When Anita Garcia got the call last week, she felt her thin veneer of safety shatter.

It was a Broward Sheriff's Office deputy telling her that Randy Gonzalez had made bail.

"I'm just shocked they allowed him out," Garcia said. "He's made numerous threats. ... We're all in fear for our lives."

Garcia, 33, was one of 27 survivors of Delta Flight 191, which originated in Fort Lauderdale and crashed in Dallas in 1985, killing 136. She received a $4 million settlement.

She said Gonzalez, 35, targeted her for her money when they met on July 28, 1997. She has accused him of keeping her isolated and drugged for 20 days with the powerful sedative Xanax, stealing $64,000 from her, flying her out to Las Vegas where he coerced her to marry him, and then assaulting her.

She managed to call her parents to rescue her on Aug. 17.

Her shock at Gonzalez's release raises the question of whether a defendant's rights are more important than a victim's rights.

Garcia may not like the answer.

"The notion of bail is not to hold a person in jail, but to ensure they show up for trial," said Bruce Winick, a law professor at the University of Miami law school. "You can't punish a person by keeping them in jail before a conviction. The judge has to set a reasonable bail."

Gonzalez, who has also used the name Randy Zapporoli, is charged with false imprisonment, aggravated battery/domestic violence, extortion, second-degree grand theft and distribution of controlled substances.

Gonzalez was arrested in November. He was released on $60,000 bail, placed on an electronic monitor and ordered to house arrest.

A Broward judge revoked Gonzalez's bail until a hearing on July 9 before Broward Circuit Judge Geoffrey Cohen.

Cohen increased Gonzalez's bail to $100,000, and if he made bail, ordered him again placed him on house arrest, to have no contact with the victims and to attend a batterer's intervention program.

He made bail four days later, when he walked out of Broward County Jail on July 13.

Gonzalez's court-appointed attorney, Jeff Ivashuk, said the judge was legally obligated to grant Gonzalez bail in the Northam case.

"He wasn't arrested for a capital crime," Ivashuk said. "And the judge determined he was not a threat to the community or a flight risk."

Those are Gonzalez's rights, and they are constitutionally protected, Winick said. Victims' rights are created legislatively.

"From what I've heard about the facts, the judge didn't act out of line," Winick said.

"Constitutional rights, in a sense, override any rights a person has that were created by a state legislature."

Gonzalez's attorney in the Garcia case, Marshall Geisser, said Garcia's accusations are a ruse to avoid paying Gonzalez any money in a divorce settlement.

He has asked for $450,000 if Garcia would settle amicably.

"When the evidence comes out, we'll see that she voluntarily married Randy," Geisser said. "We have witnesses who will say they saw her showing off her engagement ring."

Garcia's attorney, Stephen McDonald, did not return a phone call to his office.