Arson Suspect Released on Doubts About Print : Investigation: Shoshana Maimon’s brother, a former Israeli intelligence officer, says new information has surfaced. Though police are saying little, her bail was dropped from $1 million to $25,000.

Crime stoppers’ quiz: Can a palm print be reproduced on a louvered window?

Maybe so, maybe not. But former Tel Aviv journalist Shoshana Maimon and her supporters are floating that idea as a possible reason for the discovery of Maimon’s palm print at the scene of a fire on April 26.

Maimon has been released from jail as Beverly Hills police struggle to make sense of the evidence found at the home of Nureet Granott and David Cohen. Once close friends of Maimon’s, they had been caught up in months of acrimony with her.

Soon after the fire, police found Maimon’s palm print at the scene, along with a one-gallon can of gasoline, a foam cup and a pair of rubber gloves. She was arrested on a charge of arson and four counts of attempted murder.

With bail set at $1 million, the 41-year-old woman languished in jail for 44 days, her plight plastered across front pages in Israel.

Until she was released late Wednesday, friends besieged the Beverly Hills Municipal Court with letters of support, pestered the district attorney’s office and argued with investigating officers.

Their message: The whole thing was a frame-up, cleverly concocted by Cohen (who used to date Maimon) and Granott (who once rented a room to Maimon) in order to discredit Maimon as a witness against Cohen in a separate case based on his alleged threats against her.

Indeed, that felony case against Cohen was dropped two days after the fire, and investigators concentrated on Maimon instead.

In the last two weeks, however, “they’ve been getting some facts and new angles on their theory, and they’re getting ready to question it,” said Maimon’s brother, Michael Y. Maimon. He is a former intelligence officer and government official who flew here from Israel to help defend his sister.

“The only problem they had was (establishing) a reasonable explanation for the palm print,” he said. “We provided them with some possible explanations.”

He declined to say more about it, and police and prosecutors declined to discuss the case. Steve Markardt, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington, said he knew of no way to move a fingerprint from one glass surface to another. But Shoshana Maimon’s bail was dropped to $25,000 Wednesday, a drastic reduction from the $2 million first suggested by the district attorney’s office.

“I feel great. I hope it’s behind me,” Maimon said Thursday. She is staying at a friend’s house with her 6-year-old daughter.

Besieged by phone calls from supporters here and at home, she said she was resting, “adjusting to society, to civilization,” after more than one month behind bars.

“Their whole side (of the story) is a big invention,” she said. “I didn’t do anything.”

Among the spectators at Wednesday’s hearing were Cohen and Granott, both dressed in white.

“Nobody told me they would be there,” Maimon said, “so when I saw them I said, ‘The devil is wearing white,’ ” in Hebrew. The phrase rhymes in that language. “The D.A. was very mad at me. . . . But we are Israelis and I forgot we were in America.”

Now that Maimon is out of jail, both sides will continue their investigations. They will meet again at a preliminary hearing sometime in July.

Granott said that Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa Hart told her the bail was lowered because of the hardship caused by the separation of Maimon and her daughter, and because of the persistent questions about the case.

“I was quite surprised by the decision and I said so,” Granott said. “With (Maimon) outside, I don’t feel comfortable at all.”

Since the fire, she said, she has had her windows fitted with an alarm system and started driving her 12-year-old daughter to school instead of letting her walk.

The suggestion that she or Cohen may have planted Maimon’s palm print is absurd, she said.

“I don’t have contacts in Langley,” she said, referring to the CIA headquarters in Virginia. “These are theories that are appropriate for James Bond.”