'Black Sunday' Guilty Verdict Thrown Out

[Truck4 48]

A judge has thrown out the guilty verdict for the Landlord due to lack of evidence.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7292976

[FFD941 20]

Hopefully the Bronx DA pushes the issue

[hudson144 150]

Amazing- she praises the Firefighters then kicks them by ruling against them. There are still many SRO's out there that can cause the same situation,be aware and report them!

[chris 18]

This country is a joke, spill coffee on their crotch- that will get money though. Time to step up inspections and fix the problem before it can bite us. Oh yeah then the cities and towns will not hold up on forcing the landlords to correct the problem.

[x635 4,066]

Exactly what evidence did they not have??

[antiquefirelt 994]

I am by no means agreeing with the decision to throw out the verdict, but to answer Seth's question on what evidence was missing I'd offer this. Proving exactly how a fire occurred, traveled, and progressed to a jury or judge is difficult enough. We're not talking about most likely occurred, but exactly. Now enter in that they need to prove how the illegal renovations were directly responsible for the situation is a tall order. It shouldn't be, we know that the situation created made for conditions that could not be readily predicted, but the defense merely needs to show that another contributing factor may have helped cause the outcome? While I doubt anyone in our business would agree with the defense attorneys, I can see them making a case that fireground decisions led to the outcome or could have prevented the same. Most of the civilian population wouldn't understand why firefighters had to search when a tenant told them the building or units were unoccupied, and numerous other potential red flags to be thrown to create a diversion from the fact that the landlords illegal construction had a direct impact on the members situational awareness and ability to escape. Couple this with the potential case law that if buildings are that are not code complaint cause an injury or death the landlord/owner could be criminally responsible and it's almost a given that our liberal masters would let this slide.

[mstrang1 213]

To take antiquelt comments one step further, The prosecution has to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt". All the defense had to put in the minds of the jurors is that frozen hydrants caused this and that is not the the landlords problem. I am not trying to defend that POS though.

[antiquefirelt 994]

To take antiquelt comments one step further, The prosecution has to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt". All the defense had to put in the minds of the jurors is that frozen hydrants caused this and that is not the the landlords problem. I am not trying to defend that POS though.

Exactly, we know arson and other deliberate or human element fires are difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt as much of the evidence is often consumed and the many of the numerous other causes are not as easy to disprove depending on the amount of damage. I know many prosecutors up this far North are most often looking for plea deal as the final guilty verdict is a long shot. It's very frustrating when you know you have a guilty person by a hard time with physical evidence.

Again, this in no way is a defense of the decision, but a rational reality view of our business.