Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara states that George Zimmermans’ apology was ill-timed?
Neighborhood watch shooter released from Fla. jail=*GEORGE ZIMMERMAN
NOTE TO MEDIA: LET’S CALL GEORGE ZIMMERMAN BY HIS NAME. Neighborhood watch my ASS…
Speaking Monday on “CBS This Morning,” Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, said Zimmerman would not have apologized to the Martin family during Friday’s bond hearing if O’Mara had known the family felt it was the wrong time.
Zimmerman’s bond hearing Friday took a surprising turn when he took the witness stand and apologized to the slain teen’s family for the loss of their son. But an attorney for Martin’s family spurned the apology.
O’Mara told the network Monday that if he’d known the family felt the timing of the apology was wrong, it wouldn’t have happened. O’Mara said Zimmerman simply wanted to reach out to the family.
We’re watching you Mark O’Mara. You know DAMNED well that apology was STAGE!
Is George Zimmerman safe out of jail until his murder trial?
Bill Lee Police chief not allowed to resign- Sanford City Manager Norton Bonaparte on The Last Word
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-last-word/47152312/#47152312
TRANSCRIPT – L.O. & Bonaparte
all those in favor to deny signify by saying aye. opposed?
>> aye.
>> approved to deny the memorandum at this time.
>> in a shocking 3-2 vote today, the sanfordcity commission rejected the resignation of sanfordpolice chiefbill lee . city manager nortonbonaparte jr. and chief lee had reached a separation agreement, but needed the city commission ‘s approval. just one month ago, that same sanfordcity commission passed a vote of no confidence in that same police chief , bill lee , a 3-2 vote. lee temporarily stepped down the next day, citing these concerns.
>> i do this in the hopes of restoring some semblance of calm to the city, which has been in turmoil for several weeks.
>> captain darren scott will remain as acting police chief . george zimmerman was released on $150,000 bond just after midnight today. that’s early this morning. he is now fitted with an electronic monitoring device. zimmerman is due back in court may 8th for his arraignment. joining me now is nortonbonaparte jr., city manager of sanford , florida . mr. bonaparte , could you take us through the steps of what happened today? you had reached an agreement of resignation with the police chief and then what did the city commission do?
>> yes, the chief and i had come to an agreement, but that agreement needed to have the city commission approval. while the chief serves at the pleasure of the city manager, the terms of the agreement would require the city to put out additional funds and additional resources that were not in his original contract, which therefore it was important to get the commission approval of that. what the commission decided to do was not approve the resignation.
>> so i guess what with i’m hearing is that there was some sort of severance package in this agreement that you had with the police chief ?
>> that is correct, and that’s what was required to have the city commission approval.
>> how much money was that?
>> it was about $54,000, all told. so how do we interpret this vote? was it a vote against $54,000? was it suddenly a vote of confidence in a police chief where this same police commission voted no confidence?
>> i think it was neither. what i heard at the meeting was some members of the commission wanting to go through the process and see what with an independent investigation would show. did the chief do something wrong? did he not do things he should have done? that’s something that we’ve been asking for for some time. i came to the realization that with the ongoing criminal investigation , it was going to be difficult for a criminal — for the city to get answers to those questions, because of the evidence. the evidence is still going to be tied up until the trial. and therefore win thought working with the chief, we could move forward by having this separation agreement.
>> and so is the chief currently being paid his full salary?
>> yes, he is. he’s on paid administrative leave.
>> so that’s the most expensive possible outcome here, that you end up paying this chief for a couple of years during this criminal process that’s going on in the zimmerman case.
>> that’s the challenge. i don’t think it’s a couple of years. we should be able to have something within three or four months, but it’s a long time to keep everything on hold. and that’s why the chief made the agreement to go ahead and to separate.
>> and what happened to fiscal responsibility in this city commissioner? it seems to me just in a fiscal matter that you arrived at what is probably the best can dollar and cents outcome for this city?
>> the city commission spoke. they were willing to wait for the results of an investigation. we’ll move forward, we’re getting an investigation done.
>> is it conceivable to you that chief bill lee could ever function credibly as the chief of police in sanford again?
>> i think with the city commission saying that they had a vote of no confidence of 3-2, that that would be the challenge. that was part of the decision of me talking with the chief and saying, it’s time to move on. if the commission wants to change that wing that’s a different outcome.
>> on the 3-2 vote today, was one of those votes someone who voted no confidence in the chief?
>> yes. that was the mayor triplet.
>> nortonbonaparte , another amazingly strange day in the functioning of your city. thank you very much for joining us tonight.
>> thank you.
>> joining me now is charles m. blow, opinion writer for “the new york times.” charles , this is as strange as it gets in that town, politically. i just can’t fathom this thing.
