Shocked, Shocked

Prosecutors managed to revoke George Zimmerman's bail today over a financial disclosure technicality. They, and Martin family attorney Ben Crump, want to jail him until an expected trial next year. From the AP:

At Friday’s court hearing, De la Rionda and O’Mara also asked a judge to stop the public release of witness names and statements made by Zimmerman to police officers. Those documents normally are part of the public record under Florida law. 

“What’s occurring, unfortunately, are cases are being tried in the public sector as opposed to in the courtroom,” De La Rionda said. “We are in a new age with Twitter, Facebook, and all these things I’ve never heard of before in my career. Everybody gets to find out intimate details about witnesses that never occurred before. Witnesses are going to be reluctant to get involved.”

Nooooooo! Prejudicial media hype and intimidation?! After the hearing the prosecutors no doubt collected their winnings updated their social media pages.

Your google hits sir...

Of course, today's hearings were largely (and maybe primarily) an operation intent on prejudicing the prosecutor's "public sector" against Zimmerman, an opportunity to get this quote in the papers:

“This court was led to believe they didn’t have a single penny,” said De la Rionda. “It was misleading and I don’t know what words to use other than it was a blatant lie.”

I am unmoved. The AP helpfully shepherds us through the narrative:

Crump was asked if he thought that if Zimmerman would be willing to lie about his finances that he would be willing to lie about what happen the night Martin was killed.   

“We fully expect that the special prosecutor will make George Zimmerman’s credibility be front and center in this entire case,” Crump said. “And whatever dishonesty that comes forth by George Zimmerman that they can prove, you can best believe it will be the issue of this case and rightfully so.”

I'm sure there's enough integrity left in the courts that Zimmerman will be allowed to post a higher bond and remain free for the time being. Perhaps this prosecutorial stunt has something to do with negotiations behind the scenes--to apply pressure or make good a threat.

The original AP story's lead has been updated (Sat 6/2) to take up the narrative assault on Zimmerman's credibility:

The credibility of Trayvon Martin’s shooter could be an issue at trial after a judge said that George Zimmerman and his wife lied to the court about their finances to obtain a bond, legal experts say.

At no point will an analysis of Zimmerman's accusers' credibility get its own news cycle, of course.