CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A low-income Queens woman with no prior criminal history was placed under supervised release after prosecutors deemed her a flight risk during an arraignment in Central Islip Criminal Court.
The accused appeared before Judge John B. Zollo, charged with second-degree robbery, a Class C felony. Prosecutors allege she and another person stole a woman’s handbag and that the victim’s daughter later retrieved it in a scuffle.
The accused’s attorney, Deborah Monastero of the Suffolk County Legal Aid Society, presented a sharply different narrative. She said her client mistakenly believed the bag was her own and returned it immediately upon realizing the error.
Judge Zollo asked Assistant District Attorney Marissa Edelstein if the accused knew the complainants. Edelstein acknowledged there was no prior relationship. While the incident did not meet New York’s legal threshold for bail eligibility, Edelstein urged the court to impose supervised release with GPS monitoring. She argued that the accused’s residence outside Suffolk County and lack of local ties raised concerns.
Monastero called the GPS monitoring request excessive for someone with no record who holds stable employment. “She lives in Queens. That’s not far from here,” she said, noting the accused has held a steady job for five years and has never had prior contact with the criminal justice system.
Initially, Judge Zollo approved supervised release without GPS monitoring and ordered in-person reporting to probation. But when Monastero raised the financial hardship of traveling from Queens to Suffolk, the court recessed for an off-the-record conference.
When proceedings resumed, Zollo modified the condition to allow phone reporting, citing the accused’s limited financial means and accepting her surrender of a passport she no longer uses. The accused is allegedly not a U.S. citizen.
