NY Madam: Anna Gristina’s family launch website to collect donations for bail
The website www.helpanna.org was launched Wednesday. This detail from a photograph on the front page shows Gristina with two of her four children.
NEW YORK – Pity the alleged Soccer Mom Madam now being held pending trial at New York’s infamous Rikers Island jail.
Her family say she cannot afford to the $2 million bail set by a judge here and have taken to the Internet to appeal for donations from the public on a newly launched website www.helpanna.org.
It accepts all major credit cards.
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Along side endearing pictures of her children, the website says the surety required for her release is “cruel and unusual. Real criminals, such as alleged rapists, murders and child molesters have been required to pay less bail than she.”
Gristina was arrested on Feb 22 and charged with promoting prostitution at the head of an alleged sex ring supposed to have taken in $10 million in profits over a decade, according to The Daily News.
With the capacity to handle 14,000 inmates, the Rikers Island is sometimes referred to as the world’s largest penal colony: It sits on an island between the boroughs Queens and the Bronx, next to LaGuardia Airport.
The website likewise says the conditions of Gristina’s detention are atrocious: “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. Rats and roaches scurry all around her. The authorities humiliated her further by attempting to make her wear only a t-shirt and diaper.”
The News quoted Sharman Stein, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Corrections, as denying the allegations: “It’s all untrue,” said Stein.
The newspaper also said prosecutors had provided evidence that Gristina could be a flight risk, saying wiretap recordings contained discussion of a prior occasion when Gristina had fled the country to avoid prosecution.
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The website shows Gristina carrying for pot-bellied pigs and endorses a pig rescue center where she once worked.
According to The New York Post, the website was started by Gristina’s husband Kelvin Gorr.
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