George Zimmerman has no job, no home, no income but spends $100 a month on vacations and $200 a month on psychological counseling, according to a financial affidavit he recently filed in his divorce case.
Zimmerman, 30, is the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer acquitted last year of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old.
Immediately after the shooting – Feb. 26, 2012 – he quit his job and went into hiding with his wife, Shellie, but two months after his acquittal, she filed for divorce, saying he had taken to the road and would not tell her where he was and what he was doing.
As part of the divorce case, Zimmerman filed a financial affidavit last week, spelling out his income, assets and debts.
He listed his total assets at $14,000 – most of that is his 2008 Honda pickup. His debts total $2.5 million, most of that is money he owes criminal defense attorneys Mark O’Mara and Don West.
According to his paperwork, Zimmerman has no job, pays nothing for rent or a mortgage and has no health insurance.
He spends $350 a month for medical care plus $200 a month for psychological, psychiatric or mental health counseling.
He also spends $100 a month on vacations, he wrote.
Zimmerman’s legal defense fund, which raised more than $400,000, now has a balance of $300, according to the affidavit.
It is not clear what happened to any money he earned from the sale of a painting on eBay in December. The winning bid was $100,000. There is no mention of it in his affidavit.
His banking account has $650, he reported.
This makes me happy.
Mustang Bobby
Karma, thou art a heartless bitch. Bwahahaha.
Betty Cracker
$350 per month in medical care, excluding psych treatment? Here’s hoping that’s to treat a particularly nasty case of genital warts.
ronin122
Well where are the wingnuts offering him a post in their welfare circuit? I mean come on, he was the poster child for Stand Your Ground laws and making sure “dem negroes” know their place. You’d think for all their original support they’d put him on a pedestal, not just abandon his sorry ass. Not that he deserves their help, just surprised that the RW loons moved on to their next shiny.
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: He’s probably eligible for subsidized Obamacare insurance…
⚽️ Martin
I’ll be happier when he can no longer afford to buy Skittles or iced tea.
Mike in NC
$100K for some crappy painting? That’s impressive.
But Zim would probably do quite nicely appearing at Klan marches, Tea Party rallies, and gun shows as a motivational speaker.
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: Not in FL. Our stupid wingnut legislature rejected Medicaid expansion.
⚽️ Martin
@ronin122: I think they were happy to early on. The visit to the gun manufacturer seems to have been a turning point, shifting public perception over a line from ‘self defense’ to ‘ammosexual’. That and the fundraisers to buy him guns seem to have made him politically untouchable.
JoyfulA
@dmsilev: Medicaid, if FL had expanded it.
WereBear
$100 a month on vacations?!?!? What on earth does that mean?
Chris
Wingnut welfare being what it is, I doubt he’ll stay broke long.
p.a.
Maybe EricSonOfEric or Rush Blimpbaugh need a manservant. Will Zim pass the security check?
Gene108
I am assuming the money is stashed somewhere. I doubt anyone is truly honest on disclosure of assets in a divorce.
⚽️ Martin
@WereBear: Gun show passes.
another Holocene human
@⚽️ Martin: Really, I mean there was a turning point for those who had no shame gloating over the death of an innocent teenage boy?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I hope they get stiffed. I believe in a strong legal defense, but my recollection is that O’Mara blatantly played the race card in his closing statement and his statements to the press afterward.
azlib
The right wing only takes care of their own. Zimmerman was never one of them – only a useful tool.
drkrick
@Gene108:
Zimmerman has specific history about that – didn’t Shellie wind up taking a perjury rap for lying to keep him eligible for a PD. It would pretty reckless for him to take that chance again, in other words completely in character.
22over7
I’m not so sure, Gene108. Zimmerman is not one to think ahead. It’s just as likely that he’s spent it all and is living on Daddy’s checks.
kc
His attorneys charged him nearly $3 million?
Violet
I hope his wife’s attorneys do a little digging into his financial statements. He’s not that bright. Unless he’s hired some really smart people to hide his money, it’s got to be there somewhere. Unless he’s spent it already. But if so, on what? Hookers and blow?
Peter
It doesn’t make me happy. It’s not like he’s going to learn anything from his current circumstances.
