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The Retreat at Twin Lakes homeowners association might be wishing they had picked someone else to be neighborhood watch captain, since Zimmerman’s action could end up costing them a bundle of money, to say nothing of a young man’s life.

“The degree to which the HOA authorized George Zimmerman’s actions will affect the HOA’s exposure to liability and may also play a role in the theory of liability presented by the plaintiffs in this case,” Wilcox says. “The HOA’s liability based on its designation of George Zimmerman as neighborhood watch captain will also depend on the answers to numerous questions.”

Among the questions that would determine the extent to which the association is exposed to liability:

How was Zimmerman appointed? By a vote of the HOA board?

What is the HOA’s authority under its governing documents to establish a community watch program in the first place?

How detailed were the HOA’s guidelines and policies, if any, for executing the community watch program?

Did the HOA have knowledge that Zimmerman owned and carried firearms?

Did Zimmerman have a concealed weapons permit?

Did Zimmerman violate any other HOA rules relating to carrying a firearm in the neighborhood? http://blogs.lawyers.com/2012/04/homeowners-association-could-be-liabl
e-in-trayvon-martins-death/ was Zimmerman appointed?

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As the only person to volunteer when the homeowners association wanted to organize a community watch,[44] Zimmerman was appointed coordinator by his neighbors, according to Wendy Dorival, Neighborhood Watch organizer for the Sanford Police Department. The February 2012 homeowner association newsletter requested that crime victims "call our captain, George Zimmerman" after calling the police.

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What is the HOA's authority under its governing documents to establish a communit-watch program in the first place?

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Association boards may appoint corporate officers - or officers may be elected directly by the membership (depending on the jurisdiction). The officers and the board may create committees, such as an "architectural control committee", a pool committee, a neighborhood watch committee, and others. Wiki

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The governing documents aren't available to the public, but I found this:

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Whenever an association is attempting to enforce a provision in the governing documents, any ambiguity will be construed against the association. http://www.condoandhoalawblog.com/search/label/governing%20documents]

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How detailed were the HOA’s guidelines and policies, if any, for executing the community watch program? There are numerous references to

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The head of an HOA watchdog group told the Sentinel: "They should have ... disallowed members from running around with guns. If you don't put out guidelines, you are in deep doo-doo if something happens." http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2012/04/homeowners-may-have-to-pay-in
-a-trayvon-civil-action.html we haven't public access to their documents, we can't know.

Did the HOA have knowledge that Zimmerman owned and carried firearms?

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An interview with 3 members of the association defending Zimmerman - when asked if they knew if he had a gun - 2 said no, 1 said YES. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/homeowner_association_c
ould_be/865/comments-newest.html a comment to an article, and I can't find anything else to verify it. There is also mention that, if they knew he carried a gun, the other homeowners should have been notified of that. Most homeowners' associations do not allow their watch people to carry guns.

Other references include this about neighborhood watch carrying guns?:

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He had to take a class with other volunteers, where he says deputies told them to never chase a suspect. They aren't allowed to carry weapons. They aren't even allowed to get out of their cars. http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/policy-of-caution-guides-nei
ghborhood-watch-groups/1221327] The National Sheriff's Association sponsors neighborhood watch programs. Their manual says patrol members don't carry weapons. http://www.actionnewsjax.com/mostpopular/story/Should-neighborhood-wat
ch-groups-carry-guns/uLHMnZnxhEqNhOI5lwTcpg.cspx are other neighborhood watch programs which do allow it. According to a CNN poll:

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According to the poll, only one in five believe that neighborhood watch members should carry guns, with 76% saying they should not be allowed to be armed. http://articles.cnn.com/2012-03-26/justice/justice_florida-teen-shooti
ng-poll_1_gun-laws-shooting-death-grand-jury?_s=PM:JUSTICE]

Did Zimmerman have a concealed weapons permit?

