Shellie Zimmerman, the wife of George Zimmerman, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor perjury charge on Wednesday after she lied during a bail hearing following George's arrest for shooting and killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Shellie was facing a felony charge that would have put her behind bars for up to five years and a $5,000 fine had she been convicted.
Part of her deal was for Shellie to write an apology letter to the judge she lied to.
Shellie had lied at a hearing about her and George's finances, saying they were too broke to pay for bail.
But according to court records, that was all a load of crap.
The Zimmermans had actually raised $135,000 via donations to a website set up to support poor George in his time of trouble when he was arrested for shooting that unarmed black kid.
Shellie claimed she had no idea how much they had raised through the website.
But records show that just before the bond hearing, she had transferred $74,000 from George's credit union account to her's. She also transferred $47,000 to George's sister's account.
Anything over $10,000 would have been reported to the IRS.
Then, four days after George was released on bond, Shellie transferred more than $85,500 from her account into his.
There are also records showing George telling Shellie over the phone to "pay off all the bills," including an American Express and Sam's Club card.
Most all of this money came from the website donations.
Once the jig was up for Shellie's bullshit story, the judge revoked George's bail, and he was later released on $1 million bond.
In her letter to the judge, Shellie expressed remorse on how she let everyone down.
"By lying under oath, I let my God down, I let your Honor and the court down, I let my family and friends down, and, most of all, I let myself down."
According to Shellie's attorney, Kelly Sims, Mrs. Zimmerman went the route of pulling a fast one because "she had been told by others to say maybe that's not my money."
Sims then quoted Tammy Wynette to paint a more sympathetic picture of Shellie, because when in doubt, reference an old country-western song.
"She was calling from a phone. She was scared. Her husband was locked up. She didn't know what was going on. So she stood by her man, like Tammy Wynette says. She's accepting responsibility."
We're no lawyers, but we're pretty sure they don't teach this method in law school. But this is Florida, so you never know.
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