ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180076
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: IN SPORTS
SOURCE: Associated Press
Seattle Seahawks receiver Brian Blades was cleared of manslaughter in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., when a circuit judge set aside a jury verdict of guilty Monday and ordered him acquitted.
Judge Susan Lebow's surprise decision clears Blades of a Friday verdict that could have sent him to prison for up to 10 years in the shooting death last summer of his cousin, Charles Blades.
Blades, who claimed the shooting was an accident, sat motionless at the defense table while the judge read her decision. Later, as the courtroom cleared, relatives hugged Blades as he stretched his left hand up to the ceiling in a gesture of thanks.
The acquittal means he cannot be tried again on the same charge. It came on a motion filed by the defense even before the case went to the jury last Thursday.
``The judge recognized that it should never have gone to the jury,'' defense attorney Fred Haddad said after Lebow's announcement. ``The judge did what was required under the law.''
The motion was based on the defense contention that the state presented no evidence that Blades acted recklessly or negligently in the accidental shooting.
The judge said her review of case law over the weekend led her to accept the defense motion.
Charles Blades, 34, was killed when he tried to defuse an argument between Brian Blades and his brother Bennie, also an NFL player, in the early morning hours of July 5, 1995.
* Dallas Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin is scheduled to have his day in court June 25.
The trial date set for Irvin's drug-possession case is one day later than originally scheduled.
Irvin and two topless dancers were re-indicted Friday, two days after a judge threw out their original charges because a member of the grand jury that indicted them April 1 lived outside the county.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB