The Verdict is In

in the "Rape Tape Trial". And the verdict, in the formation of which the videotape apparently played a key part, is

"Not Guilty".

(To get the whole article, you'll need to register, or bugmenot), but here are some excerpts.

After repeatedly viewing a videotape that captured the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl, a jury acquitted a Burr Ridge man Friday of sexual assault and child pornography charges.

The lawyer for Adrian Missbrenner, 20, went frame-by-frame through the video, taken during a party at which teens were drinking heavily Dec. 7, 2002, pointing to every gesture he said might indicate the girl's consent.

After four hours of deliberation, the Cook County panel of seven women and five men returned its verdict of not guilty.

The defendant was pleased,

"Now they know the truth," Missbrenner said as he left Cook County Jail late Friday with family members. "It wasn't what they said it was. They made it out to be something it wasn't."

while rape-victim advocates were outraged.

The verdict appalled victims' rights advocates, who said the defense sought to affirm every rape myth.

"We're down to those same stereotypes--she was drinking, she was asking for it," said Linda Healy, executive director of Mutual Ground, a suburban counseling program for sexual assault victims.

Wondering what the tape showed? Only the jury was showed it, and the sound was turned down, but

Defense attorney Patrick Campanelli relentlessly dissected the tape Friday, however, contending the accuser's actions indicated that she had not been coerced.

Go here if you want more details, and a commentary on the trial from the Chicago Sun-Times.

While Attornery Campanelli sympathetically characterized the girl as "not a bad girl. She just made mistakes", the prosecution suggested that she was "treated worse than you treat a dead dog in the middle of the street. She had no idea what went on."

The prosecution did try to use the tape for their own ends, briefly, during the closing statements.

In their own closing, prosecutors turned up the sound, highlighting a snippet in which they said Missbrenner could be heard saying, "Good drugs are paying off."

Well, at least somebody is paying for this crime -- the videographer.

Sonny Smith of Brookfield, who operated the video camera, was convicted of child pornography and sentenced to the Illinois Department of Corrections boot camp. Christoper Robbins of Brookfield was acquitted of sex crimes last year. He admitted having sex with the accuser but said it was consensual.

And we may not have heard the last of this case: There's to be a civil suit to follow. Missbrenner may still be held liable for monetary damages (as O. J. Simpson has been for the death of Ronald Goldman).

Meanwhile, there's this interesting little postscript at the end of the article.

"He [Missbrenner] claims the tape exonerates him, but then why did he flee the country?" she asked. "For once in his life, hold this kid, Mr. Burr Ridge, responsible."

Burr Ridge, I guess, is a toney, privileged suburb of Chicago.

I wonder if the victim was from the same town.