Ailina Tsarnaev, the sister of the accused Boston Marathon bombers, left court in South Boston after she turned herself in for failing to appear in a 2011 case.
Credit: Michael Naughton/Metro
A sister of the accused Boston Marathon bombers was released from a South Boston courthouse Wednesday after she was arrested for failing to appear in court for a 2011 case.
Ailina Tsarnaev, 23, formerly of Cambridge, turned herself in at a Boston police station early Wednesday. She was arrested on a default warrant and arraigned in South Boston District Court.
Tsarnaev, whose brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar are accused of setting off bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line in April, was charged with impeding an investigation and lying to detectives investigating a counterfeit bill scam.
According to court documents, she allegedly picked up a group of people who had used counterfeit money inside a restaurant at the South Bay Center in Dorchester. An employee saw the group get in her car and wrote down the license plate.
A prosecutor said that during the investigation, Tsarnaev became “quite uncooperative” when detectives asked her who the people were getting into her car.
She then failed to show up for a February 2011 court date and a warrant was issued.
The prosecutor asked that she be held on $1,500 cash bail, but her lawyer, George Gormley, said she has a 1-year-old child and is pregnant and will not flee. Gormley asked that she be released on personal recognizance because she could not afford the bail.
The judge released Tsarnaev on $1,500 personal bail, which she would have to pay if does not appear again.
Gormley said “no comment” as he lead Tsarnaev to a waiting car outside the South Boston courthouse. Tsarnaev did not answer questions from reporters about her case or her brothers.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police in Watertown, Mass., days after the bombing. His younger brother was eventually caught hiding in a boat in Watertown. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to federal charges. He could face the death penalty.
In the days after the bombing,Ailian Tsarnaev told The Star-Ledgerfrom her New Jersey apartment that she felt sorry for the families of the victims.
“I’m hurt for everyone that’s been hurt,” she told the newspaper.
Federal authorities searched Ailian Tsarnaev’s apartment in the days after the bombing, and police said they were confident there had been no contact between her and her brothers for years.
Last month Bella Tsarnaev, another sister of the alleged bombers,appeared in a New Jersey courtroomfor a case related to marijuana charges. Those charges were expected to be cleared because lawyers were working to get her into a pretrial intervention program.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
