SAN FRANCISCO -- F. Lee Bailey was cleared of drunken driving charges Wednesday by a muncipal court jury who said the famous Boston lawyer was only guilty of running a stop sign.
A jury of six women and five men in the courtroom of Judge Maxine M. Chesney aquitted Bailey after 7 hours of deliberation after the two week trial that was one of the longest drunken driving cases in San Francisco history.
At the sentencing hearing after the verdicts were announced, Mrs. Chesney said Bailey would either have to pay a $50 fine or make a donation to the Northern California Service League, a group which helps prisoners.
Bailey said he would make the donation to the service group, but had to reserve his right to contest the fine because it might cause his flight insurance rates to be increased. Bailey is an avid pilot.
'I did not believe that it could or would go any other way,' Bailey said of the verdict at a news conference before his scheduled departure to New Mexico where he has a trial beginning Thursday.
Bailey, whose defense could cost $100,000, said 'it is a matter of serious consequence to be intoxicated to any degree in the matter of flying ... or of taking confidences from clients.'
He said a thorough backround check had been done on his drinking habits before he was selected by a vodka distributor to advertise its products because people with drinking problems were not generally chosen to help sell alcoholic products.
Bailey, who said he had offered to plead guilty to running a stop sign before the trial began, said he was considering whether to file a complaint with the city against the policeman who arrested him the morning of Feb. 28.
He said he was 'very distressed' that officer Peter Canaan, who he asserted abused and battered him the night of the arrest, was 'walking around the streets of San Francisco with a pistol.'
Before rendering the verdict, the jury returned to the courtroom to ask the judge if they could consider the visibility of the stop sign Bailey allegedly ran.
Municipal Court Judge Maxine M. Chesney replied that all evidence should be considered and the panel resumed deliberations, reaching a verdict just before 6 p.m.
Bailey had pleaded innocent to the charges of drunken driving and running the stop sign and said he refused to take an alcohol breath test because he was mistreated by the motorcycle officer and didn't trust him.
His lawyers said the case wasn't just to vindicate the powerful barrister, but was also a blow for 'the little man' who couldn't afford such proceedings.
Prosecutors concluded their case against Bailey Tuesday, telling the jurors that one of the defense 'eyewitnesses' was almost blind.
Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Murray continually referred to Bailey as a 'powerful' and 'world famous' attorney and asked if Bailey were 'above and beyond everybody else?'
One of Bailey's two defense attorneys, Robert Shapiro, who called the case 'probably the most thoroughly investigated (drunken driving) case in California,' said it was not a matter of Bailey being treated any differently, 'but nobody should be treated the way Mr. Bailey was.'
'It is a very important case for my client, also for everyone else - for the little man,' Shapiro said.
Prosecutor Robert Ward told the Municipal Court jury that witness Al Caceres, a Marin County dentist who testified for Bailey, had written him several months ago saying, 'I am no longer working due to the loss of my eyesight.'
Caceres, 59, testified he was driving by as policeman Peter Canaan arrested Bailey about 1 a.m. Feb. 28. Caceres backed up Bailey's assertion that Canaan was rough and abusive.
Through the trial, Bailey's attorneys attacked Canaan's credibility and asserted he was a drinker, even while on duty.
Bailey, a Boston criminal lawyer who has acted as defense attorney in such famed cases as the Patty Hearst and Boston Strangler trials, sat passively in the packed courtroom through the four hours of closing arguments.
