Kerik leaves jail mental health unit

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was transferred out of a county jail mental health unit Monday, officials said.

Kerik was jailed in Westchester County, N.Y., last month after prosecutors told a judge he had tried to influence potential jurors in his trial, set to begin Nov. 9, on charges of accepting thousands of dollars in work on his apartment from a contractor who did business with the city.

He checked himself into a special mental health unit 10 days ago but was transferred out of the unit Monday after being found psychologically stable, The New York Times reported.

Judge Stephen C. Robinson announced in court he had been notified of the transfer in a letter from the top psychiatrist at the jail.

"He poses no risk to himself or others due to any psychiatric illness," the letter indicated.

Kerik served as police commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He later became interim minister of the interior in Iraq and was nominated U.S. secretary of homeland security by President George W. Bush, but withdrew his name a week after accepting the nomination.