>> you say strange, i say this is a joke. i mean, this is like real city officials of sanford , florida . it’s like a sitcom or something. it would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic. you can’t say on the one hand that you vote no confidence and ask the police chief to step down and willing to pay him to step down, which i wish i had that job, where you could just not get work and get paid your full salary, and then turn around and say, we need to wait for the investigation to be completed in order to accept a resignation that will actually save the city of sanford money. those two things just don’t go together. either you should have waited for the investigation to be completed in order to vote for — take a vote of no confidence , or you had enough to believe that that police chief was not capable of doing that job, which is what they said when they voted no confidence, and be willing to say, we are willing, as a city, to move forward from this episode with a new management in charge of our police force . the fact that they are saying these two competing things is absolutely ridiculous.
>> you know, my sense of nortonbonaparte , from the first time he appeared on this program is he really is a city manager. he really is trying to manage things in a very, very difficult situation. he seems to do things patiently, carefully, but things that make sense. this outcome he was trying to achieve makes perfect sense. and then when you take it to the city commission , you find once again one of these demonstrations about what a strange townsanford can be.
>> lawrence, you’re asking for something to make sense out ofsome situation. i mean, this whole thing has never made sense. i think that’s probably the reason we’ve been talking about it for so long. the case doesn’t make sense. the behavior of the police doesn’t really make sense. the way that they treated george zimmerman , taking him into that police station , from what we saw from videotape, leaning against walls, rubbing your feet on the mat when you walk through the door, none of that makes sense. the idea that he shot and killed a 17-year-old boy who was unarmed, was wiable to talk his way out of that police precinct that night doesn’t quite make sense. i’m not sure that that police department is capable of making sense. and what happened today was that the city commission , and in particular the mayor of sanford , florida , basically became the contradiction that the police department of sanford is by voting no confidence in the beginning and then saying, i refuse to let him go, i’m not ready to do that. i’m just ready to pay him, until the trial is over or until the investigation is over. which makes no sense.
>> well, that is a perfect summary of where we stand. charles m. blow, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
>> absolutely.
Sanford Commission votes against police chief’s resignation
Move comes in wake of Trayvon Martin shooting investigation
Published On: Apr 23 2012 01:32:58 PM EDT Updated On: Apr 23 2012 05:26:34 PM EDT
SANFORD, Fla. –
The Sanford City Commission has voted to deny the resignation on Monday of Police Chief Bill Lee Jr., who temporarily stepped down from his position in connection to the Trayvon Martin shooting.
Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett called the special meeting with city commissioners Monday afternoon. Commissioners voted 3-2 against the resolution, which would have allowed City Manager Norton Bonaparte to execute the separation agreement for Lee. Under the agreement, Lee would have resigned from his post, effective at midnight.
Lee will stay on administrative leave until the outside investigation is completed, officials said. It’s not clear when that will
Two of the commissioners that voted against the agreement, Commissioner Patty Mahany and Commissioner Randy Jones, spoke highly of Lee in a heated debate.
Mahany said she wouldn’t accept the agreement because it was “hastily put together” and said she wasn’t notified of the special meeting until 11:30 a.m. Monday. Mahan said she was devastated by the treatment of Lee, calling him one of “the finest police officers” in the community.
“This is a man who is a medal of valor winner,” Mahany said. “I am physically sick over these proceedings and treatment of Chief Lee. What did the chief do wrong?”
Mahany said that both Lee and other commissioners are also enduring allegations of being racists.
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Sanford-Commission-denies-police-chief-s-resignation/-/1637132/11643760/-/gm7yuvz/-/
ONE DOWN; HOW MANY MORE TO GO?!!!
Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee to officially resign
CBS/AP) Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee will officially resign today, CBS News has learned.
Lee had temporarily left the department last month in the wake of criticism over handling of the investigation in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett has called a special meeting with city commissioners at 4 p.m., where they will vote on resignation of Chief Lee.
Lee announced on March 22 that he was temporarily stepping down from his position, after the city commissioners affirmed a “no confidence” vote, following weeks of protests over the Martin shooting.
Lee and the city prosecutor had been bitterly criticized for not making an arrest in the February 26 shooting death of the 17-year-old Martin, after a neighborhood watch volunteer confessed to the killing, in self-defense.
Lee had said evidence in the case supported George Zimmerman’s self-defense claim.
Shortly after Lee announced his departure, Gov. Rick Scott announced that the local state attorney, Norman Wolfinger, had recused himself from the case. Scott appointed Angela Corey, the state attorney for the Jacksonville area, to take over the investigation.
On April 11 Zimmerman was arrested and charged with second degree murder.
Zimmerman to be closely watched while out on bail
Judge grants $150K bail for George Zimmerman
A source within the Sanford Police Department said one of the acting chiefs may also tenure his resignation today as well.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57419136/sanford-police-chief-bill-lee-to-officially-resign/
Seriosuly don’t think the cops care about Zimmerman’s safety either.