Bank Holdup Suspect’s Mother Freed on Bail

A Pasadena judge ordered Valerie Nicolescu-Matasareanu to be released Tuesday on $50,000 bail after she testified that none of her money came from bank robberies allegedly committed by her son.

Nicolescu-Matasareanu has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of abusing a mentally disabled woman found locked in a dark, foul room with no food, water or toilet inside a building she owned.

Meanwhile, Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilda Weintraub said authorities now believe that another woman, whose Social Security checks were deposited to a bank account held with Nicolescu-Matasareanu, may be a missing person. She said a California identification card for Elena Pietrzik, 68, was found at Nicolescu-Matasareanu’s home along with prescription medications in Pietrzik’s name. Those items make it unlikely that the woman was a fictitious character created to defraud the state of Social Security funds.

Tuesday’s special hearing came after prosecutors filed a motion that required Nicolescu-Matasareanu to show that none of her money comes from illegal sources, including robberies that her dead son Emil Matasareanu may have committed.

“I’ve proved beyond a doubt that this money was from the refinancing,” Nicolescu-Matasareanu told Judge Terry Smerling. She demonstrated that her money for the bail came from the refinancing of her Altadena home and a Pasadena property.