Winehouse Hubby's Victim Cleared of Charges
Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
At least one person is making it out of the Amy Winehouse vortex of chaos.
The pub landlord who accepted a $400,000 bribe from Winehouse's hubby and another man in exchange for dropping assault charges against them—clearly neither the best-laid nor carried out of plans—has been cleared of obstruction of justice.
The jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court found James King not guilty of the charge based on his claims that Blake Fielder-Civil and codefendant Michael Brown intimidated him into withdrawing his allegations.
The assault, which sparked Fielder-Civil's current legal mess, stemmed from a June 2006 pub brawl that left King with a broken cheekbone.
Although King initially reported the incident to police, he later attempted to withdraw the complaint after, he claimed, Fielder-Civil enlisted the services of two middlemen to intimidate the barkeep into dropping the claims and sparing the assailants jail time.
King said he was bullied into not showing up in court as the prosecution's key witness, taking the money and leaving the country for the duration of the trial. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the two middlemen videotaped their interactions with both sides and sold the footage to the Daily Mirror, which handed the tapes off to police.
The verdict doesn't necessarily bode well for Fielder-Civil, who copped a guilty plea to the assault and perversion of justice charges. He has been in jail since November of last year and faces up to five years in jail at his sentencing, which will be handed down next month.
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