Already an accused madam, Anna Gristina yesterday insisted she’s not going to be a kept woman.
The reputed millionaire Upper East Side madam has jettisoned her “family lawyer,” Peter Gleason, because the $250,000 collateral he was offering came with too many strings attached, The Post has learned.
Gristina was feeling so uncomfortably obligated to the colorful, Elvis-loving attorney that yesterday — on the brink of posting a bond backed by Gleason’s $2 million TriBeCa apartment — she told a Manhattan judge she’d rather spend a few more days in jail.
Otherwise she’d be beholden to Gleason, who was insisting on being a guiding force in Gristina’s media and legal affairs, multiple sources told The Post.
She will use the extra jail time to put together a different bail package, sources said.
One of several sticking points was Gleason’s insistence that he share the media spotlight by walking Gristina out of Rikers Island once she was released, sources said.
A tearful Gristina remained out of sight in a holding pen yesterday as her defense lawyer, Norm Pattis, informed the court of her decision. Pattis declined to discuss the Gristina-Gleason rift, saying only that it was his client’s choice to change tactics.
“We may have a bond package tomorrow,” Pattis told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. “She thanks Mr. Gleason, and she asks that Mr. Gleason stand down on any efforts on her behalf.”
Gristina was so wary of the Gleason offer that she now risks missing being home in upstate Monroe tonight for her son’s high-school graduation.
Plan B — posting a bond collateralized by property owned by her in-laws — could happen anytime in the next few days, said her bail bondsman, Ira Judelson.
It is the third time Gristina has fired her on-again, off-again “family lawyer,” who attached himself to her case early on, winning her confidence during frequent jail visits despite having no felony-trial experience.
Gleason has insisted — in numerous television appearances — that he had only altruistic reasons for putting up his North Moore Street loft as her collateral.
“At a tough time like this, families should unite, and I’m glad Miss Gristina’s family is uniting behind her,” he said.
Gristina has been held in lieu of bail on Rikers since late February, when investigators pulled her screaming off a Midtown street and arrested her, demanding — she says in a sworn affidavit — that she give them information on five powerful alleged johns.
“I’ve been told we have to use another property to secure the bond, and I’m working hard to try to get her out,” Judelson said.