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George Zimmerman Arrested; Denies Throwing Bottle at Girlfriend

By Mark Wilson, Esq. on January 12, 2015 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Just when you thought it was safe to be George Zimmerman, the Florida man acquitted of the 2013 shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin is back in the news.

Zimmerman was arrested and jailed on Friday for aggravated assault after allegedly throwing a wine bottle toward his girlfriend -- an incident he denies. It was Zimmerman's third domestic violence-related incident since his acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case.

Aggravated Assault

Notably, five days elapsed between a complaint to police and Zimmerman's arrest. At about 11:30 p.m. on January 5, an officer heard breaking glass and then saw Zimmerman's girlfriend drive from his house without her headlights on, according to the Orlando Sentinel. When the officer pulled her over, she seemed upset and had a lot of belongings in the back seat. That's when she told the officer Zimmerman had thrown a wine bottle at her and had broken her cell phone.

So why did the arrest take so long? Apparently, police repeatedly tried to phone Zimmerman, but he wouldn't answer. They finally found him at home on Friday night, but he remained holed up in there for two hours while he called his lawyer, who even talked to police over the phone.

Once again dispelling the TV-show myth that victims can choose to "press charges," Zimmerman's (ex?) girlfriend said she didn't want to prosecute; however, police arrested him anyway, because of "a possibility of further acts of violence." At a hearing following the arrest, a judge prohibited Zimmerman from owning any guns and ordered him to turn over any guns he had to a family member or a friend.

Maybe Stay Out of the Limelight

You'd think that, after garnering national media attention for the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and his subsequent acquittal, Zimmerman would keep his head down. But as The Associated Press recounts, Zimmerman was arrested for aggravated assault months after his acquittal, when he allegedly pointed a shotgun at his then-girlfriend and smashed her coffee table. In a separate incident, Zimmerman's estranged wife Shellie accused him of smashing an iPad during an argument days after she filed for divorce.

Regarding his last arrest, Zimmerman is free on a $5,000 bond. He claimed in a police report that the woman, as-yet unidentified, was trying to come into his house, and that she threw the wine bottle at the garage when he refused to let her in. The woman told police that Zimmerman was a "psychopath."

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