Apart from the 2012 Martin shooting, Zimmerman has had other encounters with the law, including two incidents in 2005, five incidents in 2013 and other incidents in following years.
[36]
In July 2005, when he was 21, Zimmerman was arrested after shoving an undercover alcohol control agent while a friend of Zimmerman's was being arrested for underage drinking. The officer alleged that Zimmerman had said, "I don't care who you are," followed by a profanity, and had refused to leave the area after the officer had shown his badge.
[37] The charges were subsequently dropped when Zimmerman entered a pre-trial diversion program that included anger management classes.
[4][38]
Also in 2005, Zimmerman's ex-fiancée filed a restraining order against him, alleging domestic violence. Zimmerman requested a reciprocal restraining order. Both orders were granted.
[4][39] These incidents were raised by prosecutors at Zimmerman's initial bond hearing. The judge described them as "
run of the mill."
[40][41]
Zimmerman's wife, Shellie pleaded guilty on August 28, 2013, to a reduced misdemeanor perjury charge for lying under oath. She was sentenced to a year's probation and 100 hours of community service. She lied about their assets during a bail hearing following his arrest for shooting Martin. Days before the bond hearing she moved $74,000, broken into smaller transfers, from his credit union account to hers. $47,000 was transferred from George's account to his sister's in the days before the bond hearing. Amounts of over $10,000 would have been reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Four days after he was released on bond, she transferred more than $85,500 from her account into her husband's account. The jail recorded Zimmerman instructing her on a call to "pay off all the bills," including credit cards.
[42] On September 9, 2013, in Lake Mary, police responded to a
911 call by Zimmerman's estranged wife, who reported that Zimmerman had threatened her and her father with a gun and had punched her father in the face. Zimmerman was briefly detained and questioned by police.
[43] No gun was found at the scene. Police took a broken
iPad from the scene for examination of a video recording of the incident to determine whether to press charges against either Zimmerman or his wife.
[44] His wife declined to press charges, later expressing regret about her decision.
[45] After determining that the iPad video could not be recovered, the Lake Mary police department announced they would not be pressing charges against Zimmerman, his wife, or her father.
[46]
On November 18, 2013, Zimmerman's girlfriend called the police alleging that after she had asked Zimmerman to leave her home, he had pointed a shotgun at her and begun breaking her belongings.
[47] The police reported that Zimmerman had barricaded himself inside the apartment before they had made their way inside and arrested him.
[48] He was charged with aggravated assault with a weapon – a felony – as well as domestic violence battery and criminal mischief.
[49][50] On December 6, Zimmerman's girlfriend asked that the charges against Zimmerman be dropped and that the
restraining order barring him from seeing her be lifted, after which prosecutors said that they would no longer be pursuing a case against him.
[51][52]
On January 9, 2015, Zimmerman was arrested by Lake Mary police and charged with aggravated assault with a weapon after allegedly throwing a wine bottle at his ex-girlfriend.
[53] He was released on bond the following day.
[54] The charges were later dropped after the complainant recanted her story.
[55]