Anya
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Those assholes got lots of publicity from the case. Didn’t CNN hire O’mera as a legal consultant.
Violet
Didn’t Zimmerman have some girlfriend that called the cops on him awhile ago? Maybe he gave her the money?
piratedan
i hope that unrepentant fucker has a miserable life, spent in reflection of his taking a life that had no justification other than in his own biased and disturbed psyche
Ken T
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, I do truly hope they get completely stiffed.
Aimai
Didnt he and his wife lie to the judge during the first trial about how much money he had raised with his online defense fund?
Redshift
@ronin122: I think the reality is that unless you can bring in bucks as a speaker, or you have connections as an ex-public official that can help lobbyists, wingnut welfare isn’t all its cracked up to be. Just like everything else in conservatism, they’ll claim to “support” the little guy, but in reality he’ll always get screwed.
Cckids
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: their whole defense was to sh*t all over Trayvon Martin, & completely destroy his memory. It would be justice if their firm went under, but of course it won’t.
Carrying that stupid slab of concrete into court & saying ” Trayvon was armed with this” was so stupid, but apparently effective. So infuriating.
dedc79
Man, I knew that dying could be the best thing to happen to an artist with respect to sales of their work. I didn’t know until now that killing someone else could have the same effect.
Ruckus
Let’s see, he has a history of lying about money in court, he is a cold blooded murderer (he is in my eyes), he can’t seem to inspire women to stay with him for any length of time, even the RWNJs don’t seem to want anything to do with him….
What a delightful human being he must be!
ASV
How is it possible to spend $100/month on vacations? You can probably go on something you’d call a vacation for $100, but is that something you’d want to do monthly?
WereBear
@Ruckus: Indeed. It’s not enough, but “Being Zimmerman” is a punishment in and of itself.
shelley
Gas money. According to his (ex) wife, he just takes to the road, randomly.
Violet
@shelley: Okay, but where does he sleep? In his truck? $100 a month won’t really get him much of a road trip just in gas costs alone, let alone food and accommodations.
shelley
Love that teeny-tiny violin. Would love to get that as a prize in a Cracker Jack box.
Schlemizel
I can hardly count the number of glib motherfuckers who have said “I’d rather be judged by 12 men the carried by 6!”
Those fools have no idea the forms of hell they unleash on themselves when they chose to shot another human. Its not a simple clean clean and then back to your normal life. They really need to consider that case of Mister Z because his end is more common thatn they think.
raven
Supermoon tonight.
Schlemizel
I assume the $100/month is an average. He takes 2 $600 trips a year or 1 $1200 trip. That at least would make sense
Schlemizel
@raven:
First of 3, they are not that rare but its cool we are going to get 3 of the this summer!
Rainy here may not get to see this months.
EDIT: my Native American friend tells me this June full moon was called the ‘popcorn moon’ by his nation and that some midwestern nations called it the “green corn moon”. No use to that information but I like the poetry of it.
Cckids
@Violet: maybe it’s $1200 annually, & they divided to get a monthly budget. That’s how financial planners tell you to do it.
Eta: or, what Schmeziel said
raven
@Schlemizel: I’m going out to a nice spot with my camera.
WereBear
@Schlemizel: Yes, that makes sense. Now I just wonder where he’s getting the money. No job & debt means no vacay for most folks.
NotMax
@raven
Now have a mental image of a teenaged Clark Kent getting rowdy with his high school buds in the back of a pick-up while driving down Main Street on a Saturday night in Smallville.
Steeplejack
@Violet:
It might be an average. I pay my car insurance twice a year, but if I had to make a list of monthly expenses I might put “Car insurance, x,” with x being 1/12th of the annual total.
ETA: @Schlemizel:
What you said.
Glocksman
@⚽️ Martin:
That was the turning point for me.
My opinion went from ‘situation escalated out of control due to his actions, but he had no intent to kill’ to ‘the motherfuck started the confrontation wanting an excuse to use his gun’.
@Schlemizel:
There is a logic to that thought, but as you noted there are significant legal, moral, economic, and psychological issues that someone who kills another, even if it’s totally justified self defence, has to deal with .
Unless you’re a sociopath. Then you don’t care about the moral, ethical, and psych issues.
