Wearing his signature bowtie and carrying a leather legal folder, Staten Island attorney Richard Luthmann walked out of federal court in Brooklyn Wednesday a free man. 

It's the first time he's been seen publicly since his arrest 10 days before Christmas on a federal indictment. 

He spent the next 12 weeks being held without bail before a judge said he could be released while he awaits his trial.

NY1 saw Luthmann as he exited the courthouse, but his attorney said, "No, no, no. I don't think Rich is going to be talking today." 

Not talking because his problems are far from over. 

Luthmann and his co-defendant George Padula are charged with defrauding companies buying scrap metal by sending them filler material instead.

He is also charged with kidnapping for allegedly setting up an associate to be threatened at gunpoint by a second co-defendant over a debt. 

In an effort to deny him bail, prosecutors claimed Luthmann has ties to organized crime. But prosecutor Moira Kim Penza had no answer Wednesday when federal Judge Jack Weinstein asked her which mafia family Luthmann is connected to. 

"There was no family that was identified because it doesn't exist. Because if it did exist, the great FBI, who knows this stuff inside out, would have put it in the indictment, would have put it on the record," said Arthur Aidala, Luthmann's defense attorney. 

Luthmann and his co-defendants were in court to ask for separate trials, one for the kidnapping and gun charges, the other for the fraud case. 

The judge appeared to agree, making light of the prosection's mob allegation along the way: "I'm not hot on trying them together with the mafia lurking in the background," he said. 

And while Luthmann is still banned from practicing law, Weinstein ruled he can visit the law library when he appears at the courthouse. "He can stay out of mischief there...I think it's a good place for him to be," the judge said. 

The defendants are due back in court April 18. The trial is set to begin in May.