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DSK Bail Precedent Doesn't Help Woman Accused Of Killing Her Son
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 12, 2011
Modified Aug 12, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 12, 2011
Modified Aug 12, 2011
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Socialite Gigi Jordan was arrested for allegedly killing her 8-year-old son in a failed murder-suicide at the Peninsula Hotel. She's been in police custody since February 2010, and yesterday her lawyers, the high-profile team of Alan Dershowitz and Ron Kuby, failed in getting her out on super-expensive bail when they pointed out that alleged sexual assault suspect Dominique Strauss-Kahn got bail. In other words, alleged sexual assault is not the same as alleged filicide.
Jordan's child, Jude, was severely autistic and the Manhattan DA's office suggested that Jordan, a wealthy pharmaceuticals executive, suffered " Munchausen by proxy syndrome and might have faked the attempted suicide part. Jordan's defense is that she was protecting Jude from the child's father (the suicide note mentioned child porn).
Dershowitz and Kuby said Jordan would live in her Upper East Side townhouse with armed guards on a $6 million bail package. But the judge, Justice Charles Solomon, wrote, "The defense seems to feel that because my colleague Justice [Michael] Obus set bail for Dominique Strauss-Kahn that I should therefore set bail for Gigi Jordan. Such is not the case. [W]hat another justice does in a case involving very different charges, completely different circumstances and a different defendant has no bearing on this court's decision. The only similarity between this defendant and (DSK) that this court is aware of is that they both have the financial means to post significant bail and to pay for a private security team to monitor them. This similarity is of no significance to the court in reaching a decision in this case."
Dershowitz's and Kuby's fate is also in question because prosecutor Kerry O'Connell doesn't want them on the case. The Daily News reports, "Of Kuby, O'Connell told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon, 'I don't wish to have any further contact with him off the record or off calendar... I think he knows why," she cryptically added without elaborating. She later said the ban also applied to Dershowitz."
Dershowitz was pissed, "It denies our client equal protection under the law. We will be moving to remove the prosecutor from the case."
Tagged
alan dershowitz
bail
dominique strauss-kahn
dsk
filicide
Gigi Jordan
murder
ron kuby
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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