If Andrea Sneiderman is granted bond Aug. 21, she may not be able to foot the bill.
DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James last Friday froze nearly $2.3 million of the widow's assets, one day after she was charged with conspiring with her former boss, Hemy Neuman, to kill her husband. Neuman was sentenced to life in prison without parole in March for the November 2010 fatal shooting of Rusty Sneiderman outside a Dunwoody daycare facility.
The money involved came mostly via two life insurance policies, totaling $2 million, for which Andrea Sneiderman was the beneficiary. According to the complaint for forfeiture, those assets "were obtained through a pattern of racketeering activity."
Attorney Ken Hodges said the move by the D.A. was unusual.
"It's unique in Georgia," said Hodges, an Atlanta litigator and former district attorney for Dougherty County. "I'm not aware of it ever being done, to be honest, outside of drug forfeitures."
Hodges said the push to seize assets "has an appearance of an attempt by the state of Georgia to interfere with [Sneiderman's] due process rights."
The state is not acting on behalf of the insurers, who could sue to reclaim the assets, Hodges said.
James' office declined comment Friday, as did Doug Chalmers, a member of Andrea Sneiderman's defense team.
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