There are reasons why cops who shoot someone get mandatory time off and psychological counseling.
Talentless Hack
@azlib: It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Joe The Plumber, so yeah. Disposable.
SiubhanDuinne
@ASV:
I’m not sure it means he actually takes a $100 vacation every month. It could mean that he takes a week’s vacation once a year and spends around $1200 on it.
But now I think about it, I doubt he’s smart enough to grapple with the concept of “budgeting.”
JPL
@Talentless Hack: Thank the lord! Joe the Plumber should not have had his fifteen minutes of fame, since he wasn’t a licensed plumber.
shelley
@Talentless Hack:
Shocked there hasn’t been a parroting comment from him, either about Obama impeachment or the ‘border crisis’
SiubhanDuinne
@Schlemizel:
@SiubhanDuinne:
As happens so very goddamn often, I commented before scrolling through. You said it better.
Soonergrunt
This is not justice. Justice would be George Zimmerman in a 6ft by 9ft cell with a roommate for about 20 years.
But this will have to do.
WaterGirl
@Violet: Never mind.
I see that at least 3 people got there before me.
Schlemizel
@SiubhanDuinne:
Meh, it happens all the time to me too. Just let yourself enjoy being part of a community of like minded folks!
Chuckles
Nobody in their right mind would extend a $2.5 million line of credit to someone like him, and actually expect to get paid. And I’m just talking about ability to pay, not character. I suspect they did it for the publicity, and probably with the expectation of writing most or all of it off as a loss on their taxes. Wonder if they’re just waiting to forgive his debt until after the divorce, so he can hang onto both halves of that $650.
Chuckles
Nobody in their right mind would extend a $2.5 million line of credit to someone like him, and actually expect to get paid. And I’m just talking about ability to pay, not character. I suspect they did it for the publicity, and probably with the expectation of writing most or all of it off as a loss on their taxes. Wonder if they’re just waiting to forgive his debt until after the divorce, so he can hang onto both halves of that $650.
trollhattan
@Soonergrunt:
He’s a self-indulgent, hot-headed, Southern fool attracted to guns. I believe that combination assures justice of some kind will be served, but fear there will be “collateral damage” in the process.
MattF
I expect that Zimmerman will turn up one day with ‘LOSER’ tattooed on his forehead. “It seemed like the manly thing to do.”
Schlemizel
@Soonergrunt:
In some ways this may be worse. For one,he had a taste of being a celebrity and having a million ‘friends’. Now he has to live with the knowledge that he has no real friends and nobody is excited to see him. A hell of his own making, a free man with no freedom.
Like Dick Cheney & Boy Blunder I hope he lives to a very old age wallowing in self pity with no friends and nowhere he is welcome.
Unabogie
As disgusted as I am with George Zimmerman, I will always hold a special contempt for those who rallied around him. From the rape of his cousin, to the spousal abuse, to the murder itself, to the psyche drugs he’s on, to his inability to find a stable job even before the crime and certainly after it, it’s clear that Zimmerman is mentally unhinged. His defenders are just racist assholes.
Joel
@shelley: Now if only he ran into yersinia pestis on one of those road trips.
SiubhanDuinne
@Schlemizel:
Oh, I know … and I do!
beth
I was always surprised no one offered him a book deal or at least some cash to tell his side to an author. I guess the time for that has passed though.
SiubhanDuinne
@Unabogie:
Wow, I had heard or read about all the other stuff, but did not know about his raping his cousin. What kind of monster did Judge Robert Zimmerman raise, anyhow?
Unabogie
@SiubhanDuinne:
This kind of monster:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/07/17/george_zimmerman_molestation_accusations_relevant_testimony_in_trial.html
Iowa Old Lady
@Unabogie: I was just thinking something like that. There’s something wrong with Zimmerman. You can believe he still thinks he was right. But the folks rallying around them? I feel like most of them know better. That makes them culpable in a different way.
SiubhanDuinne
@Unabogie:
Thanks. I either missed that altogether, or (more likely) found it so distasteful that I repressed all knowledge of it.
Ugh (~~shudder~~)
Southern Beale
Wait, he has no health insurance? Why hasn’t Obama’s union thugs hauled him off to the Obamacare gulag yet?
