ABC has Zimmerman's application for citizens law enforcement academy

[onenote]

28. I don't know if you are from Virginia or not

but I am. Indeed, I've spent pretty much my entire life here except for a few years away for law school. Being a magistrate is a bottom of the barrel position -- it pays less than most legal secretaries make. Its often a "second career" for retirees, which appears to be the case with Zimmerman's father, who retired from the military and then took a low paying job as a magistrate for a few years. (How low paying: well, a judge in Virginia makes between $160K and $180K; a magistrate makes between $35K and $50K).

As for O'Donnell, he got it wrong in describing Zimmerman's father as a judge, but even then he acknowledged that it was unlikely that Zimmerman's father would hold any sway in Sanford FL by virtue of his having worked in the judicial system in Virginia. (There seems to be some confusion as to when and for how long Zimmerman's father was a magistrate. Some reports say he was a magistrate from 2002-2006; other reports indicate that he moved to Lake Mary FL in 2002, which means he may not have been a magistrate for very long in Virginia and that if he was able to parlay his experience as a magistrate in Virginia into some sort of influence/connections in Florida, wouldn't it be with the Lake Mary police department (which is separate from the Sanford PD).

Look, my point isn't that nothing out of the ordinary took place here. Quite the opposite. The Sanford PD appears to be up to its collective eyeballs in something and its important that questions get asked and the Sanford PD be made to answer for its mishandling and apparent cover up in this case. But focusing on Zimmerman's dad strikes me as heading down the wrong rabbit hole.