Fellows study effects of major civil rights ruling (AP)

WASHINGTON – A law professor studying attorneys who argued against civil rights cases and a New York Times reporter who is researching first lady Michelle Obama's family roots are among winners of a fellowship created to mark the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision.

The fellowship provides $50,000 to scholars, writers and artists who deal with the implications and effects of the landmark 1954 ruling that declared that separate public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional.

Wall Street financier and philanthropist Alphonse Fletcher Jr. created the fellowship in 2004 to mark the 50th anniversary of that decision.

Among this year's winners are Rachel Swarns of The New York Times and Vanderbilt law professor Daniel Sharfstein.

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Miami police kill 4 masked, armed robbery suspects (AP)

MIAMI – Police shot and killed four masked and armed men in a sting operation, including one man who was cooperating with Miami-Dade police in an investigation of a series of violent home robberies, authorities said.

The shooting happened Thursday evening at a residence owned by the Miami-Dade Police Department in a southwest section of the county, in an area of homes and plant nurseries. Investigators say the men believed there was a stash of marijuana inside but were instead confronted by officers, who told them to put down their weapons.

The men did not comply and a confrontation ensued in which all four men were shot, police spokesman Det. Javier Baez said Friday. No officers were injured.

"An incident occurred that our special response team had to fire on these individuals," Baez said. He was not able to confirm whether the men had fired at police.

Those killed were identified as: Rosendo Betancourt Garcia, 39, the cooperating defendant; Jorge Luis Lemus, 39; and Roger Gonzalez Valez, 52. The fourth victim has not been identified. A fifth person, Roger Gonzalez, Jr., 32, was outside the property in a car and taken into custody.

The shooting capped the end of what police described as a lengthy investigation into a group of individuals who targeted marijuana grow houses. Baez said the suspects at times misidentified the residences and proceeded with targeting, and torturing, innocent individuals.

"These are career criminals," Baez said.

Betancourt has a criminal record that includes convictions for selling and trafficking cocaine. He was the one who alerted police to the suspects, Baez said. He was instructed by police and told not to go with the men to the operation. It's unclear why he decided to join them.

Gricell Perez said Betancourt was her son-in-law. She said he came to drop off his three kids yesterday, telling her, "Please watch the kids, I'm going to help the police on a case."

She said he had been working the last seven months as a construction worker.

Residents in the neighborhood described hearing a swarm of helicopters overnight, and noted seeing an increase in crime over the last year.

Aleida Rojas said shots had been fired through her window.

"I live quite fearfully," she said.

--

Associated Press writer Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this story.

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NYC student fatally stabbed hours after graduation (AP)

NEW YORK – Isayah Muller had just graduated from high school, a gregarious football star on his way to a fresh start in college.

But an argument over a celebratory gift cost him his life: The 19-year-old was fatally stabbed during a fight between his father and two parking attendants he thought had stolen expensive cologne from the backseat of the family's car.

His father pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and weapons possession Wednesday, accused of instigating the fight and hitting one of the attendants with a shovel, prosecutors said. The wound required at least 10 stitches and the argument was captured on video surveillance, prosecutors said. The father agreed to testify before a grand jury weighing evidence on whether the parking attendants should face charges. His lawyer didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

The family had parked the car in a Bronx parking lot Tuesday morning and walked over to a nearby Lehman College, where seniors at Harry S. Truman High School were graduating. Muller was the star running back who led Truman to the Public Schools Athletic League championship this year. He was headed to Nassau Community College in the fall.

Following the ceremony, the family picked up its car and headed for dinner on City Island, a fishing hamlet on the northeastern tip of the Bronx. On the way, the father, Andre Muller, noticed the cologne missing from their vehicle, turned the car around and headed back to the parking lot.

When he arrived, he started arguing with the two lot attendants and hit one, Ramon Hernandez, with a shovel, police said. When Isayah Muller came out to help his dad, he was stabbed in the chest, police said. It's not clear who stabbed Muller.

The father and son raced back to the car, where his mother and girlfriend were waiting and drove him to a clinic. The teen was later taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 6 p.m., police said.

The 19-year-old's Facebook page portrayed him as a fun-loving but hardworking sports fan. Friends and family posted how proud they were that he was planning to go to college.