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Zimmerman was licensed to carry a firearm. Sanford police chief Bill Lee stated that neighborhood watch volunteers are not encouraged to carry a gun but have a Constitutional right to do so. Lee further stated, "Mr. Zimmerman was not acting outside the legal boundaries of Florida Statute by carrying his weapon when this incident occurred." Wiki

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There is this:

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Unfortunately, the HOA was a part of this tragedy. What due diligence did the HOA undertake before appointing Zimmerman to a position of “Neighborhood Watch Captain”? Did the board ask about Zimmerman’s background, which we now know was not “squeaky clean”? Did the board ask if he carried a weapon? What training did Zimmerman have? Did the board ask any of these questions, before endorsing him in the HOA newsletter as the “go to” guy for community security?

According to the National Sheriff’s Association, the HOA community never registered with any official neighborhood watch program. Why not? Did the HOA even know or verify that neighborhood volunteers were following appropriate guidelines?

We now know that Zimmerman certainly did not follow the guidelines promulgated by the National Sheriff’s Association for neighborhood watch programs. Chris Tutko who runs the program stated that the manual specifically states that citizens should never pursue or take action on their suspicions. Their job is to report, not shoot. Neighborhood watch volunteers have no more authority than an ordinary citizen. According to NPR, Tutko emphasized that “Firearms are definitely out” for a neighborhood watch program. http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/condoblog/page/2 know that neighborhood watch programs don't need to register with any national group, and theirs had not. But what about due diligence and background check? I'm not going to hunt up answers (if there are any available) to the questions asked in this article...personally I'm guessing they didn't do due diligence or check out his background. From what I'm fiding, many neighborhood watch programs aren't paid much attention to by a lot of HOAs. But they should be, as this situation has shown.

On another point:

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In an HOA meeting some weeks prior to Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin, another resident of the community was kicked out of the meeting because he complained that Zimmerman was profiling him. This strongly implies to me that the HOA knew and approved of what Zimmerman was doing:

George Zimmerman Neighbors Complained About Aggressive Tactics Before Trayvon Martin Killing

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At an emergency homeowner’s association meeting on March 1, “one man was escorted out because he openly expressed his frustration because he had previously contacted the Sanford Police Department about Zimmerman approaching him and even coming to his home,” the resident wrote in an email to HuffPost. “It was also made known that there had been several complaints about George Zimmerman and his tactics" in his neighborhood watch captain role.

The meeting was attended by Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee, the detective assigned to the investigation and an unnamed member of the city council, according to the homeowner’s association newsletter

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. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/george-zimmerman-trayvon-mart
in_n_1340358.html

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From all of this, it looks like the HOA may be liable...but more important, I think some of these questions will be pertinent at his trial, as well.

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Did the board hire or appoint him?

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What due diligence did the HOA undertake before appointing Zimmerman to a position of “Neighborhood Watch Captain”?

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As the only person to volunteer when the homeowners association wanted to organize a community watch, Zimmerman was appointed coordinator by his neighbors, according to Wendy Dorival, Neighborhood Watch organizer for the Sanford Police Department. The February 2012 homeowner association newsletter requested that crime victims "call our captain, George Zimmerman" after calling the police.

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I really feel for the other homeowners, who ultimately had little to nothing to do with putting Zimmerman on their streets, but could well end up paying out the nose because of this incident. It isnt really fair to them

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Martin assumed the risk of his injury by entering into the gated community of which he was not a member.

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Twin Lakes is actually not entirely gated. There is also no guard at the gate, there are no high fences. The community is just modest condos, Julison says, not protected with the electronic equivalent of a castle moat.... The short answer is no. No one ‘cleared’ anything with George Zimmerman, because no one had a duty to do so..... Unlike with real police, and real security guards, on real duty, there was nothing in the set-up, no protocol in place, to safeguard exit as well as entry. There was nothing to inform George Zimmerman of the difference between suspicious characters, on one hand, and neighbors and their guests on the other.... The Sanford Police Department letter to the community residents the day after the Feb. 26 shooting identifies Trayvon Martin, not by name, as “another resident of the community"....“There was not any sort of organized system,” said one of the residents in the news report." http://www.margieburns.com/2012/04/trayvon-martin-question-3-when-tray
von-martin-was-cleared-to-enter-the-gated-community-did-anyone-notify-neighborhood-watch/]

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