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HOUSTON (AP) — New York real estate heir Robert Durst was released from jail Thursday — but not as a free man. Durst, acquitted 11 months ago of intentionally killing his elderly neighbor, was taken into custody by federal marshals for transfer to Pennsylvania to face gun charges. "He was wondering what was going on," Galveston County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Carrazalez said. "He seemed concerned. We basically told him the U.S. marshals were here to pick him up." Durst's lawyer was livid.
"Somebody's doing this for vindictive reasons," attorney Dick DeGuerin said, calling the action a "malicious prosecution." When Durst was arrested in November 2001 near Bethlehem, Pa., police seized his rental car and found two .38-caliber revolvers and 86 rounds of ammunition. Richard Manieri, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia, said he expected an indictment returned on Thursday would be unsealed Friday. The 61-year-old Durst, whose family runs The Durst Organization, a privately held billion-dollar New York real estate company, had been expecting to be released this week after Texas prison officials determined he was eligible for parole on charges related to the death and dismemberment of neighbor Morris Black, 71. Durst was jailed for nearly three years for bond-jumping because he fled after his 2001 arrest -- and was arrested six weeks later in Pennsylvania -- and for evidence-tampering for disposing of the victim's body parts. "We received a writ today ordering us to release him to U.S. marshals," Carrazalez said Thursday. He said Durst would be taken to a federal detention center pending an appearance before a magistrate judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. | 