His former coach John-James Shepherd said the family was making funeral arrangements. He said both his parents were incredibly supportive of their child's school activities.

"In Bronx public schools, you don't often see mom and dad both involved," Shepherd said. "The parents were very supportive. They're family-oriented, working-class people."

On Wednesday morning, his teammates spread the word on Facebook that they were holding a vigil on the Truman High School football field. The coach spoke to The Associated Press just after attending the tribute, where the students assembled for prayers and lit candles in the field that formed a "21" — Muller's jersey number.

Shepherd had been up all night, visiting with surviving players "who were having a difficult time with it."

"He would walk into a room and light it up. It's a cliche, but it's true in this case," Shepherd said.

Shepherd, who started coaching in 1999, said Muller was the best running back he'd ever seen at the high school level. Muller was headed for Nassau County Community College because his grades were not especially high, but the coach said he was sure Muller would have ended up in college's Division I — and possibly the NFL — eventually.

Muller rushed for 285 yards during the high school championship game in November, which Truman won 23-20 over Beach Channel. Quarterback Xavier Hamilton said Muller was the team's go-to guy.

"To him, there's no such thing as pressure," Hamilton told ESPN's high school report. "You put the ball his hands and it's like he's in a zone. You look in his eyes and there's no reflection. He just gets the ball and does what he has to do."

Muller ran the last five plays of the November game. According to ESPN, "He not only carried the ball, but also his entire team."

"I really wasn't tired," Muller told ESPN. "This is my last game of my high school career. I didn't want to take one step off that field. I'm still not tired. I could play the whole game all over again."

___

Associated Press Writer Verena Dobnik contributed to this report.

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Obama reaps victory as judges uphold health law (AP)

CINCINNATI – In the first ruling by a federal appeals court on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, a panel in Cincinnati handed the administration a victory Wednesday by agreeing that the government can require a minimum amount of insurance for Americans.

A Republican-appointed judge joined with a Democratic appointee for the 2-1 majority in another milestone for Obama's hotly debated signature domestic initiative — the first time a Republican federal court appointee has affirmed the merits of the law.

The White House and Justice Department hailed the panel's affirmation of an earlier ruling by a federal court in Michigan; opponents of the law said challenges will continue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

At issue is a conservative law center's lawsuit arguing on behalf of plaintiffs that potentially requiring them to buy insurance or face penalties could subject them to financial hardship. The suit warns that the law is too broad and could lead to more federal mandates.

The Thomas More Law Center, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., argued before the panel that the law was unconstitutional and that Congress overstepped its powers.

The government countered that the measure was needed for the overall goal of reducing health care costs and reforms such as protecting people with pre-existing conditions. It said the coverage mandate will help keep the costs of changes from being shifted to households and providers.

White House adviser Stephanie Cutter called the ruling "another victory" for millions of Americans and small businesses benefiting from the overhaul.

"At the end of the day, we are confident the constitutionality of these landmark reforms will be upheld," she said in a statement.

The law center predicted its case would have a good shot on appeal.

"Clearly our case won't resolve all the issues, because we don't raise the state rights issue, but we are the only one that is currently ripe for Supreme Court review that raises the challenge on behalf of an individual," said David Yerushalmi, an attorney for the law center.

The three-judge 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel delivered a lengthy opinion with disagreement on some issues, moving unusually quickly in delivering its decision less than a month after hearing oral arguments.

"Congress had a rational basis for concluding that the minimum coverage provision is essential to the Affordable Care Act's larger reforms to the national markets in health care delivery and health insurance," Judge Boyce F. Martin, appointed by former President Jimmy Carter, wrote for the majority.

A George W. Bush appointee concurred; a Ronald Reagan appointee who is a U.S. district judge in Columbus sitting on the panel disagreed. Judges are selected for panels through random draw.

"If the exercise of power is allowed and the mandate upheld, it is difficult to see what the limits on Congress' Commerce Clause authority would be," warned dissenting Judge James Graham of Columbus. "What aspect of human activity would escape federal power?"

Judge Jeffrey Sutton, the Bush appointee, delivered the decisive vote, although his opinion raised questions and noted the unusual nature of a law directed at someone who chooses inaction, referring to those "who prize that most American of freedoms: to be left alone."

