Anonymous Donor Bails Out New Trier Student

By Marcus Gilmer in News on May 19, 2010 2:40PM

Erin Hughes, the New Trier student charged in a recent hit-and-run, had her bond paid by an anonymous donor. Hughes had been jailed because her family couldn't afford to pay the required 10 percent of her $500,000 bond but an anonymous donor has provided the necessary $50,000 to get Hughes released. Hughes will again see daylight as soon as her parents can surrender her passport, a requirement set for her release. She'll be monitored by electronic bracelet.

Hughes has been held at Cook County Jail's Cermak Health Services instead of with the general population for her own protection. Her attorney, Jack Levin, said of accusations of preferential treatment, "Absolutely, positively not; I think they really take into account that this appeared to be, maybe, a fragile 18-year-old and they erred on the side of caution. She's still in custody, but she's in a much safer environment. I don't think it has anything to do with privileged youth or the North Shore or anything like that." Levin also dismissed a Sun-Times report that Hughes smoked marijuana the night before the accident as "irrelevant."

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Sarah Goone, the girl hurt in the accident, remains in critical condition at Evanston Hospital.