Prosecutors literally said she was a flight risk. –But that didn’t stop a Brooklyn judge from releasing her on Friday.
The unassuming Russian airline stowaway who snuck onto a flight from JFK to Paris last week has attempted bizarre stunts at several other airports in the past, prosecutors said Friday in Brooklyn federal court.
But Svetlana Dali, 57, was released without bail on condition that she wear a GPS tracking device and temporarily live with friends from a church in Pennsylvania, Judge Joseph Martro ruled.
At Dali’s bail hearing Friday, Assistant District Attorney Brooke Theodora said the ticketed traveler tried to board a plane at Miami International Airport in February — wandering into the “arrivals” section and then… He said he had snuck into customs.
During the rampage, she sneaked to the airport’s “departures” section and tried to board a plane, Theodora said. Dali added that “many” domestic airports had also attempted similar actions.
In her most recent case, the stowaway was allegedly able to secretly board a Delta flight to Paris on Nov. 26, avoiding airline officials who were distracted by vacationers.
She was arrested on Wednesday upon returning to Queens Airport from France and held in the Metropolitan Detention Center.
“This is a serious crime,” Theodora told the court.
“There are very serious international security concerns in this,” the prosecutor said, adding that most of Dali’s family lives in Europe.
“She is a significant flight risk,” the ADA said.
Dali entered the courtroom wearing a beige prison uniform and using a cane, then stared blankly into the audience as an interpreter announced the terms of his release.
Her public defender, Michael Schneider, argued that she has no prior criminal record and is unlikely to commit a crime again.
“You can’t sneak onto a plane every day,” he said, but Judge Martolo countered, “She was said to be able to do it.”
However, Schneider also said during the hearing that the crime was not actually the “theft of services” she is accused of committing.
Judge Martolo cut him off, saying it actually “sounds like something more than ‘theft of services.'” ”
“I believe she has no other place to stay, so I would like to have her stay at (my) home if necessary,” Dalli’s church friend, Silouan John Matthew, told the court. “There is,” he said.
“I don’t mind her staying at home, but I don’t want her to be legally responsible,” he says.
Judge Martolo said in court that he had reservations about releasing Dali, but ultimately released her on her own recognizance with conditions.
“I’m still concerned that she’s a flight risk here. She evaded TSA security twice,” he said. “There’s no (community) connection here. … We’re in a tough situation.”
