Three parties were on hand for a hearing in the George Zimmerman case at the Seminole County courthouse.
A lawyer for several media companies, Scott Ponce, was on hand at courtroom 5d, along with Zimmerman attorney Mark O'Mara, and Prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda.
The hearing originally set to hear arguments that the public should be granted access to court documents, records and evidence, was overshadowed by George Zimmerman's now bulging bank account.
George Zimmerman's lawyer revealed new information about his client's finances, particularly more than $200,000 raised on Zimmerman's website.
At a brief court hearing Friday morning, Judge Kenneth Lester told defense attorney Mark O'Mara he wants more details about those online donations before making a ruling.
"Find out the genesis of the account, find how this account came to come into existence, who is in charge of the account," said Judge Kenneth Lester on Friday.
Prosecutor Berne De La Rionda wanted Judge Lester to revisit Zimmerman's bond after it was discovered more than $200,000 worth of donations had been given to the now defunct website, therealgeorgezimmerman.com.
His attorney Mark O'Mara said he shut it down and has set up a new website for his client to solicit donations.
"GZLegalcase.com, that is the only website that is official, that I'm handling," said Mark O'Mara, lawyer for George Zimmerman.
O'Mara said he hopes to get paid, and this case will run up a very high bill.
Donations will be the only hope of a paycheck for O'Mara.
"So a thousand hours is $400,000, 2,000 hours is $800,000 dollars, plus cost. It's going to be an enormous undertaking," said O'Mara.
The attorney for Trayvon Martin's parents said the Justice for Trayvon Martin Foundation has raised about $70,000 in donations.
Lester also heard motions from several media outlets concerning evidence in the case surrounding Zimmerman's fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February. News 13 and Bay News 9 are not participating in those motions.
According to Scott Ponce, attorney for the media companies, that will be decided on a case by case basis.
"The process will play out this way, members of the media and people in the public can submit a request for public records, at that point the state says ‘yes, we will give it to you’ or ‘no, we don't give it to you’ and if they say no and people believe there is not a basis for saying no, a motion gets filed in the court and we ask the judge to give it to us," said Scott Ponce.
The prosecutor for the state told Judge Lester that one example of too much information being released is the 911 tape from the night Trayvon Martin was shot.
"It depicts or records the killing of a person, we would submit that 911 tape is that it should have never been released, so while the media has a wonderful interest and we all believe in the first amendment at some point, there is some stuff that should not be released,” said De la Rionda.
In-Depth Updates
9:49 -- Judge Lester briefly discusses security for the trial before calling for recess. The only motion the judge ruled on was a gag order against O'Mara, which he denied.
9:48 -- Judge Lester grants a short sidebar with counsel to further discuss Zimmerman's account.
9:45 -- O'Mara says the money raised online is now in a trust account under his (O'Mara's) control. Prosecution says they appreciate O'Mara's disclosure, asking the court to address it immediately, as there is a change in circumstance. Judge Lester says he needs to see who had control over the account, along with the account's history. He will not rule until he gets more information.
9:40 -- O'Mara informs Judge Lester about $200,000 raised through George Zimmerman's website. He said he was not aware of that money at the bond hearing, as his client only told him about the money two days ago. Zimmerman's website is now down.
9:35 -- The state says they share O'Mara's concerns about the release of evidence, saying at some point, the court will have to address this. Media lawyers cite the Casey Anthony murder trial and Judge Belvin Perry's ruling that certain evidence would be unsealed after a set period of time. Judge Lester says he will take things on a case-by-case basis. Prosecutors argue the 911 calls by George Zimmerman should not have been released.
9:30 -- Judge Lester says he is not going to put the media on the mailing list. Issues of security will remain secret to the media. O'Mara expresses his concern about the release of some evidence before he gets a chance to look at it, himself.
9:25 -- Next issue: Several media outlets are looking to have certain evidence in the case. News 13 and Bay News 9 are not participating in these motions.
9:20 -- Motion for gag order denied. Judge Lester says he believes both sides have acted appropriately regarding talking to the media, and he will not entertain the motion "this time around."
9:15 -- Judge Lester enters the courtroom. State announces it has filed a motion for a gag order against defense attorney Mark O'Mara, citing concern that he has been talking too much to the media.
9:00 a.m. -- Waiting for Judge Kenneth Lester. In the courtroom are Zimmerman attorney Mark O'Mara, prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda, and attorney Scott Ponce, who is representing the media companies filing motions. George Zimmerman is not present, nor is anyone from the family of Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman website raised $200,000
Speaking on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" Thursday night, attorney Mark O'Mara said he first learned about the money on Wednesday.
Zimmerman set up the website TheRealGeorgeZimmerman.com while he was in hiding, before his arrest.
The website was disabled earlier this week, but according to O'Mara, about 50 people donated money, totaling more than $200,000.
"My understanding was there were two accounts: One with about $700, and one with about $2,000, by some friends of his," O'Mara told Anderson Cooper. "In talking to George after I was trying to shut down his full Internet presence, because of some impersonators and other problems with Twitter and Facebook, he asked me what to do with his PayPal accounts. And I asked him what he was talking about, and he said those were the accounts that had the money from the website he had, and that there was about $200,000 – $204,000 that had come in to date."
O'Mara said he had no idea how much money was raised online when Judge Kenneth Lester set Zimmerman's bond. Had he -- and the judge -- known, that bond could have been much higher.
"We just didn't have a lot of conversations about money," O'Mara told reporters Friday after the court hearing on why he didn't know.
O'Mara told the judge that he will provide the information about the money that is needed, provided he does not have to disclose the names of Zimmerman's donors to the public.
"I am going to protect the donors of George Zimmerman's funds," O'Mara said. "I am very concerned about George Zimmerman's donors being subjected to ridicule and danger."
O'Mara has previously said there will be a legal defense fund set up for Zimmerman, which will include a new website, gzlegalcase.com. He said it's important that any Web presence for Zimmerman be run through his office, so that they can avoid the growing problem of fake sites trying to piggyback off the case.
When all this is through, O'Mara said Zimmerman's bill could be as high as $1 million.