But the government argued that telling someone to buy health insurance, something that virtually everyone needs and is part of a sweeping effort, isn't the same as ordering them to buy a car or a vegetable.

"The novelty of the individual mandate may indeed suggest it is a bridge too far, but it also may offer one more example of a policy necessity giving birth to an inventive (and constitutional) congressional solution," Sutton wrote.

The opinion by Sutton, a well-respected conservative jurist, will be studied closely by other courts, said a law professor at Virginia's University of Richmond.

"His opinion is comprehensive and cautious and careful, but I think it comes out to pretty much the same conclusion as Judge Martin's," Carl Tobias said in a telephone interview.

An attorney for Thomas More said the center expects to appeal. It could ask for the full circuit court to review the case or go on to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 16-seat 6th Circuit has one vacancy.

Among those supporting the center in court documents in the case — titled Thomas More Law Center, et al, vs. Barack Hussein Obama, et al — were Republican presidential candidates Michelle Bachmann and Ron Paul and several other members of Congress including Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio.

More than 30 legal challenges have been filed over the health care overhaul, some focusing on different issues such as states' rights. Earlier decisions at the U.S. district court level have found Republican-appointed judges opposing and Democrat-appointed judges affirming.

___

Associated Press writers Lisa Cornwell in Cincinnati and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Dan Sewell can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell.

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Casey Anthony murder trial: Has the defendant displayed grief? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Jurors at the Casey Anthony murder trial heard testimony on Wednesday from a grief expert who was called by defense attorneys to try to explain how a young mother might respond to the death of her child by partying at bars, getting a tattoo, renting movies, and going on shopping excursions.

Sally Karioth, a professor at Florida State University, said no two people grieve in exactly the same way. She said young adults, like Ms. Anthony, can sometimes be “reluctant grievers.”

The testimony came on the 31st day of the Orlando trial of the Florida mother accused of killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee. If convicted, Ms. Anthony could face the death penalty.

IN PICTURES: Key players in the Casey Anthony trial

The testimony is important because it sought to address one of the most perplexing questions raised in the Anthony case. How could a young mother fail to tell her family, friends, and the police about her dead or missing child for 31 days while she partied with friends and acted as if nothing was wrong?

To set up Professor Karioth’s testimony, Defense Attorney Dorothy Sims presented an elaborate hypothetical example which was actually a detailed description of certain factors in Casey Anthony’s life as viewed under the defense theory of the case.

The woman in the hypothetical case was described as a 22-year-old mother of a young child who had a loving bond with the toddler. The woman also lives at home with her parents, who resisted the reality of her unwed pregnancy. Also living in the house was an older brother who was angry for being excluded from any discussion of the pregnancy.

“Add to it that during the 31 days after the child is gone, the mother leaves the home, rents movies, goes shopping, goes to bars, and gets a tattoo that indicated ‘Beautiful Life,’ ” Ms. Sims said.

Karioth said that a young person in such a situation might respond by saying that nothing had happened. They will often engage in risky behaviors, like drinking too much and spending money they don’t have. She added that some hope they can shop their way out of the problem.

Karioth said that people who come from uncommunicative families that don’t talk or feel or share, may engage in denial and what she called “magical thinking.”

As Karioth continued her testimony, Casey Anthony’s eyes turned red. Soon she had a Kleenex out and began dabbing tears away. What made that reaction particularly striking to many observers is that only a few hours earlier she had sat at the defense table cold and expressionless – appearing almost bored – as her father, George Anthony, sobbed on the witness stand while describing his decision to try to kill himself in January 2009 because of his own grief over the loss of his granddaughter, Caylee.

During cross-examination of Karioth, Assistant State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton offered a hypothetical example of his own. In his hypothetical the young mother – within a half day of the child’s death – goes to her boyfriend’s house, rents a movie, spends the night with him, returns secretly to her parents house, and then over the next month doesn’t tell anyone that the child has died or is missing. Then, for the next month, she lies to her mother and her friends by suggesting that the child is with a baby sitter.

a€?Is that conduct consistent with the type of denial you see in mothers,a€

“I would call that more magical thinking,” Karioth said. “If I can keep all these balls in the air, maybe it won’t be true that I’m fearful may have happened,” she said, suggesting a grieving mother’s possible reasoning.

