(26 Jan 2001) Spanish/Nat
XFA
A TV sidekick, an aspiring actress and four other suspects were acquitted on Thursday of plotting the 1999 slaying of Mexican television host Paco Stanley, in a case that had sparked a bitter, on-air dispute between prosecutors and a television network.
The controversial probe by Mexico City prosecutors into the June 1999 shooting death of Stanley on a Mexico City boulevard supposedly had uncovered a broad plot by alleged drug traffickers to kill the comedian to settle unpaid drug debts.
Before that theory fell apart with Thursday's acquittals, the former city attorney general - now retired - had arrested and charged Stanley's on-screen sidekick, Mario Rodriguez Bezares, and an aspiring actress who worked on his program, Paola Durante, for supposedly setting up Stanley for the streetside killing.
The Television Azteca network, where Stanley's "One After The Other" program aired, had flooded its programming with constant criticism of former Attorney General Samuel del Villar, suggesting his office was corrupt and incompetent.
Current city Attorney General Bernardo Batiz said he would study the verdict, and then decide whether to appeal the acquittals.
"I thank the public, the media, all the people for always believing we were innocent," said Rodriguez Bezares after the verdict was announced at a courtroom in the Mexico City prison where he was held.
Rodriguez Bezares, who served as the butt of Stanley's heavy-handed humor on the show, said of the slain comedian: "For my friend, may he rest in peace, I hope this crime does not go unpunished."
Rodriguez Bezares initially came under suspicion because he remained behind in a restaurant bathroom while Stanley walked out to his car, where he was slain in a hail of bullets.
Durante, the 24-year-old aspiring actress, had gained a wave of sympathy during her one-and-a-half years in jail, including a recommendation from a government rights commission that she be freed.
Both she and Bezares were acquitted of homicide, a charge that was founded largely on the testimony of an imprisoned former cook for alleged drug lord Luis Amezcua.
The cook later changed his story and claimed prosecutors had threatened and pressured him into implicating those acquitted Thursday.
Cocaine found in Stanley's car at the time led police to construct a theory that Stanley had refused to repay debts to Amezcua, who also was named in the charges and is the only one of the suspects who did not gain immediate release after acquittal. Amezcua is being held on charges of trafficking methamphetamine.
Also acquitted were Stanley's driver, two of his assistants who allegedly helped plot the killing, and a suspected gunman.
Del Villar, who left office when a new mayor took office in December, was battered by media criticism of his handling of the case.
But as his evidence became slimmer, Del Villar became truculent, calling in the network's owner and the brother of a former president to testify in the case.
Lawyers for those acquitted said they were weighing bringing criminal complaints or civil suits for alleged misconduct against Del Villar, whose political reputation has already been severely damaged by the case.
Television Azteca - which dedicated ebullient, massive coverage to the acquittals - also saw its reputation sullied by the perception that it had started a drum-beating, partial media campaign to defend its employees.
UPSOUND: (Spanish)
SUPER CAPTION: Mario Rodriguez Bezares
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
SUPER CAPTION: Guillermo Pascuel, Attorney for Rodriguez Bezares
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
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