By Stephanie Harvey
Promotions Editor
George Zimmerman was arrested on Friday, Jan. 9 and charged with aggravated assault for allegedly throwing a wine bottle at his girlfriend in his Florida home. The woman, who remained unnamed, claims that Zimmerman threw a wine bottle at her in a dispute over their relationship. Zimmerman, however, maintains that he was only trying to prevent her from entering his house.
In 2012, Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watchman, became a national figure when he killed an unarmed black teen, Trayvon Martin. A racial controversy erupted across the nation when Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges.
This is not Zimmerman’s first run-in with the law since the Martin case. Although charges were never brought against Zimmerman, police investigated a domestic altercation between Zimmerman and his ex-wife Shellie Zimmerman in September 2013.
In November of the same year, Zimmerman was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and misdemeanor accounts of domestic violence battery and criminal mischief after a dispute with a different ex-girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe. The charges were dropped after Scheibe declined to pursue in the investigation.
Although the name of the woman who Zimmerman threw a wine bottle at has not been released, it has been confirmed by Lake Mary Police spokeswoman Bianca Gillett that it is not Scheibe or his ex-wife.
In another account involving Zimmerman during a road rage incident that occurred in September 2014, Zimmerman said, according to a January article on CNN, “’I will … kill you, Do you know who I am?’” However, during this incident Zimmerman was also not charged. Zimmerman has been released on a $5,000 bond for throwing the wine bottle at his ex-girlfriend after claiming to never throw the bottle.
Bold>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/us/zimmerman-is-charged-with-assault-in-florida.html
