(Xinhua) -- Robert RatsoRizzo, former manager of a small Southern California city and the central figure of a public corruption case, has been released on a 2-million-dollar bail early Thursday.
Rizzo, 56, was set free after Los Angeles County Judge Mary Lou Villar made the ruling, saying that she was satisfied that the assets that were posted for his bail did not come from public coffers. Rizzo, who had spent 15 days behind bars, is awaiting trial on multiple felony charges of misappropriating public funds.
"The defense has met its burden and I'm gonna allow the bond to issue," Villar said at the end of a three-hour hearing.
Rizzo would be required to surrender his passport and submit to electronic monitoring as conditions for his release, the judge ruled.
| Rizzo was arrested on Sept. 21, along with seven other current and former Bell officials including the mayor, council members and former administrators, for allegedly bilking taxpayers out of about 5.5 million dollars through lofty salaries and benefit packages, along with illicit loans of public money. |
The time of Rizzo's release was listed in inmate records as 11: 58 p.m. Wednesday. News video cameramen spotted Rizzo outside the Twin Towers facility in downtown Los Angeles.
Rizzo was arrested on Sept. 21, along with seven other current and former Bell officials including the mayor, council members and former administrators, for allegedly bilking taxpayers out of about 5.5 million dollars through lofty salaries and benefit packages, along with illicit loans of public money.
He was described by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley as "the unelected and unaccountable czar" who pocketed vast sums of money from the city treasury as if it were his personal cash box. The illegal activity in the small, poor working-class community is "corruption on steroids," he said.
Five properties, some owned by Rizzo's mother-in-law and worth more than 2 million dollars, were being used as collateral to secure the bail, Rizzo's attorney James Spertus said.