Doctor accused of murder posts bond

By KATE LIEBERS

Staff Writer

A doc­tor accused of mur­der­ing Deanna Ball­man and her unborn child last sum­mer spent five nights in jail before post­ing his $1 mil­lion bond.

Dr. Ali Salim, 44, was released Mon­day after­noon, ignor­ing reporters’ ques­tions as he exited the jail and entered an SUV.

Salim is to remain under house arrest and mon­i­tored by GPS-tracking ankle bracelets until his trial, sched­uled to begin May 7 in Delaware County Com­mon Pleas Court. Salim is only allowed to leave his Turner Close home in New Albany to attend appoint­ments with his attor­ney or Adult Court ser­vices appoint­ments or court hearings.

The court also ordered Salim, a native of Pak­istan, to sur­ren­der his pass­port, and for­bid him to leave the state while the case is pending.

Both pros­e­cu­tors and Salim’s defense team had expected Salim to post bond after Judge W. Dun­can Whit­ney ordered a $1 mil­lion bond in the case. Delaware County Pros­e­cu­tor Carol O’Brien didn’t doubt the for­mer emer­gency room doc­tor had the finan­cial assets to meet the requirement.

Salim had been work­ing at Knox County Com­mu­nity Hos­pi­tal in Mt. Ver­non until August; he lost his priv­i­leges there when the story con­nect­ing him to Ballman’s death broke, his defense attor­ney Sam Shaman­sky said.

The state had rec­om­mended a $5 mil­lion bond, describ­ing Salim as a flight risk with par­ents in Pakistan.

Shaman­sky had retorted that if Salim was going to flee, he would have done so dur­ing the six-month span between Ballman’s death and Salim’s arrest on Feb. 20. He also cited Salim’s clean crim­i­nal record prior to the mur­der allegation.

Salim’s brother helped post the req­ui­site 10-percent pay­ment to the bonds bail­men, said Delaware County Sheriff’s Office spokes­woman Tracy Whited.

When asked his reac­tion to Salim post­ing bail, Sher­iff Russ Mar­tin responded via email that the office “respects the deci­sion of the court.”

“Our detec­tives are con­tin­u­ing to work hard in pre­sent­ing the best case pos­si­ble,” Mar­tin stated. “It is our intent to bring some jus­tice in this mat­ter to the deceased and her child.”

Pros­e­cu­tors allege Salim lured the 23-year-old Ball­man to his New Albany home with a Craigslist ad, then injected her with a fatal dose of heroin. Her body was found the day after her mother reported her missing.

Salim pleaded not guilty last week to two counts of mur­der, rape, felo­nious assault, cor­rupt­ing another with drugs, kid­nap­ping, two counts of tam­per­ing with evi­dence and abuse of a corpse.

Shaman­sky claimed Salim’s inno­cence after the arraign­ment hear­ing and referred to Ball­man as a “heroin-addicted woman.”

O’Brien said per­sonal wit­ness inter­views, includ­ing her super­vi­sor at the Army National Guard in Col­orado, sug­gest Ball­man was not a drug user.

The Franklin County Coro­ner con­cluded that Ball­man died from “acute intox­i­ca­tion by heroin.” The autopsy report noted a nee­dle punc­ture sur­rounded by a bruise on her thigh.

Before her death, Ball­man had recently returned to her home­town in Pataskala and told fam­ily mem­bers she was try­ing to earn extra income by respond­ing to clean­ing ser­vice clas­si­fied ads.

She was the mother of two young chil­dren and nine-months preg­nant with her third.

Posted by Gary Henery on Feb 27 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.