation Sept. 9, at the home the couple formerly shared on Sprucewood Court in Lake Mary.

Shellie Zimmerman and her father were moving out belongings when George Zimmerman showed up with what her attorney described as "a 400-pound" body guard and a blonde.

Shellie called 911, reporting that Zimmerman had threatened them with a gun. There was a scuffle in the garage, and Dean wound up with a punch to the nose.

Police found no gun on Zimmerman, and the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer accused his estranged wife of hitting him with her iPad.

The couple was arguing about how to divide up "pots and pans," said Zimmerman attorney Mark O'Mara.

Police handcuffed Zimmerman for a brief time that afternoon but released him after Shellie and her father said they did not want to prosecute.

Police on Thursday released their final 30-page report on what happened. It says they do not have enough evidence to prosecute Zimmerman on a charge of domestic violence.

Shellie Zimmerman had video-recorded the altercation with her iPad, but George Zimmerman pried it open, tore it apart and threw it on the ground, something captured on a security camera at the house.

Police sent the parts to a computer expert with the U.S. Secret Service in Tulsa, Okla., hoping he'd be able to recover video, but the report released today makes clear that the damage was too extensive.

"The circuit board was broken into two pieces," according to the police report. Also, one chip was missing, and the board with the microprocessor was bent and connections had been detached.

"No further examination is possible at this lab due to the severely damaged components," wrote Jonathan S. Jacobs, the Secret Service agent who examined the iPad.

Shellie Zimmerman's attorney, Kelly Sims, called the outcome "a shame. … I don't know this science very well. I was hoping smarter people than me could locate it. .. I was hopeful."

Police sent their report to the State Attorney's Office in Sanford Wednesday, and that agency at about 2 p.m. advised that there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

Shellie Zimmerman filed for divorce Sept. 4, three weeks after the couple separated and about seven weeks after his acquittal.

So, looks like he's off the hook.

**Relapse**

BINGO!

**LordofHats**

Wait it took them a month to look at the iPad and say "we got nothing?" Damn talk about taking their time with that one XD

**Gentleman_Jellyfish**

Remember this system is designed on the presumption that you're innocent. I feel that these kind of occurrences are a necessary evil of that.

**Seaward**

If Obama had an iPad, it would've looked like that one.

**SnowMongoose**

One of these times he's not going to luck out.

**Jihadin**

I can see people clinging to that "He's guilty regardless"

**Seaward**

The dude's clearly a criminal mastermind. He knows exactly how to commit any crime he likes and leave no prosecution-worthy evidence of it.

**Ouze**

LordofHats wrote:
Wait it took them a month to look at the iPad and say "we got nothing?" Damn talk about taking their time with that one XD

Well, they didn't look at it at all. As a small town presumably they have limited or nonexistent data forensics and recovery abilities; which is presumably why they farmed it out to the Secret Service to look at. I know they assist with similar jobs for at least one local police department here. And, they handled it in the priority they had with other jobs in the queue. For the one case I was privy to, they didn't get to the data for about 9 months, so take that as you will.

**Jihadin**

I for one support Zimmermann in charge of DHS. Counter balance to Holder in the DoJ

**LordofHats**

Ouze wrote:
LordofHats wrote:
Wait it took them a month to look at the iPad and say "we got nothing?" Damn talk about taking their time with that one XD

Well, they didn't look at it at all. As a small town presumably they have limited or nonexistent data forensics and recovery abilities; which is presumably why they farmed it out to the Secret Service to look at. I know they assist with similar jobs for at least one local police department here. And, they handled it in the priority they had with other jobs in the queue. For the one case I was privy to, they didn't get to the data for about 9 months, so take that as you will.

Okay that makes sense

I saw this thread and my first thought was "this happens ages ago."

**djones520**

They don't have enough evidence to prosecute.

So isn't this the time when the DOJ steps in and orders them to prosecute, despite having nothing?

**master of ordinance**

And so he surfaces again. Will the OT forum ever be safe from the wrath of the Zimmerman threads?

**Ensis Ferrae**

Gentleman_Jellyfish wrote:
Remember this system is designed on the presumption that you're innocent. I feel that these kind of occurrences are a necessary evil of that.

And yet, they were trying to go on the assumption that it was HIM who was guilty of something? From the apparent statements made by people involved, it could very well have been the crazy wife who should have been charged with domestic... But, I guess in Florida thatll never happen

**Kanluwen**

Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Gentleman_Jellyfish wrote:
Remember this system is designed on the presumption that you're innocent. I feel that these kind of occurrences are a necessary evil of that.

And yet, they were trying to go on the assumption that it was HIM who was guilty of something? From the apparent statements made by people involved, it could very well have been the crazy wife who should have been charged with domestic... But, I guess in Florida thatll never happen

It's not exclusive to Florida for domestic abuse cases to assume the husband is the guilty one.

**Frazzled**

This guy so needs to emigrate to Canada and disappear forever.

**Dreadclaw69**

Seaward wrote:
If Obama had an iPad, it would've looked like that one.

Thank you, I almost spat out my coffee

**Grey Templar**

If the Ipad hadn't put itself in this situation it wouldn't have gotten destroyed. Stupid Ipad!

**hotsauceman1**

Why do people keep hanging on this guy? The prosecution failed, let it the hell go.

**-Shrike-**

At this point, it's quite clear how desperate people are to prosecute him. It's quite sad, really.

**Kovnik Obama**

Frazzled wrote:
This guy so needs to emigrate to Canada and disappear forever.

Please do not dump your prosecution-proof criminal masterminds into our hands. We're likely to make them mayors.

**Dreadclaw69**

-Shrike- wrote:
At this point, it's quite clear how desperate people are to prosecute him. It's quite sad, really.

I'm still surprised that the Florida DA didn't attempt to charge him with littering because of the shell casings on the ground from the Trayvon incident

**Alfndrate**

Kovnik Obama wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
This guy so needs to emigrate to Canada and disappear forever.

Please do not dump your prosecution-proof criminal masterminds into our hands. We're likely to make them mayors.

Please, I doubt this guy would know his way around a crack pipe.

**djones520**

http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmermans-girlfriend-drop-charges/story?id=21153527

Girlfriend wants the charged dropped. Says she was intimidated by the situation, and there was a misunderstanding in her statement. Also says he never threatened her with a gun.

**Ouze**

Pretty common for domestic situations; which is one of the reasons why it's the state vs a defendant instead of a person vs a defendant. Not that it matters, with no other witnesses or evidence he'll walk.

**Ahtman**

In a recent domestic incident here a wife shot her husband after he said he was going to start shooting cops when they came to the house*. She told him not to, and she said she would shoot him if he tried to kill other people so he handed her a gun and said 'do it' and she did. She killed herself not that long ago.

At the bottom it says he had "police found about 200 pounds of explosives, ammunition and several firearms throughout the home.", which is a bit of understatement since his firearm collection was appraised at almost a million dollars and included over 370 firearms.

*He had been showing erratic behavior and drug/alcohol issues so his wife asked the police to hold onto his weapons because she was afraid he was becoming dangerous.

**Gentleman_Jellyfish**

Kovnik Obama wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
This guy so needs to emigrate to Canada and disappear forever.

Please do not dump your prosecution-proof criminal masterminds into our hands. We're likely to make them mayors.

Is he an actual criminal yet?

**Frazzled**

Don't know if he's an actual criminal, but he's definitely achieved "stained wife beater tshirt guy on COPS" status.

**daedalus**

If someone, somewhere had been armed, this wouldn't have....

Oh, nevermind.

**-Shrike-**

Guns should replace the camera on iPads. That way this whole situation would never have happened.