(27 Jun 2012) STORYLINE:
A suburban mother charged with running a prostitution ring was released from jail on bond on Tuesday night, after four months behind bars in a case laced with claims of prominent clients and law-enforcement protectors.
Anna Gristina walked out of the Manhattan courthouse around 2100 local time (0100 GMT), free for the first time since her February arrest.
Norman Pattis, Gristina's attorney, expressed satisfaction that bail had been met and his client had been released until a scheduled court appearance.
"The second best day in this case will be when we walk out of this courtroom and hear a verdict of 'not guilty,'" Pattis said outside the courthouse with Gristina at his side.
The Scotland-born Gristina, 44, is a mother of four who tends to rescued pigs at her home in Monroe, New York.
But prosecutors say she also was the proprietor of an illegal upscale sex service for 15 years, making (m) millions of US dollars and boasting that she had contacts in law enforcement who could tip her off if she was about to get busted.
Gristina has said she was merely starting a matchmaking service, not peddling prostitutes.
She has pleaded not guilty to promoting prostitution, a low-level felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan initially ordered her jailed on two (m) million US dollar bond and declined requests to reduce it.
But an appeals court called the amount "an abuse of discretion" and lowered it to 250 thousand US dollars on 12 June.
A judge signed off on bail arrangements on Tuesday.
She'd been brought to the courthouse from jail so that her ankle monitor could be attached.
She's a very nervous woman. She can't believe, she's kind of shocked that she's out," said bail bondsman Ira Judelson.
Gristina will be allowed to leave her home, Judelson said, adding that he'd set exact parameters in the days to come.
"Anna's going to have some room to go and go to the gym and do her thing up there and we'll go over the parameters tomorrow of what areas I don't want her to go to and what areas that she wants to go to which I feel comfortable with," Judelson said.
She's due back in court on 17 August.
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