Ashton asked the professor to consider an additional element to the hypothetical. a€?Leta€™s add that the mother deliberately killed the child,a€

Sims objected. She told the judge there was no evidence that the mother killed the child.

The exchange underscored the surreal aspect of offering “hypothetical” testimony to a jury that isn’t hypothetical at all.

Karioth said denial can be a coping mechanism.

“For guilt,” Ashton asked.

“It can be,” the professor said.

Ashton then asked about compartmentalization.

“Compartmentalizing traumatic episodes is a typical way of going on with your life,” Karioth explained.

“So one could compartmentalize an unspeakable act, put it in a box, and then go on and act as if nothing happened,” Ashton asked.

Karioth said questions dealing with psychology were beyond her expertise. But she said she has worked with people who engage in “magical thinking.”

She described a mother who had recently lost a child. The mother was concerned because it was dark outside and the weather was turning bad. The little boy had never been in the dark and the rain alone. Karioth said she told the mother she’d be right over. She found a blanket and some umbrellas and sat with the grieving mother until the rain stopped.

“Now that is magical,” she said, “but it is something we needed to do.”

Ashton asked one last question: “You will agree that the bond between a mother and child is hard to break, even with death.”

“I don’t think it breaks,” she said.

The trial is expected to continue on Thursday.

IN PICTURES: Key players in the Casey Anthony trial

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Blues HK owner in money-laundering charges (AFP)

HONG KONG (AFP) – Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung was due to appear in a Hong Kong court Thursday charged with money-laundering offences a day after he was arrested by narcotics police, witnesses and police said.

A sombre-looking Yeung, 51, was driven to the court in a police van and was due to appear before a judge shortly, an AFP journalist said.

The millionaire former hairdresser was arrested on Wednesday. Police said a 51-year-old man had been "charged with five counts of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence".

Narcotics Bureau officers had searched two locations and seized documents, a police statement said.

Yeung took control of the English football club in October 2009 in an 81 million pound ($130 million) takeover from David Sullivan and David Gold, now the co-owners of West Ham.

The club revealed on Thursday that Yeung was assisting the Hong Kong police in relation to criminal investigations.

Birmingham's acting chairman Peter Pannu insisted the inquiries had "nothing to do" with the Midlands club's parent company, Birmingham International Holdings.

"People are reminded that in recent years members of the previous board were placed on bail for a significant amount of time and nothing came of it," he said.

"I am only using this as an example to calm any fears. The law says a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty," Pannu said.

"Until I find out more information about this matter there is no further comment to be made."

Birmingham were relegated from the English Premier League on the final day of last season and recently saw manager Alex McLeish quit to join arch-rivals Aston Villa, still in the top flight.

Former Newcastle manager Chris Hughton was appointed as McLeish's replacement at St Andrew's last week.

Little was known about Yeung prior to his emergence in the English game.

His name first appeared on the Hong Kong stock exchange's record books when he bought a 16.67 percent stake in clothes company Grandtop International in June 2007 which made him a major shareholder of the firm.

Through Grandtop, Yeung bought a minority stake in Birmingham City from its directors in a deal worth 15 million pounds before going on to take full control.

According to several reports, he was trained as a hairdresser in the 1990s before becoming a wealthy businessman with a fortune estimated at $300 million after successful investments in penny stocks.

He rode on the Macau gambling fever in 2004 when he co-founded Greek Mythology, a casino in the former Portuguese enclave.

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Bulger due in court in Mass. for 2 hearings (AP)

BOSTON – Reputed mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger is expected in court as he seeks a taxpayer-funded attorney and fights a move by prosecutors to dismiss an old racketeering indictment in favor of a later case charging him with participating in 19 murders.

Bulger has back-to-back hearings scheduled Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston. He was arrested last week in Santa Monica, Calif., after 16 years on the run.

His provisional attorney, Peter Krupp, is challenging an attempt by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz to dismiss a 1994 indictment and focus on a more serious 1999 indictment. Krupp wants the two cases consolidated and has accused prosecutors of trying to judge shop by trying to drop the older case.

Prosecutors have objected to Bulger's request for a court-appointed attorney.

