Lawyer: Parents of woman accused in plot plan to put up home for bail

The parents for Susan Williams, the Garden City woman charged with trying to arrange a hit on her estranged husband, are planning to use their home in an effort get their daughter released from jail, a lawyer said Saturday.

Stanley Kopilow of Garden City, Williams' defense lawyer, said he hopes to negotiate a lower bail for the woman at her next court hearing Tuesday. Saturday, Williams remained in jail on $1 million bond or $500,000 cash.

"Her parents are going to be putting up their home," Kopilow said. Her father, Brendan Galligan, is a retired detective who was in the New York Police Department's Major Case Squad.

Williams, 43, a mother of four, was charged with second-degree criminal solicitation and second-degree conspiracy Friday. She has pleaded not guilty.

The Nassau County district attorney's office said it has audiotape evidence that she asked an acquaintance to connect her with a hitman, as well as video tapes showing her negotiating last week the $20,000 price with the undercover officer who was posing as the hitman.

Williams and her husband Peter had been undergoing a messy divorce, lawyers and officials said.

"This is the worst divorce I've ever seen," said Peter Williams' divorce attorney, Nancy Dreeben of Garden City.

Peter Williams, 46, has moved out of the family's Garden City home and is living in Lynbrook, Dreeben said. He owns Williams Fence Co. in Lynbrook.

The divorce lawyers for Susan Williams did not respond to calls Saturday.