Police won't charge George Zimmerman for alleged furniture theft

LAKE MARY, Fla., Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The man acquitted in the shooting death of an unarmed black teen won't be charged with stealing furniture from his mother-in-law, Lake Mary, Fla., police said.

Department spokesman Officer Zach Hudson characterized the matter as "a civil dispute" between George Zimmerman and his mother-in-law landlord, Machelle Dean, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday.

Zimmerman, 29, is the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., acquitted by a Seminole County jury in July in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman said he killed Martin in self-defense.

Zimmerman's mother-in-law, Machelle Dean filed a police report last month, accusing, Zimmerman of stealing a king-sized bed, an antique chair and several other furniture pieces from the house he rented from her, a police report said.

Dean also accused Zimmerman of defacing the kitchen cabinets by writing on them, the police report said.

When police tried to question Zimmerman, he referred questions to Mark O'Mara, who represented him in the murder trial, the report said.

O'Mara said at one point he'd just pay the estimated loss himself "because his client did not need the extra attention," the report said. That didn't happened, the Sentinel said.

Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, split Aug. 13 and had a very public dispute on Sept. 9, leading her to call the police to complain he was threatening her and her father as they tried to take items from the house.

Lake Mary police investigated the complaint but made no arrest.