NEW YORK -- A jury concluded there was not enough evidence of criminal intent to convict art dealer Andrew Crispo on charges he kidnapped and terrorized a Canadian graduate student as part of a sadomasochistic sex game.
The verdict shocked the student, Mark Leslie, a 29-year-old teacher formerly of Montreal, who said he came forward to 'prevent Andrew Crispo from beating, torturing or killing other young men' in the wake of what Leslie called an increase of subtle bais against gay men.
Crispo dropped to his chair with a stunned look on his face when the verdict was readSunday by the jury forewoman who also announced that jurors were deadlocked on a lesser charge of unlawful imprisonment.
The 43-year-old art dealer currently is serving five years in prison for federal tax evasion.
State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Atlas said jurors, who were in their sixth day of deliberations, did all they could to reach a fair verdict.
Jurors 'asked all those questions about the law so that they were sure of what' they were doing, Atlas said. 'They have done every bit of it.'
Testimony given by Leslie, who described himself as a homosexual who enjoys 'light S&M' and who also testified 'I like a little pain, a little bit of rough sex,' was not convincing, said Crispo's lawyer, Robert Kasanof.
The verdict delivered after a monthlong trial was 'a clean sweep' for Crispo, Kasanof said.
Juror Ara Derderian, 60, an architect, said, 'It wasn't proved that Mr. Crispo had criminal intent. The prosecution failed to convince the jury that the witnesses were credible.'
The jury voted 9-3 for acquittal on the charge of unlawful imprisonment, he said.
Atlas accepted the not-guilty verdicts on the counts of second-degree kidnapping, first-degree sodomy, second-degree assault and first-degree coercion.
He said he would decide later whether to compel further deliberations on the charge of unlawful imprisonment. But, a defense attorney said in light of the verdict the charge was a formality that would be dropped.
Leslie, in a statement printed in The New York Times Monday, said he wanted to take a stand in a society he said permits brutality against homosexuals.
'My purpose in bring this charge was to prevent Andrew Crispo from beating, torturing or killing other young men,' he said. 'Justice Atlas's rulings throughout the trial and the subtle bias of his charge to the jury make a profoundly disturbing statement.'
'In our society it is acceptable to brutalize and even murder gay men,' he said, in a letter issued by a friend in Vancouver, British Columbia, where Leslie moved when Canadian papers printed his name and address along with his picture, The Times said.
The seven-woman, five-man Manhattan jury took six days of tumultuous deliberations to acquit Crispo of the kidnapping and sodomy counts. He could have faced up to seven years in prison if convicted of assault and coercion.
Crispo was charged with directing a sexual attack on the New York University graduate film student, with four other young men, on Sept. 20, 1984.
Prosecutors said the acts fulfilled Crispo's desire 'to watch another human being beg for his life.' But Kasanof said, 'Mr. Crispo reasonably believed (the victim) wanted what he gave him.'
Leslie said he was drawn into a sadomasochistic scene after picking up a ringing public telephone and accepting an anonymous invitation to be chauffered to a Crispo party to sniff cocaine.
Former Crispo employee, Bernard LeGeros, and the alleged victim both testified Leslie was tortured at Crispo's now-closed Manhattan gallery on East 57th Street. Leslie also was threatened with a pistol and a whip.
LeGeros, 26, is serving a life sentence for the grisly 1985 'death mask' murder of a Norwegian fashion student, a crime in which Crispo was implicated but never charged.
