Guilty verdict tossed in fatal Black Sunday fire

A State Supreme Court judge dropped a legal bombshell Tuesday, dismissing criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment convictions against the manager and the owner of a Bronx building where two firefighters died trying to escape a roaring inferno.

Lt. Curtis Meyran, 46, of Malverne, and firefighter John Bellew, 37, of upstate Pearl River, died after jumping from a fourth-floor window of the East 178th St. building on Jan. 23, 2005.

The widows of the firefighters wept as Justice Margaret Clancy said prosecutors presented no evidence to prove that the company that owned the apartment building and its manager, Cesar Rios, knew tenants had constructed a maze of illegal walls that hindered escape.

The day that Meyran and Bellew died has come to be called Black Sunday. As a result of Clancy's decision, no one will be held criminally responsible for their deaths unless there is a successful appeal.

Steven Reed, a spokesman for the Bronx district attorney's office, said Clancy's ruling is "under review" and no decision on an appeal has been made.

As Clancy faced the families of the dead men and the defendants, she was careful to praise the work of all firefighters, speaking of the special place they hold in the community.

"The dangers that these men faced . . . were relived here in the courtroom," the judge said, but noted she was obliged to reach her decision "without passion."

The tenants who built the illegal walls did so to create rooms they could rent out for money, and prosecutors had argued that the building manager knew about the partitions.

"Significant issues were raised during the trial upon which the court would not set aside the verdict," Clancy said in a written decision. "But on the fundamental and essential requirement that defendants knew of the dangerous conditions that led to the deaths of the firefighters, the evidence was completely lacking."

Rios - the building manager, who had faced a four-year prison sentence and had remained free pending sentencing - stared quietly ahead and left the courtroom without comment.

Jeanette Meyran, the widow of Curtis Meyran, who sat across the courtroom from Rios, expressed her outrage outside court.

"This was such an abuse of the system," she said, unwilling to believe that Clancy was correct. "All the evidence is there."

Firefighter Jeffery Cool, who was injured in the blaze, blanched as Clancy announced her decision.

"Justice wasn't served here," Cool said later. "I'm totally appalled at the jury system."

Two juries heard the case. One jury acquitted two tenants accused of building illegal walls in their apartments. Another jury found 234 East 178th St. Llc, the owner of the building, and Rios guilty of failing to remove the walls. But before jury deliberations, the defense attorneys asked Clancy to dismiss the case for lack of evidence; Tuesday's decision stemmed from that request.

Rios' attorney, David Goldstein, praised Clancy's decision.

"I think it took a very courageous judge to make what will be perceived as an unpopular decision," Goldstein said.

Neal Comer, the attorney who represented the company that owns the building, said: "The law is the law. There was not sufficient evidence." The company had faced a fine as high as $15,000.

Clancy noted that such reversals are rare. Jim Cohen, a Fordham University criminal law professor, agreed.

"It's very hard to get a verdict set aside based on insufficient evidence. In this case, it sounds as if an appeal would be more embarrassing than the decision itself," Cohen said, indicating that a successful appeal might be difficult.

Firefighter Brendan Cawley, who battled the blaze and was a witness at trial, was in court. He became a focus of the case after the trial when prosecutors learned that a juror had contacted him via Facebook while deliberations were under way. Defense attorneys also had asked Clancy to set aside the verdicts based on juror misconduct, but she did not grant that request.