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Joy as French reporters freed in Afghanistan (AFP)

PARIS (AFP) – Two French television journalists kidnapped in Afghanistan were freed Wednesday after spending 18 long months as prisoners of the Taliban.

Cameraman Stephane Taponier and reporter Herve Ghesquiere of state network France 3, were seized in November 2009 in the mountains of Kapisa, an unstable region east of the Afghan capital Kabul.

A French embassy official told AFP from Kabul they were "surprisingly well, both physically and mentally".

The two were expected at Villacoublay air base outside Paris on Thursday at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) to be reunited with their families.

"Obviously, I'll be there to welcome them," said Ghesquiere's overjoyed partner Beatrice Coulon.

"It's a shock. Hearing about it like this, it's hard to talk," added Taponier's brother Stephane.

"It's wonderful," declared Taponier's mother Arlette. "I know that they're free, I don't know much else," she told AFP after being given the news by President Nicolas Sarkozy's office.

"For the past few hours, our two hostages in Afghanistan have been in the hands of French forces at the base in Tagab," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament to a chorus of cheers.

"Our two hostages are in good health and in a few hours they will be on French soil," he said, paying tribute to French forces and agents serving in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led coalition.

France has nearly 4,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban, alongside a much larger US force and contingents from European allies and Canada.

In a statement, Sarkozy's office said: "The president is delighted at the liberation of our two compatriots, Stephane Taponier and Herve Ghesquiere, as well as their interpreter Reza Din."

The abduction had been claimed by the Taliban, the hardline Islamist group that ruled Afghanistan until a US-led invasion in 2001, now in revolt against the Kabul government. The guerrillas accused the journalists of spying.

In January, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened France in an audio tape message and said that the journalists' release would depend on France withdrawing soldiers from Afghanistan.

Bin Laden was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan last month, and Sarkozy announced last week that "several hundred" French troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan before the end of the year.

There was no immediate word, however, on why the kidnappers had decided to release the men and whether France had many any concessions.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe insisted that France does not pay ransom for hostages.

Juppe said Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai had helped Paris secure the return of Taponier and Ghesquiere.

"They were freed this afternoon and they've reached the French embassy. They are in good health, they'll be back on French soil overnight and will come to Paris tomorrow," he said in a briefing at the ministry.

Juppe also sought to clear up confusion over the fate of two Afghan helpers captured with the French crew when they were ambushed on a road east of Kabul while covering the guerrilla war being fought in the region.

"The two other helpers were freed some time ago, but this was not made public," Juppe explained, citing the need for secrecy in resolving hostage situations.

The pair's release brought relief to French media colleagues, some of whom shed tears of joy when they heard the news at a pre-planned vigil held in Paris to draw attention to their plight.

"We congratulate the journalists themselves as well as the French government and the French nation," Siamak Heravi, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, told AFP in Kabul. "This is an achievement ... we welcome their release."

Council of Europe chief Thorbjorn Jagland was "relieved" to learn that the two journalists had been released, his spokesman Daniel Holtgan said.

"Journalists have a dangerous job and sometimes risk their lives to find the truth," he told AFP.

French officials used the occasion of the pair's freeing to appeal for the release of other French hostages still thought to be held by illegal armed groups around the world.

A French agent from the DGSE foreign intelligence service identified by the pseudonym Denis Allex has been held in Somalia by Islamist militants since he was kidnapped from his Mogadishu hotel in July 2009.

Four French expatriates working for the nuclear firm Areva and one of its subcontractors have been held hostage in the Sahara by Al-Qaeda's north African affiliate AQIM since September 2010. A female hostage was released.

Three French aid workers, two women and a man were kidnapped last month in Yemen's lawless Hadramut province.

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Casey Anthony's defense expected to rest case (AP)

ORLANDO, Fla. – The defense for Casey Anthony was expected to rest Thursday after calling its final witnesses, though it's still not known if the central Florida mother will take the stand to answer questions about whether she killed her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

A woman who said she had an affair with Anthony's father was the first witness called Thursday. George Anthony has denied having an affair with Krystal Holloway, who also was a volunteer who helped search for his granddaughter in 2008. In testimony, George Anthony said that he knew Holloway as River Cruz and that he visited her home a handful of times in 2008, but only to comfort her as she coped with a brain tumor.

