Shellie Zimmerman among few in Florida accused of perjury

SANFORD ? George Zimmerman's wife now finds herself among a very exclusive group of Floridians: people who have been charged with lying on the witness stand.

Florida prosecutors seldom file perjury charges, according to state court data, and when they do, their success rate is spotty.

For example, in the 12-month period that ended June 30, prosecutors in Miami-Dade County, Florida's most populous, filed just two perjury cases and later dropped both, according to numbers from the Office of State Court Administration.

Prosecutors in 16 other Florida counties have not filed a perjury case in more than five years, the data show.

"It is a very, very difficult case for prosecutors to prove," said Luis Calderon, an Orlando criminal-defense attorney and president of the Central Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Special Prosecutor Angela Corey of Jacksonville, whose office filed the perjury charge against Zimmerman's 25-year-old wife, Shellie, is far more aggressive and successful, data from her office reveal.

From 2009, when she took office, through June 30, she successfully prosecuted nearly three dozen perjury suspects in Duval County.

Most were guilty of lying while filling out workers' compensation forms, making insurance claims or filing police reports. A far smaller number ? 10 ? were witnesses who lied in court, records from her office show.

Sentences imposed on those 10 people generally ranged from 12 months of probation to 13 months in state prison. One defendant, also a burglar, was given five years of prison time.

Corey would not comment about her perjury prosecution record or the Shellie Zimmerman case.

Shellie Zimmerman returns to court

Tuesday Shellie Zimmerman will be in court, trying to have her case dismissed. Her attorney, Kelly B. Sims, contends that Corey had no right to charge her.

Corey was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to investigate and prosecute George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin one year ago in Sanford.

Corey filed a single perjury count after Shellie Zimmerman testified at a bond hearing for her husband in April, saying under oath that the couple were broke. In reality, more than $130,000 had come flooding in in the previous 10 days from online contributors, according to prosecution records.

One of Corey's assistant state attorneys, John I. Guy, is handling the Shellie Zimmerman case. He argues in court paperwork that when the governor named Corey special prosecutor, that gave her office the authority to investigate and prosecute "all matters pertaining to the death of Trayvon Martin." Shellie Zimmerman's testimony, he argued, falls under that umbrella, even though the testimony she gave was in Seminole ? not Duval County.

Guy also contends that a revised order from the governor in December explicitly mentions Shellie Zimmerman's case, thus giving his office jurisdiction.

Circuit Judge Marlene Alva will decide if that is true.

If convicted, Shellie Zimmerman faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison. It is unlikely she would get so harsh a sentence, said WFTV-Channel 9 legal analyst Bill Sheaffer, because she has no criminal record and because the lie she's accused of telling did not result in the acquittal of a criminal or the conviction of an innocent person.

Sims says his client is a nursing student and nearly done with her course work. If Shellie Zimmerman is found guilty, she would be a convicted felon and would be prohibited from ever working as a nurse, Sims said.

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Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/os-shellie-zimmerman-perjury-stats-20130218,0,6977975.story?track=rss

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