Monday, April 8, 2013
I asked a question yesterday and did not get an answer.
The question was, Did Mark O’Mara advise the HOA to settle the Fulton-Martin lawsuit?
Rene Stutzman at the Orlando Sentinel provided some additional information today.
That secret homeowners association settlement with Trayvon Martin’s family may not remain secret much longer.
Seminole County Clerk of Courts Maryanne Morse has written a letter to Trayvon’s family attorney, Benjamin Crump, telling him that she doesn’t think it meets the standard of a confidential filing so she intends to make it public in 10 days.
Even so, the total dollar figure paid out by the association will likely remain a secret. That’s because Crump edited it out before he put the 12-page document in the court file Thursday.
It’s believed to be more than $1 million.
Stutzman also revealed that Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton settled their claim against the HOA without filing a lawsuit. Therefore, the settlement agreement has not been reviewed by a judge.
We know that the Traveler’s Insurance Co., was not a party to the agreement because the HOA did not purchase the insurance until March 30, 2012, a little over a month after the defendant shot and killed Trayvon Martin.
Why did Benjamin Crump file the settlement agreement in the GZ criminal case?
Here’s Stutzman again,
Why Crump had it placed in the file in the first place remains a mystery. He did not return phone calls from the Orlando Sentinel. But his clients, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, were deposed last month by Zimmerman’s attorneys and were likely asked about the settlement.
In an interview last month, when asked if the settlement was a specific figure between $1 million and $2 million, Crump would not say.
“I have no comment on the subject,” he said. “I know you didn’t get that from me.”
There is an unconfirmed rumor that the New York Times reported in February that Mark O’Mara said Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton had rejected a $1 million settlement offer.
Stutzman said today about the settlement amount, “It’s believed to be more than $1 million.”
Sundance Cracker at the treehouse, which is Mark O’Mara’s internet site of choice, reported yesterday that the settlement is closer to $2 million.
Difficult to draw any conclusions without more information, but I sincerely doubt the claim was settled for nuisance value because, given the defendant’s waiver of an immunity hearing and a substantial likelihood that a jury will reject his claim of self-defense, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton would have no incentive to settle the case for peanuts. Better to wait and sue him and the HOA together after he is convicted when, basically, the sky would be the limit.
I figure they were in the driver’s seat and could afford to demand a substantial sum of money to cut HOA loose before trial.
This settlement agreement is dreadful news for the defendant.
BTW, Dee Dee definitely is not the prosecution’s star witness.
The prosecution’s star witness is the defendant and that is why a jury will convict him of murder in the second degree.
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