Christie’s Ex-Wife to Be Free on Bail

After four months in Ventura County Jail, the ex-wife of Hells Angels leader George Christie Jr. was expected to be released from custody late Wednesday after a judge ruled her bond money was legitimate.

Cheryl Christie, 54, was indicted in February on 19 criminal charges in a broad drug-and-racketeering case involving her former husband.

Prosecutors say she was a conspirator in a narcotics ring that allegedly stole prescription drugs from an Air Force base and sold them to high school students in Ventura and Ojai.

Cheryl Christie was initially held in lieu of $500,000 bail. But Superior Court Judge Arturo Gutierrez lowered the sum to $100,000 after a state appeals court found it had been set too high.

Before her release, however, Christie had to prove her bail money came from a credible source and not through illegal means.

During a confidential hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Vincent O’Neill Jr. heard testimony from a bail bondswoman and Christie’s elderly father, who agreed to put up the bond. O’Neill concluded the father’s money was legitimate.

“The defense satisfied its burden by proving . . . the funds were not feloniously obtained,” defense lawyer Kay Duffy said after the hearing.

Duffy said it would take several hours, or longer, for Cheryl Christie to be released from jail.

Under the court-ordered terms of her release, she must check in daily with Ventura police and submit to random drug testing. She cannot leave Ventura County or have contact with any Hells Angels members or associates.