Southern Beale
Didn’t he get his wife to lie about their assets when he was trying to make bail or something? I wouldn’t trust anything this guy says. He’s probably got money stashed in a bank account somewhere.
WereBear
Perhaps, what kind of monster IS Judge Robert Zimmerman?
Southern Beale
Just saw this story, how does this not violate the doctors’ contracts with the insurors?
Stories get even worse. Doctors are so fucking ignorant sometimes.
Pogonip
@Schlemizel: Marc MacYoung has been preaching that for years. He just released a new book on the legalities of self-defense. I haven’t read it yet but it’s in the pile. The main point is that if you keep weapons, study a killing art, or both it behooves you to be conversant with the self-defense laws of your state. I myself have never had to use a weapon, although I do own a Chicago burglar alarm. It plays the sound of a shell being jacked into a 12-gauge–alarms burglars no end! Grin.
Roger Moore
@Gene108:
I’m sure there are some people who can honestly declare themselves to be flat broke when they’re getting divorced.
MikeJ
If he had any skill at football there are any number of NFL teams who would happily hire him.
Howard Beale IV
@Soonergrunt: Sad to say, but justice in the United States can be very difficult to find-and when you do find it, don’t be surprised to find that it gets yanked out from under you.
J.D. Rhoades
Killing unarmed black kids is so 2012. All the Z-Dog needs to do is kill an undocumented alien, claim self defense because the guy was going to infect him with some disease, and he’ll be back on the wingnut gravy train in no time.
Howard Beale IV
@Southern Beale:
And what penalty do they pay for not honoring the contract with the insurer? The quacks could have also not participated in the plans.
The sad truth is the US healthcare system needs to be blown up at its base and rebuilt. It seems to have followed the trajectory of the US Educational system, and that’s a massive trainwreck in of itself.
Howard Beale IV
@Schlemizel:
Your argument fails because while the Boy Blunder has been conspicuous by his absence, Maleboigia and his Spawn continue to get air time.
Glocksman
@Pogonip:
Massad Ayoob wrote a couple of books on self defense back in the 80’s, and he not only urged learning the self defense laws, he also urged you to really think hard about whether or not you could take a life in self defense, and went on to list all of the consequences that Schlemizel mentions as factors you should be thinking about.
All in all, his book In the Gravest Extreme was a sober look at self defense and the consequences of it.
JW
@Betty Cracker: You make me laugh!
GregB
I hope Omeara never gets another penny from him. That will make me LOL.
Alce_y_Ardilla
Well if he had wanted, the State of Florida could have provided him with three meals a day and a steady place to sleep, in any one of their correctional facilities
Schlemizel
@Howard Beale IV:
That won’t last forever
Now stop trying to harsh my mellow fantasy
Botsplainer
@Southern Beale:
You mean “all the time”. That gaggle of whiny ass titty babies has a locked down guild of tight supply and deems itself special as a result. They’re the 2%, and the most dangerous place to be is between a doctor and a shitty business investment. They’ll run your ass over in their rush to hand a fat pile of cash to a slick talking white hustler in a nice suit.
hueyplong
This is how this tawdry and awful story was always going to play out. It’s nearly impossible for us to take a decade-long view of events as they’re happening, but if we had, each and every one of us would have bet on something very much like this scenario.
I’m still waiting for Karma to dig her claws into the eye sockets of the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, the only actual “winners” in situations like this one. Our current culture doesn’t seem to hold them accountable for anything. Anyone with the ability to see the long term on those guys and feel confident about a gruesome finish for them is encouraged to post away and make my night.
Botsplainer
@Roger Moore:
25 years of family law experience here. Yeah, there’s frequently some lily gilding, but most of the time the stated misery is real enough. A collapsing marriage is depressing, and most couples limp for a couple of years – careers and outside interests take a huge beating in the course of that depression.
ShadeTail
@Peter: On the one hand, I feel the same way; this brings me no joy.
On the other hand, justice often isn’t about the criminal learning anything. It’s about society making a statement.
Tehanu
@Unabogie:
This. Bad as Z. is, they’re a thousand times worse.
cokane
Would still prefer him in prison.
