Zimmerman Granted $1 Million Bond A Florida judge on Thursday ruled that George Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, could be released from jail on a $1 million bond, but the judge chastised Mr. Zimmerman as "flaunting the system." In a written ruling, the judge, Kenneth R. Lester Jr. of Seminole County Court in Orlando, granted the bond, despite the fact that Mr. Zimmerman misled the court about his finances during an initial April 20 bond hearing. At that time, Mr. Zimmerman was released on $150,000 bond, which was low for the second-degree murder charge Mr. Zimmerman faces, because his wife, Shellie, testified that the family had no money. Mr. Zimmerman did not challenge that assertion. In fact, Mr. Zimmerman had a total of about $130,000 in his own checking account and those of his wife and his sister, a forensics accounting expert testified last week. The money was raised through a legal defense Web site created by Mr. Zimmerman. "The defendant has tried to manipulate the system when he has been presented the opportunity to do so," Judge Lester said. The judge then went on to criticize Mr. Zimmerman as acting in concert with his wife "to conceal their cash holdings" and speaking "in a rudimentary code to conceal the true amount of money they were dealing with." Relying on tapes of jailhouse conversations between Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman, prosecutors found that Mr. Zimmerman's wife lied about the existence of the money, which at one point totaled more than $200,000. They say she helped Mr. Zimmerman conceal the cash and that the two used coded words to discuss the plan. Three weeks ago, she was charged with perjury. Judge Lester also excoriated Mr. Zimmerman for misleading his own lawyer and not revealing the existence of a second passport in a safe-deposit box. "This court finds that circumstances indicate that the defendant was preparing to flee to avoid prosecution, but such plans were thwarted," Judge Lester wrote. On Friday, Mark O'Mara, Mr. Zimmerman's lawyer, said that there was a $211,000 legal defense fund, which is now in a trust, and that all of it could be used to help meet the cost of a high bond. "We have really not asked for money - not made an affirmative request for money," Mr. O'Mara said last Friday. He said that he presumes that those who have shown support for Mr. Zimmerman around the country "will continue to and will perhaps accelerate it." At Friday's hearing, Mr. O'Mara, acknowledged that his client had lied and was contrite about it. But he portrayed his client as reliable. Mr. O'Mara said that since the Feb. 26 shooting of Mr. Martin, Mr. Zimmerman had cooperated fully with police and prosecutors and followed the conditions of his probation. Because of this, Mr. Zimmerman was not likely to abscond before his trial, Mr. O'Mara had argued. Prosecutors said Mr. Zimmerman could no longer be trusted. Mr. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch leader, is charged with shooting Mr. Martin, an unarmed teenager, as Mr. Martin walked to a house in Sanford where he was a guest. Mr. Zimmerman told the police that he fired his weapon in self-defense after Mr. Martin repeatedly punched him and slammed his head into the pavement that rainy evening. Prosecutors say the killing was not justified. The Feb. 26 shooting generated outrage after Mr. Zimmerman was not initially arrested, raising questions about Florida's broad self-defense laws and racial profiling.