Search This Blog

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Accused madam held at Rikers in only T-shirt and diaper


Accused Soccer Mom Madam Anna Gristina is being held in a sweltering, vermin-infested Rikers Island cell clad only in a T-shirt and diaper, her heartsick husband claims.

His shocking allegations are revealed in a website Kelvin Gorr has set up to solicit donations to help raise the $2 million bond needed to spring his spouse.

Gristina, who was arrested Feb. 22 and charged with promoting prostitution, has been held on Rikers Island because she hasn’t been able to come up with the sky-high bail money.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged that she and co-defendant Jaynie Mae Baker operated an upscale sex ring out of an E. 78th St. apartment for the last 10 years, netting more than $10 million from the illicit business.

But on the website, Gristina’s incarceration is called an “insult to the American way of life.”

On the site, the accused flesh peddler is portrayed in photos as an average suburban mom with a soft spot for pot-bellied pigs. There is even a plug on the website for the pig rescue center where Gristina volunteered.

“There is never a day, a morning, an hour, a minute that goes by that we dont miss our Mother, Anna Gristina-Gorr,” the website says. “To us, she is the woman who we call for when we are sick, who goes to our school plays and soccer games, who smiles in our eyes. She is Mom.”

The accused madam has suffered unspeakably squalid conditions in the clink, her family complains.

“As if this wife and mother was a war-criminal, Anna is kept in solitary confinement, in a room where the temperatures exceed over 100 degrees,” according to the website. “Rats and roaches scurry all around her.”

Gorr charges city jail authorities are keeping her in oddball attire as an attempt to humiliate her.

“It’s all untrue,” said Sharman Stein, a spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.

“So much pain is being inflicted on a woman who has not been convicted, who according to America’s own justice system, deserves to be treated innocent unless proven guilty.”

But according to recorded conversations from wiretaps, Gristina fled the country once when she thought the law was hot on her tail and they claim she’s still a flight risk.

Her lawyer, Gary Greenwald, has asked the appellate division to reduce her bail so that she can go home to her family.

Peter Gleason, a lawyer working with her on the case, has withdrawn his offer to put up his SoHo apartment as collateral for the bond, because of a disagreement over the terms of the bail package.

“Our small family cannot afford the huge bail amount set for her — two million dollars!” Gorr writes on the website.

“We are hoping that you will donate to help us pay for her bail, so she can live at home before the trial. We need our Mom here. Without her, part of our family’s life is missing.”

No comments:

Post a Comment