Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Accused madam's lawyer wants lower bail - New York Daily News

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Accused East Side madam Anna Gristina was lost in the legal system for hours Monday before a Manhattan judge shot down her bid to have her $2 million bail reduced and sent her back to jail.

The smile on Gristina’s face on seeing her husband Kelvin Gorr sitting in the second row when she finally got to the courtroom — after seven plus hours in limbo — faded fast when the judge ordered her sent back to Rikers Island.

Gristina’s odyssey began at 8 a.m., when she was supposed to board the prison shuttle bus to the Manhattan courthouse.

“I wasn’t called,” she told her lawyer, sources said.

When Gristina didn’t turn up in Manhattan, her lawyers and the judge called the jail at 12:30 p.m. and were informed she was still there, sources said.

Only she wasn’t.

Gristina was already in a holding cell on the 12th floor of the courthouse complex, where she was finally located at 3:15 p.m.

Fifteen minutes later she was before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon, who promptly denied her lawyer’s petition to reduce her bail from $2 million.

Gristina, 44, is accused of running a $10 million call-girl ring that operated on the upper East Side and supplied high-class hookers to wealthy johns.

Police said 30-year-old Jaynie Mae Baker allegedly booked the girls for Gristina. She is free on $100,000 bail.

Gristina’s lawyer, Gary Greenwald, argued that if Baker was allowed out that Gristina should be too.

“How does the co-defendant get $100,000 [bail\] and she went to Mexico?” Greenwald said before the hearing. “That somehow doesn't play into anything?”

Baker told prosecutors she was on vacation in Mexico when the reputed vice den was shut down in February. She and Gristina have both

pleaded not guilty to prostitution charges.

Prosecutors argued again that the Scottish-born Gristina, who lives with her family upstate, remains a flight risk. They said Gristina had wealthy customers who might be willing to help her escape to avoid having their names revealed.

Before Gristina arrived in court, her

lawyer and prosecutors sparred before another judge, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, over access to evidence.

Greenwald once again demanded that prosecutors turn over “basic” evidence like the search warrants they got to bug the alleged brothel.

“We are entitled to that,” Greenwald said.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Roper said they plan to hand over that evidence but also want a protective order “for portions” of the search warrant materials.

Merchan told both sides to work something out and get back to him.

“I don’t want to get involved in gamesmanship,” Merchan said. “I don’t want to get involved in hand-holding.”

mgrace@nydailynews.com


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