Speaking with reporters late Thursday morning, just prior to the release of Andrea Sneiderman from the DeKalb County jail, Sheriff Thomas Brown discussed the widowed mother of two as if she were a famous actress.
"We've had rappers. We've had country and western singers. We've had Bobby [Brown]. It's kind of become the jail for the celebrity type," Brown said as reporters pressed for details on Sneiderman's final minutes in jail, including one question about what she ate for breakfast.
After handing over a $250,000 cashier's check, the reluctant celebrity walked briskly past a phalanx of photographers and into a waiting minivan driven by one of her lawyers, Doug Chalmers. Neither she nor her attorney made any comment.
Her release came three weeks, almost to the minute, after her arrest on charges of conspiring with her former boss, Hemy Neuman, to kill her husband, Rusty Sneiderman.
Andrea Sneiderman has rejected charges that she participated in her husband's slaying and has denied she was romantically involved with Neuman, who was convicted in March of killing Rusty Sneiderman. He is serving life in prison without parole.
Subsequent public appearances will be limited, as Sneiderman was ordered by DeKalb Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams to remain under house arrest at her parents' Roswell home until her as-yet-unscheduled criminal trial. Adams also ordered her to wear an ankle monitor. She's due to be arraigned Oct. 8.
There are also several civil actions in which she appears as both a defendant and plaintiff. Her brother-in-law, Steve Sneiderman, has sued her for wrongful death and on Wednesday his attorneys filed a motion seeking to freeze what's left of her assets. Earlier this month, the state froze nearly $2.3 million from various Sneiderman accounts; DeKalb District Attorney Robert James alleged the funds, obtained primarily from life insurance on her husband, "were obtained through a pattern of racketeering activity."
Andrea Sneiderman has, in turn, sued her brother-in-law for defamation. She's also filed a wrongful death action against Neuman, her onetime supervisor at GE Energy.
Then there's the dispute between Sneiderman and her late husband's parents, Don and Marilyn Sneiderman, over visits with her children, ages 7 and 3. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane recently ruled that a scheduled deposition of Andrea Sneiderman can proceed sometime between Sept. 3 and Oct. 30.
But the stakes are highest in the criminal trial. If convicted, Sneiderman faces the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
AJC photographer John Spink contributed to this article.
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