Holloway read from text messages George Anthony sent her and described the media frenzy surrounding their relationship and his family.

On Wednesday, the defense may have been dealt a blow when Casey Anthony's father broke into tears when telling jurors about his suicide attempt some six weeks after his granddaughter's body was found. Attorneys contend that Caylee did not die at the hands of her mother but accidentally drowned in her grandparents' pool, and that George Anthony helped cover it up.

In his Jan. 22, 2009, suicide note, he said he was trying to overdose because he had unanswered questions about what happened to Caylee and never alluded to knowing what caused her death. When pressed by prosecutors about why he tried to kill himself, he started crying and said, "I needed at that time to go and be with Caylee."

When asked by prosecutor Jeff Ashton if he expressed that in his note, he said, "Yes, I did. Because I believe that I had failed her," and broke into tears.

When her father was crying, Casey Anthony expressed no emotion, though earlier in the day she had been crying during other testimony.

The defense objected to prosecutors admitting the suicide note as evidence. Ashton explained that the defense had brought up the suicide attempt and that the note shows when George Anthony tried to kill himself, he "had no idea who killed Caylee Marie Anthony. It rebuts implications by the defense that he did."

If the defense does rest, it would leave only a short rebuttal case by the prosecution. Judge Belvin Perry tentatively said closing arguments could then begin Saturday and that he would hand the case over to the jury that evening or Sunday.

Anthony, 25, is charged with first-degree murder in Caylee's death in the summer of 2008. The prosecution contends she suffocated the child with duct tape. The girl's remains were found in the woods near her grandparents' home in December that year.

Karin Moore, a law professor at Florida A&M University, said alluding to the suicide attempt was a misstep by lead defense attorney Jose Baez.

"I think it backfired on him," Moore said. "I think his intention was to craft an inference for the jury that George Anthony tried to commit suicide over the alleged abuse and death of Caylee. He opened the door and Ashton correctly pointed it out."

Also Wednesday, a grief expert testified it is plausible for a young person dealing with a death to exhibit the same behavior Casey Anthony did in the month after prosecutors say Caylee had been killed. The toddler had not been seen for a month or so before the Anthony family reported it to police.

Several witnesses have said Casey Anthony spent her time partying and claimed the child was with an imaginary nanny.

Florida State University professor and grief expert Sally Karioth never interviewed Anthony, but when defense attorney Dorothy Sims laid out a hypothetical scenario with facts from the case, she testified it wasn't inconsistent with grief she's observed in similar situations. Karioth previously testified in the South Carolina murder case of Susan Smith, who was convicted of drowning her children.

"Young adults are reflective grievers and will often act like nothing happened," Karioth said.

The defense has been trying to paint the Anthony family as dysfunctional and said in its opening statement that George Anthony molested his daughter when she was a child.

Ashton pointed out that the suicide note did not include any reference to molesting Casey Anthony. Baez again used the opportunity to press George Anthony on the accusation.

"Sir, I never would do anything like that to my daughter," George Anthony said.

The defense also objected to prosecutors asking George Anthony about a gun he bought in August 2008, but Perry agreed the jury could hear it.

With the jury out of the room, George Anthony said he planned to use the gun to try to get his daughter's friends to tell him what happened to Caylee.

When the jury came back, George Anthony started crying as he recounted the emotional month before his suicide attempt.

He also said he never got the opportunity to confront his daughter's friends because law enforcement confiscated the gun the day after he bought it. The firearm was not allowed in the home as a condition of Casey Anthony's bond because she was living there.

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2nd man acquitted in fatal ground zero fire (AP)

NEW YORK – A construction company safety supervisor was acquitted Wednesday of all criminal charges in a blaze that killed two firefighters at a condemned ground zero building, a verdict that marked the second acquittal in the manslaughter case.

Jurors cleared Jeffrey Melofchik a day after acquitting asbestos-cleanup foreman Salvatore DePaola of the same charges. A judge continued weighing the charges against a third man and a company as jurors spoke out about a trial they called a case of blaming a few for the mistakes of many surrounding the August 2007 fire at the former Deutsche Bank building. It was being dismantled in a complicated process designed to contain toxins.

