George Zimmerman’s wife now has an attorney and is pleading not guilty to perjury.
According to a court spokeswoman, Shellie Zimmerman's lawyer filed a written plea of not guilty late Friday afternoon.
“The fact that he filed it at 4:35 in the afternoon on Friday tells me that he really doesn’t want to talk about it right now. He wants to wait and get the discovery and then maybe talk about the case once the information comes in," said News 13 legal analyst attorney Joy Ragan.
Shellie Zimmerman's new attorney is Kelly B. Sims. Sims filed several court documents: Notice of Appearance, Request for Copy of Charges, Written Plea of Not Guilty, Waiver of Personal Appearance at Arraignment, and Reservation of Right to Contest.
Mrs. Zimmerman is accused of lying about her and George Zimmerman's finances to Judge Kenneth Lester before her husband was granted his first bond.
"I think it’s a difficult case based on what we’ve seen so far, based on the jail interviews, based on the information from her bank account, and how the money was being moved around. I think he has an uphill battle," Ragan added.
Shellie Zimmerman was arrested June 12 on perjury charges. She was freed on bond that same day.
She is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, July 31. However, her attorney has filed a waiver asking that she doesn’t appear in court for her arraignment.
The maximum penalty for perjury is five years. However, Attorney Ragan does not believe Zimmerman will see much, if any, jail time.
“Truly it were somebody walking in off the street without any notoriety, it’s a probation case. Since she has no criminal history and so forth... Maybe they will ask her to do a little bit of jail time, make an example out of her, but it certainly is not a prison case," Ragan concluded.