The multi-millionairess accused of killing her autistic 8-year-old son can’t get out on bail, an appeals court ruled today.
Gigi Jordan has been ordered jailed ever since she was busted for killing her son with a prescription drug overdose at the Peninsula hotel on Feb. 5, 2010.
Jordan “also ingested a number of pills and left a suicide note stating that her son’s death was the only way to protect him from his allegedly abusive father and that she did not wish to live without him,” the state Appellate Division recounted.
Jordan, who’s worth an estimated $40 million, has indicated that her defense in the case would effectively be that her son’s murder was a mercy killing.
Three different judges denied her request to be let out on a $5 million bail package that included ankle bracelet monitoring and a private security detail to ensure she didn’t try to flee.
Jordan’s lawyers, Ron Kuby and Alan Dershowitz, said those denials were unfair, and compared her case to that of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief who was busted on rape charges last year and was released on a similar bail package.
In today’s ruling, the Appellate Division said there’s no comparison between Jordan and DSK, whose criminal case was eventually dismissed.
“[T]his case involves the murder of a child, a more serious charge than the charge against Strauss-Kahn, and a greater possibility of conviction, given that petitioner’s defense of ‘altrusistic filicide’ has not been successfully advanced in any court in this country, which together provide a greater incentive to flee,” they ruled.
The five judge panel said accepting Jordan’s position “would mandate that bail be granted in every case in which the accused has the financial resources to offer private security and monitoring.”
The Appellate Division is the same court that last week reduced a $2 million bail that was being used to hold alleged madam Anna Gristina. That case was much different than Jordan’s and DSK’s – she was being held for a low-level non-violent felony, “is a long-term resident of Orange County, is married, and is the mother of four children, including a nine-year-old child, who are United States citizens.”