Kseniia Petrova was released on bail after a 10-minute hearing in her criminal smuggling case on Thursday in Boston federal court. Government prosecutors dropped their request that she be detained before trial, so magistrate judge Judith G. Dein ordered Petrova’s pretrial release on the condition that she not travel beyond New England.
Petrova, a Russian-born computational biomedical researcher in Marc Kirschner’s Harvard medical school lab, was detained in February by customs officials over a failure to declare microscope slides and other samples of clawed xenopus frog embryos at Logan Airport as she returned from France. Customs officials canceled her J1 visa over the issue – illegally, Petrova’s lawyers say – and initially offered to let her return to France but instead stated they would deport her to Russia, leading her to express fear because of her public support for Ukraine.
Officials took her into immigration custody and moved her to Vermont – where her attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition seeking her release – and ultimately to Louisiana. The Vermont case had two hearings in federal court: on May 14, denying the government’s motion to dismiss her habeas case; and on May 28, granting her temporary release from immigration custody.
But just after the first hearing, federal prosecutors in Boston unsealed a criminal smuggling charge against Petrova that had been filed on May 12. She was arrested, moving her from immigration detention to criminal detention. For reasons that are unexplained, it took the U.S. Marshals from May 15 to June 11 to move her from Louisiana to Oklahoma to Massachusetts, first promising her arrival by June 4 and delaying it yet again until June 11 – keeping her in transit for 11 days.
Petrova’s lawyers complained about the delays. She “would be entitled to a detention hearing within 5 days of arrest, had she been arrested [in Massachusetts],” they said in a request last week to expedite her transfer. Instead of five days, it was 29 days without a detention hearing.
Petrova arrived Wednesday and was held at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and met with her attorneys there.
Thursday detention hearing
The Thursday hearing was quick. The small courtroom was packed – about 30 people – with Petrova’s supporters and co-workers, as well as media. Petrova sat at counsel table in a bright orange jumpsuit among lawyers for the criminal and immigration cases.
Assistant U.S. attorney Nadine Pellegrini, who had filed the criminal complaint against Petrova on May 12, told the judge that “the government had previously moved for detention, but after conversation with counsel, the government believes release would be appropriate on conditions.”
The primary condition was that she not travel outside Massachusetts, which was expanded to encompass New England at the request of her lawyers, who noted her ongoing case in Vermont.
William Fick, Petrova’s lead criminal attorney, told the judge that he would like to schedule a “probable cause” hearing in her case, although that was tentative and it may be canceled. That hearing is set for Wednesday afternoon, if it goes forward.
Relatedly, because the smuggling charge is a federal felony charge, it ordinarily requires a grand jury indictment within 30 days of arrest, or by Friday. A grand jury is sitting and has subpoenaed people close to Petrova. No grand jury indictment has been made public in her case, nor has any extension of the time been disclosed.
One of the conditions of her release is that she not discuss the charges with William Trim, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard with whom she lives. Trim is supposed to appear before the grand jury tomorrow, sources said.
After the hearing, Petrova was processed by the U.S. marshals and the court’s probation department and released in street clothes.
Gregory Romanovsky, Petrova’s immigration lawyer, said she had received offers to work in other countries and that she was not yet sure if she wanted to stay in the United States. Fick declined to discuss her criminal case.
When she emerged from the courthouse, Petrova wore a maroon a T-shirt emblazoned “hakuna matata.” (It means “no worries,” popularized by a song in Disney’s “The Lion King.”) She thanked her friends and colleagues in a brief speech.
A stronger
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