Senate GOP ‘goes nuclear’

Associated Press

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.

A California woman accused of killing the father of her two children was released from jail Thursday after posting an unprecedented $35 million bail raised by friends, family and business associates with ties to China.

Tiffany Li, wearing a baseball cap pulled low over eyes and a hood wrapped tightly around her head, declined to answer questions shouted by reporters as a bodyguard ushered her out of jail and into an SUV.

Li, 31, is backed by a group that raised $4 million in cash and pledged the remainder in San Francisco Bay Area property worth $62 million. California courts require twice the bail amount if property is used instead of cash. She is required to turn over her passports, wear an electronic monitor and remain under house arrest.

Li and her mother were born in China, where the mother was financially successful in the construction industry, said Li’s attorney, Geoff Carr. Li and her mother are naturalized U.S. citizens, Carr said.

Carr said all defendants except those accused of death penalty-eligible crimes are entitled to “reasonable bail.” The $35 million bail his client faced is the highest in San Mateo County’s history, a county official said.

Li has pleaded not guilty to charges she directed her boyfriend and another man to kill Keith Green, 27, and dispose of his body last year. Prosecutors say she feared losing custody of her young children to Green.

A friend of Green’s said Thursday that she was disappointed and shocked that Li was able to pay for her freedom pending her murder trial in September.