Anthony Oddone Freed on Bail

Anthony Oddone embraced his mother as he saw her for the first time out of prison or a courtroom since 2008, just moments after he was released on bail Monday afternoon.

Supporters of the 31-year-old man, whose conviction in the death of Hampton Bays resident Andrew Reister after a fight at a Southampton Village bar in 2008 was overturned earlier this month, posted $500,000 cash bail to free him after five years and four months in custody. Judge C. Randall Hinrichs agreed to the bail, while prosecutors seek another indictment in order to retry him.

After a long day in court, which included an adjournment to check on whether Oddone ever had a US Passport, he walked out a side entrance at the Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead at about 4:30 p.m. His attorneys, flanked by private security, brought him in a Cadillac Escalade to an area of the parking lot where his family and friends were waiting for him.

"Thank you so much," Oddone said to his mother as they hugged. His supporters clapped and cheered. "I love you, Mom."

"I'm just very grateful to be with my friends and family and loved ones who supported me through this whole thing," he told reporters.

His release comes just two days before Christmas.

"I'm just happy to have my son home," said his mother, with whom he will live in Middletown, N.Y.

Reister's parents and brother, who were in the courtroom to hear the judge's decision, declined to comment as they left.

Marc Wolinsky, of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City, who is working pro bono for Oddone, said, "There is a presumption of innocence now" that the conviction against him was overturned.

Though Oddone was held without bail before his first trial, Oddone is now facing a lighter sentence of 5 to 17 years if he is found guilty of first-degree manslaughter, again. The DA's office cannot retry him on a murder charge, the charge he was initially indicted on.

If he were convicted and sentenced to 17 years, he would only have 9 left to serve because he gets credit for five and a half years he has already served.

"While this is a substantial sentence, it is a far cry from the potential of life imprisonment that Tony faced when he was initially detained," the bail application stated.

In a 7-0 ruling issued on Dec. 12, the New York State Court of Appeals tossed Oddone's conviction and subsequent 17-year sentence.

The court found that evidentiary rulings that Hinrichs made not permitting the defense to refresh a witness's recollection with a statement the witness had previously given about how long the headlock lasted was improper. The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial.

Denise Merrifield, the assistant district attorney handling the case, said she is moving forward with the case and looking for a new indictment.

Sarita Kedia, who represented Oddone at his trial in 2009 and in court on Monday, said Oddone being a free man during a second trial will make a big difference in his defense.

She said being able to meet with him was even more onerous than being able to do so with other inmates because he was housed at Riker's Island for his own safety. Reister was a Suffolk County Corrections Officer, and therefore Oddone could not be kept at the county jail.

In fact, the defense alleges that he was severely beaten during the one night he did not spend at Rikers, but at the Nassau County Correctional Facility. "Tony's resulting injuries were attributed to inmates "and others."

In December 2009, a jury convicted him of first-degree manslaughter for causing the death of Reister, an off-duty Suffolk County Corrections Officer who was moonlighting as a bouncer at Southampton Publick House. Oddone was dancing on a bar with a woman in August 2008 when Reister, 40, asked them to get down. Oddone refused, and Reister pushed him. Oddone put Reister in a headlock, breaking the bones in his neck and causing Reister to go unconscious.

Southampton Village police arrested Oddone, who fled the scene in a taxi, about one mile away from the bar a few minutes later. Reister, who had a wife and two young children, died two days later.

Oddone claimed self-defense and the jury acquitted him of murder, but convicted him of first-degree manslaughter, as a lesser offense. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but an appeals court later shaved five years off his sentence.

Judge C. Randall Hinrichs set bail at $500,000 cash or $1 million bond — a far cry from the amount the Suffolk County District Attorney's office requested of $5 million cash or $15 million bond.

Merrifield pointed to his criminal history, including a petty larceny conviction in 2004 after he stole $7,000 from a Walmart where he worked. While on probation on the misdemeanor charge, he was arrested in 2005 on a criminal mischief charge after a disturbance at a bar. He was also arrested for driving with a suspended license in 2005.

She said it was also worrisome that the bail money was being put up by others. "He's already shown the ability to be a thief and steal," Merrifield said. "We know he will flee . . . He does whatever he want."

The DA's office also claimed he absconded probation on several occasions leading to warrants for his arrest.

Kedia disputed the accusations, offering proof he tried to keep in touch with his probation officer after moving to Suffolk County to attend St. Joseph's College in Patchogue.

The bail hearing Monday was recessed during the day so that the court could be sure Oddone didn't have a Passport, which Hinrichs said would have to be surrendered as a condition of his bail. However, it turned out he never had one at all.