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Calif. city manager makes $2M bail

BELL, Calif., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Robert Rizzo, the former Bell, Calif., city manager charged with 53 corruption counts, was released from jail, a Los Angeles County judge ordered.

Rizzo was released on $2 million bail shortly before midnight Wednesday after Judge Mary Lou Villar said she was satisfied the bond assets did not come from illegal activity, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

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Villar ordered Rizzo to surrender his passport and wear an electronic monitoring device.

During the hearing Villar agreed, over protestations by prosecutors, that five pieces of property put up as collateral by friends and relatives of Rizzo were not tainted by his alleged misappropriation, the Times said.

"He is a pinata, a figurehead," Rizzo's attorney James Spertus said of community anger directed at his client. "I hope the mob mentality subsides."

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