AxelFoley
@Peter:
Fuck him and fuck him learning anything. I won’t be happy until he’s either in jail or 6 feet under.
Howard Beale IV
@Schlemizel:
Reality, like the moon, is a harsh mistress.
Bobby B.
@Mustang Bobby: “George Burns was right. Fame is a hideous bitch Goddess.” -Bart Simpson
WereBear
@hueyplong: I see Limbaugh as this figure marooned on his bed from extreme obesity, ranting at hired servants, unknowing that they are stealing everything from him until he has to fall back on family charity.
That sweet contract will come to an end, (he has very few sponsors left) and he spends a lot on private security, clandestine sex trips, and scented candles.
Randy P
@WereBear: This made me think of Dale “The Whale” Biederbeck, a nasty recurring character on Monk originally played by Adam Arkin but apparently since then by Tim Curry and others (see link).
Howard Beale IV
Oh, this is peachy: Wisconsin’s security detail costs for the governor increased 239%.
kindness
Karma. It works. We shouldn’t gloat though. Not good karma.
CaseyL
@kindness: It’s my karma and I’ll gloat if I want to.
Zimmerman was a momentary trophy, lauded by racists and gun nuts. But he was never more than that, and once he was no longer of value they dropped him like a used Kleenex.
kindness
@CaseyL: See lesson 1.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Howard Beale IV: if one acts like a complete dick, people don’t like one.
Waspuppet
I would say his life is ruined, but his case reminds me what ruining someone’s life really means.
cmorenc
Zimmerman’s travails would make the material for a really good blues song “Just Can’t Do No Right”.
Betsy
@Betty Cracker: I wonder if that $350 is the lowest premium on the exchanges for an Obamacare policy. Just wonderin’
H.K. Anders
Where is his good buddy Sean Hannity? Surely Sean will help a brother out, seeing as he took him up as a cause when ol George was good for ratings.
Cain
One observation is that none of our taxes are being used to pay for his incarceration. The guy probably is suffering much worse than if he was in jail, I reckon.
Betsy
@ASV: the way those financial affidavits work, it’s like any yearly household budget, you take your annual estimate and divide by 12. Assuming once a year you fly to visit your mom, $1200 wouldn’t be out of line for most people I guess …
… Of course, this is GZ, so, ..
Betsy
@Betsy: ETA:
Or, I could just read all the comments one time and divide by 12 to get the number of times people have already made the same observation by the time I pile on … * sigh *
Peter
@AxelFoley:
Rage is a hell of a drug, isn’t it?
Leslie
He spends his time “on the road,” has no income or assets, but has $650 a month in listed expenses, which do not include food, clothing, lodging, or anything of the sort?
First, yes, this is an obvious fabrication for divorce purposes. Secondly, even the destitute have to eat sometimes, and sleep somewhere, and even if he were living in his truck he’d still need money.
Someone is supporting him, and in all likelihood several someones. I suspect there is an underground circuit of GZ “fans” who are underwriting whatever his real expenses are … people who are comfortable in white robes and pointy hats, and think GZ performed a public service. So no, this does not make me happy. Not at all.
Bubblegum Tate
@Gene108:
My first reaction, too: This, like most things conservative heroes say, is bullshit.
wenchacha
@Glocksman: I would imagine there are some long-term consequences of killing another human being, even in self-defense. I guess I even hope there would be, for any healthy human being. Sure, military works to get you over that cultural taboo, so you can shoot and slice and stab with abandon, and stay alive yourself. My sense is, lots of soldiers have some guilt about it. As a nation, we are mostly okay with the psychological price they pay.
The only time we need to worry about guilt for ending a life is when an innocent , foolish, woman aborts her full-grown human fetus. She might suffer for her choice to stay alive, and we want to save her from that by forcing delivery.
Sorry, there are times when this country drives me insane.
Jason
If I could believe one word that comes out of that lying psychopath’s mouth, I would be happy. But it’s for certains that Zimmerman’s financial statement is as much science fiction as any other sad sob story he’s ever come up with for why he’s the victim, not the perpetrator, of whatever assholery he’s currently manufactured for himself.
Bill ORLY
How do you go on vacation for a hundred bucks?