jamie floyd, goldie taylor and joanne reed. stay with us.re on this breaking news straight ahead. >> eventually the two newest developments are that we learned that he had called shon nned directly and not through us, and we believe we spoke directly with sean and off the record, and he is not even willing to tell us what our client told him. zap technology. departure. hertz gold plus rewards also offers ereturn-- our fastest way to return your car. just note your mileage and zap ! you're outta there ! we'll e-mail your receipt in a flash, too. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. protect the land. economically, it seems like a good choice now. we need environmental protection. we've got more than 100 years worth of energy, right here. [announcer:] who's right? they all are. visit powerincooperation.com. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more mone

joanne reed isç managing edito of grio.com.well, i always start these conversations by saying i am not a lawyer. i listen to those who are. let's take a look at this. here's george zimmerman speaking in court this morning and addressing the parents right there in court of trayvon martin. let's watch. >> i wanted to say that i am sorry for the loss of your son. i did not know how old he was. i thought he was a little younger than i am. and i did not know if he was armed or not. >> joanne reed, that's something that the defendant in this case said he wanted to do earlier but did it in court today. what do you make of it? >> what is interesting, the family of trayvon martin found that very off putting and disingenuous. the truth of the matter is george zimmerman has had opportunities to address the family before. he started a website a couple weeks ago at which no such statements of con trugs were included. he also had a phone call, he left a message for a friend, frank tappy, in which he expressed no remorse. when i spoke with on

joann reed is the managing editor for go.com as well as a legal analyst. she's got the latest.r, her husband is in a civil trial by the name of mark neejim. he represented tiger woods after that infamous car crash in his home where there was apparently a golf club involved, and he also, in the past, represented the parents of casey anthony in that huge trial here. so this was a very prominent attorney that was apparently contacted very early on by george zimmerman, before he got his first set of attorneys, to represent him. he declined to do that, but that contact with george zimmerman and also with his parents is what concerns mark o'mara. he is now an analyst on cnn. that combination worries him because potentially that contact could happen again. >> i find it unusual that a defense lawyer would turn down such a high-profile case. do we know anything about his rationale? >> we don't know why he turned it down. i believe he had other cases at the time, but he did give george zimmerman a reason why he wouldn't take it. and then we had another set of lawyers. but what we do stil

joining me now, our panel, nbc's ron allen live in sanford, florida, joanne reed, msnbc contributor andespondent here in washington. pete first to you. let's talk about the documents, florida law, and what to expect at this first appearance. >> that's what it's called, under florida law it's called a first appearance. he'll come in, be formally advised of the charges. he's not required to say anything. he doesn't enter a plea but his lawyer can ask for bail. in fact, we expect his lawyer to do so. then the judge will consider whether to grant him bail based on a number of factors. his ties to the community, whether he's likely to flee, whether his release into the community would be dangerous and all those factors will be taken into account. he's not automatically entitled to it. it's the judge's discretion. >> joanne, if he is released on bail and that's, of course, up to the judge, as pete points out, what will be the reaction, do you think, from the community, from trayvon martin's parents? they've said all they wanted was an arrest. what if he is out on bail? >> absolutely. i think

attorney and joanne reed is an msnbc contributor. joanne, what have you heard that's surprised you the most about this hearing? this hearing is a little more in depth than i expected. >> definitely. they're delving into a lot of past incidents of george zimmerman. a lot of people are saying maybe the prosecutor would not want to show too much of their hand so might not fight the idea of his getting bond too vigorously. but this is actually a pretty vigorous cross i think by the prosecution. they're going into george zimmerman's two prior incidents that involve law enforcement. one of which was a battery on a law enforcement charge, which he was initially charged with a third-degree felony but did a pretrial diversion program. and the other was some pretty specific detail about an alleged domestic abuse case. and shellie zimmerman is vigorous in his defense insisting he's not violent. but the consistent thing you see, chuck, in both of these stories is she's asserting he was afraid for his own safety or someone else's safety so he felt

. >> joann reed, thank you so much for your report. >> thank you. >>> with me now, famed criminal defensemark geragos. thank you so much for being here, and i also respect the legal opinion of howard dershowitz who last night made his opinion of probable cause. would you please watch and react to this. >> this is so thin that it won't make it past a judge on a second-degree murder charge. it's not only thin, it's irresponsible. what you have here is an elected public official who made a campaign speech last night for reelection when she gave her presentation, and overcharged, way overcharged. this case will not, if the evidence is no stronger than what appears in the probable cause affidavit, this case will result in an acquittal. >> mark geragos, your thoughts? >> i don't disagree at all. i stated publicly when i saw the affidavit that this was about as bare bones an affidavit as i've ever seen, and i would agree with the professor. in fact, i suspect that there has to be more, otherwise i don't know, in the parts i might disagree with, i don't know that it gets to a jury. remember, they

we have the latest developments tonight from michael isikoff, investigative correspondent, and joann reededitor for greed.com. what's the latest, michael? >> the investigators were back in the neighborhood today, interviewing residents. the one crucial piece of evidence are the audiotapes of the prior phone calls that george zimmerman made to the police. we had an exchange yesterday about this. you were right, i was wrong. these had been previously released. but what we now know and didn't realize, and i don't think people had realized, is they are critical to the fbi investigation, which is civil rights. is there a pattern of racial pro filing, was there, by zimmerman? is this evidence of whether or not he had racial motivations in the night that he pursued trayvon martin? and one of the things that's worth pointing out because we raised this yesterday is, we listened to all the calls today. we listened not just to the trayvon martin call but all the ones that are still in existence going back to last august. and in every instance where it's reported in police reports that he was calling

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joining me now is managing editor of thegrio.com joy reed and ken padowitz, former homicide prosecutor. thanks for joining me. joanne, let's start with the letter the attorney for trayvon's family sent to the department of justice. what was this meeting that he's referring to? >> right. so today the attorney for trayvon martin's family sent a number to the justice department saying there are a number of things they want to look into. they want to look at the investigation of the case by police, what they did. they want to look into reports we have had from an anonymous source that wolfinger, the state attorney then assigned to the case met in person with bill lee, the police chief in this case. >> you have had those sources as well as other media -- >> yes. our sourcing says that and they have gotten into somewhere else sourcing as well. they want it looked into. this is the part in the letter that raised my eyebrows. the family of george zimmerman was at the police station at some point.