Judge Poised To Let Anthony Oddone Out on Bail

This article was originally published on Dec. 23, 2013 at 1:51 p.m.

Anthony Oddone, the man whose conviction in the death of Andrew Reister at a Southampton Village bar in 2008 was overturned earlier this month, will likely be home for Christmas.

Judge C. Randall Hinrichs is ready to set bail at $500,000 cash — the amount Oddone's defense team proposed at a bail hearing on Monday — or an alternative of $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.

The proceeding was recessed until 2:15 p.m. so that the court could be sure Oddone was never issued a Passport, which Hinrichs said would have to be surrendered as a condition of his bail.

"It's a critical aspect to the court's ruling," Hinrichs said.

In the bail application, defense attorneys stipulated Oddone's Passport would be surrendered. However, during the proceeding, they discovered he had none to hand over. Sarita Kedia, who also represented Oddone at his trial in 2009, said her client said he has never left the country before and never had a Passport. Kedia told Hinrichs that she had been unable to speak to her client until the proceeding.

If the bail is in fact granted, it will be the first time that Oddone, 31, has been free since his arrest on Aug. 7, 2008. He will reside with his mother in Middletown, New York. 

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

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.

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.

Kedia said bail is set to ensure the defendant's return to court.

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). 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, ordering a new trial.

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.

On Monday, Hinrichs dismissed the 2008 indictment against Oddone, and the DA's office said it would be seeking a new indictment.

Assistant District Attorney Denise Merrifield pointed to his criminal history, including a petty larceny conviction in 2004 after stealing $7,000 from a Walmart he was working at in UpState, New York, and arrested in 2004 on a criminal mischief charge at a bar. 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.

Check back to Patch for more information on this case later this afternoon.