"It was just a project with a lot of difficult things going on, and I didn't think anybody should be blamed for what happened," an elated but composed Melofchik, 49, said as he left court with his wife, Audrey, and other friends and relatives. Some had exclaimed "yes!" on hearing "not guilty" to the second of two manslaughter charges.

"It was a tragic event, and the fact that they ignored everybody else and just picked the three of us, I thought, was totally wrong," Melofchik said.

The blaze, which killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph P. Graffagnino, spotlighted poor oversight of the building, which had been damaged and contaminated in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Government agencies had missed inspections and failed to recognize dangers in the project's design.

Melofchik; DePaola, 56; and asbestos cleanup director Mitchel Alvo, 59, were the only people criminally charged in the fire. The John Galt Corp., which employed Alvo and DePaola, was the only company charged. The jury acquitted DePaola of all charges Tuesday.

"Everybody's a scapegoat," foreman Keith Spencer, a 41-year-old UPS worker, said as jurors left court Wednesday. "More people should have been accountable for this."

Alvo and the Galt company chose to have a judge decide the case against them; she has not said when she will rule.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said prosecutors respected the verdict and "hope that this prosecution brought necessary attention to the importance of safety in the construction and demolition industries."

A worker's careless smoking sparked the blaze, which tore through nine floors of the building. The firefighters died after being trapped in thick smoke and running out of air in their oxygen tanks.

Prosecutors said the critical factor in their deaths was a broken firefighting pipe, called a standpipe. Unable to use it, firefighters spent about an hour devising another way to get water on the flames on upper floors. In the meantime, the fire grew to deadly proportions, prosecutors said.

They said Alvo, DePaola and Melofchik knew the pipe had broken about eight months before. Under pressure not to let the cleanup lag, the men had the broken segment carted away and did nothing to repair or report it, prosecutors said. Nonetheless, Melofchik kept signing daily reports saying the building's fire-suppression system was working, according to evidence presented at the trial.

Defense lawyers said the men didn't realize the pipe's firefighting role and that the fire was fed by numerous hazards and regulators' mistakes.

Jurors said they weren't convinced that Alvo and Melofchik bore responsibility for the broken pipe, though they said they struggled more when deciding about Melofchik because of his safety-manager job. Ultimately, they felt it wasn't Alvo's job to identify and safeguard the standpipe, and testimony left questions about the extent of Melofchik's training in dealing with the pipe and whether he was aware of the break, jurors said.

And they came away from more than two months of testimony convinced that other problems had played too big a part in the deadly conditions to attribute the firefighters' deaths to the standpipe.

The project was supposed to be closely monitored by a list of government agencies. But it turned out that the Fire Department of New York hadn't inspected the building for more than a year, though it was required to do so every 15 days. Building, environmental and labor inspectors hadn't realized that firefighting would be complicated by some measures that had been undertaken to control toxins, including plywood stairwell barriers and a fan system that kept smoke in and pulled it down.

The stairwell barriers and, especially, the Fire Department's missed inspections made an impact on juror Rosemary Cardillo. "I felt as though, if they had come in and did their inspections, they would have been aware" of the problems before the fire, the retired real estate broker said.

To juror Lynette Cedeno, the case amounted to "blaming the little guy."

"Justice — it needs to start from the top, where people take responsibility for what their responsibility is, and not just pass it off," said Cedeno, 50, an occupational therapist who works for the city school system.

The city and Melofchik's employer, general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, acknowledged errors in dealing with the former bank building. The Fire Department created dozens of inspection and auditing jobs, and Bovis agreed to finance a $10 million memorial fund for slain firefighters' families, among other responses.

Then-District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said when the indictments were revealed that it would be pointless to try to prosecute the city because governments are generally immune from criminal prosecution, though individual officials and employees sometimes are charged with crimes.

Melofchik's lawyer, Edward J.M. Little, said he hoped the jury verdicts had sent prosecutors a message: "Because a case is sexy doesn't mean it should be brought."

"I think they've learned a lesson here," he said, but "it came at a terrible psychological cost for Jeff and his family."

Melofchik said he had been unable to work during the trial and had striven to keep the details from his sons, 16 and 18.

The last of the former bank building was taken down in February.

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Jennifer Peltz can be reached at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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