After 5 months in jail, doctor in genital cutting case released on $4.5M bond

The lead defendant in a genital mutilation investigation is about to taste freedom again thanks to generous friends: They offered more than $4.5 million in property to secure Dr. Jumana Nagarwala's bond and her release from federal lockup after five months.

That's the largest unsecured bond in the history of Detroit's federal court.

The size of the bond, along with other factors, convinced U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman today to grant bond to Nagarwala, who the government believes subjected as many as 100 minor girls belonging to a small Muslim sect to genital cutting procedures. Friedman concluded that Nagarwala isn't a flight risk given all that her friends and family have to lose should she flee. 

"I spent a lot of time reviewing this," said Friedman, noting "the people who have come forward" to help Nagarwala and the money they are putting up are "very substantial."

Sharon Riehs, deputy chief of pretrial services for the Eastern District of Michigan, said the $4.5-million bond is a first for the court.

"I've been here for 31 years and I can't recall seeing an unsecured bond in that amount," Riehs said.

Defense attorney Shannon Smith, who is representing Nagarwala, said she and her client were relieved by the decision. 

"After five months of her being locked up, it's nice to see that she'll be able to be out on bond,"  Smith said. "She is very happy."

Also on Freep.com:

Genital mutilation victims break their silence: 'This is demonic'

Feds drop bombshell: Up to 100 girls may have had their genitals cut in Michigan

According to Smith, the individuals who offered property to secure Nagarwala's bond all live out of state. The property, she said, is all paid off.

Nagarwala, who previously had to surrender her passport, also has been ordered to wear a tether and post her Northville home as security. Judge Friedman also froze her and her husband's assets and retirement accounts. She will temporarily live in a hotel as she is only allowed supervised visits with her two minor children, who live in their home with their father.

Nagarwala could lose her parental rights, though Smith is continuing to fight that possibility in state court and argues Nagarwala's children are thriving academically and personally and should be with both their parents.

The prosecution argued against granting bond to Nagarwala, saying she has the resources and motive to flee: She lost her job, could lose her parental rights and faces up to life in prison. Releasing her on bond could also give her more time to silence witnesses in the case, prosecutors have argued, claiming Nagarwala has already told members of her religious community to "deny everything" if investigators ask about genital cutting procedures.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward contended that Nagarwala "is the one who directed" a 12-year conspiracy that involved bringing young girls to a Livonia clinic for genital cutting procedures. Moreover, she stressed, Nagarwala was the one who "wielded the instrument to cut several young girls" and then tried to cover it up.

The defense has claimed that the government is overstating its case and that Nagarwala and her co-defendants were engaging in a religious procedure that involved no harm. The case involves eight defendants — including two doctors, a physician's wife and four mothers — who are accused of participating in various degrees of subjecting young girls to genital cutting as part of a religious practice.

All defendants are members of the Dawoodi Bohra — a small Indian Muslim sect with a mosque in Farmington Hills that practices female circumcision and believes it is a religious rite of passage that involves only a minor "nick."

The lead defendant is  Nagarwala, a now-fired emergency room physician at Henry Ford, who is charged with performing the procedure on six girls at a Livonia clinic. Two of the girls are from Minnesota; four from Michigan.  The clinic owner and his wife have also been charged.

Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, of Farmington Hills, is accused of letting Nagarwala use his clinic to perform genital cutting procedures on minor girls; and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, is accused of holding the girls' hands during the procedure to keep them from squirming and to calm them.

Four mothers also have been charged in the case, accused of putting their daughters in harm's way by letting Nagarwala cut their genitals as part of a religious procedure.

Prosecutors have argued that the federal genital mutilation law is clear: It prohibits "knowingly circumcis(ing), excis(ing) or infibulat(ing) the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris of any other person who has not attained the age of 18 years."

According to court documents, in interviews with authorities, the two Minnesota victims described the genital cutting procedures as painful.

One girl said that she got a shot, screamed, and "could barely walk after the procedure, and that she felt pain all the way down to her ankle." The other said she was "laid on an examining table with her knees near her chest and legs spread apart," that she was "pinched" in the genital area, that it "hurted a lot" and that there was "pain and burning."

Both girls were told to keep the procedures a secret, court records show. One said "the doctor made her (friend) cry."

Especially egregious, authorities have argued, is that this procedure was carried out by a doctor who took an oath to do no harm. 

"She knew that this was illegal, but did it, anyway," Woodward has said of Nagarwala, stressing: "As a medical doctor, she is aware that female genital mutilation has no medical purpose."

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas.