Doctor accused of murder posts bond

Ali Salim, the New Albany-area doc­tor accused of mur­der­ing a preg­nant Deanna Ball­man last sum­mer, exits the Delaware County Jail Mon­day after post­ing bond. His trial is to begin May 7 in Delaware County Court of Com­mon Pleas. (Gazette | Kate Liebers)

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 decreased 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 Kate Liebers on Feb 26 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.