A magistrate judge today agreed to release a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from federal custody while he awaits trial for allegedly lying to federal investigators probing the bombings.
Robel Phillipos, 19, was charged last week with lying to investigators about visiting Tsarnaev's college dorm room after the bombings. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student faces a maximum of eight years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors initially asked that Phillipos be held while he awaits trial, arguing that he poses a serious flight risk.
But both sides said in the court motion filed today they agreed to allow Phillipos to be released on USD 100,000 bond, provided he be confined to home and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.
Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler agreed to the strict house arrest during a hearing this afternoon. She told Phillipos he was allowed to leave the house only for meetings with his lawyers or true emergencies.
A huge crowd of supports, including Phillipos' relatives, friends and grade-school principal, showed up to the courthouse for the detention hearing. It was not immediately clear when Phillipos would be released.
Meanwhile, a funeral director trying to find a cemetery to take the body of Tsarnaev's older brother and alleged accomplice, Tamerlan, pledged to ask the city of Cambridge to allow him to be buried in a city-owned cemetery because the brothers lived in Cambridge for the last decade.
But Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy said he is urging Tsarnaev's family not to make the request.
"The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the City of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests, and wide spread media presence at such an interment," Healy said in a statement yesterday.
