editorial comment Not the first time that a jury is smarter than the government, especially when the legislation involved are ludicrous to start with.

By JULIA PRESTON
Published: June 10, 2005
In a surprising upset for federal prosecutors, the owner of the Sound Factory, once one of Manhattan's hottest nightclubs, was acquitted by a jury yesterday on charges that he turned the club into a den for rampant drug use and sales.

After deliberating for little more than a day, the jury declared the owner, Richard Grant, not guilty on all three counts of conspiracy to aid narcotics distribution and providing a building for drug sales.

The prosecutors opened the trial on May 12 with lurid accounts of empty drug vials strewn across the dance floor and clubgoers collapsing from overdoses of Ecstasy and methamphetamines. To avoid drawing the police, they said, the club's security staff ran an improvised clinic where bouncers slapped and pinched unconscious patrons and doused them with cold water to avoid calling ambulances.

But the jurors were apparently never convinced that Mr. Grant condoned the drug use on his club's premises or that he was aware that some security staff members were selling narcotics and encouraging clients to use them.

A lawyer for Mr. Grant, Camille M. Abate, said the verdict was an important rebuff to prosecutors who sought to punish narcotics dealing among young Sound Factory patrons by going after Mr. Grant, who emerged during the trial, she said, as a legitimate businessman. Ms. Abate said the charges were a heavy-handed application by the government of a statute that was originally designed to catch owners of houses sheltering crack cocaine dens.

Mr. Grant's lawyers said he had been severely punished despite his exoneration. When he was indicted in March 2004, federal authorities shut down the Sound Factory, which was located at 618 West 46th Street, near 11th Avenue. Mr. Grant lost the entire business, which his lawyers valued at $3.5 million.

"The government got its way anyway by putting the Sound Factory out of business," said Kevin Claffey, who represented Mr. Grant's corporation in the trial.

Mr. Grant, 62, looking pale and speaking in a shaking voice, said he was too stunned with relief to celebrate. "Now I'm going to try to pick up the pieces, but it's like broken glass," he said. "A lot was taken away from me with the closing of the club."

Mr. Grant, a Canadian citizen, said he was likely to sue city and federal authorities to try to recover his legal fees and some of his losses.

Randell Rogiers, a Sound Factory security staff member, was also acquitted after the four-week trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Judge Barbara S. Jones threw out two counts against the defendants.

It was a sober ending for the Sound Factory, a huge club on the Far West Side that was once renowned for theme parties lavishly produced by Mr. Grant that kept patrons dancing all night and into the day. Mr. Grant, who testified in his own defense, acknowledged under questioning by a prosecutor that club drugs like Ecstasy and GHB were frequently used by clubgoers.

The prosecutor, Benjamin M. Lawsky, recalled the drug overdose deaths of two Sound Factory patrons.

But the government's case apparently failed when its main witness, Ronald Coffiel, the club's former chief of security, suffered a blow to his credibility. Mr. Coffiel admitted in court that he had stolen from Mr. Grant by secretly skimming as much as $40,000 over a two-year period from the club's entrance fees. That testimony threw doubt on his claims that he kept Mr. Grant completely informed about the secret drug trade on the premises.

Mr. Coffiel pleaded guilty in February to three narcotics counts and cooperated with the government.

Mr. Grant's lawyers presented an order from a New York State judge requiring tightened antidrug security procedures at the club. Mr. Grant had sent it to Mr. Coffiel, adding a handwritten message: "Follow these instructions to the letter."

The defense also presented photos and documentary film footage from inside the club that it said countered the prosecutors' contention that drug use was ubiquitous and always visible.

Ms. Abate was fiercely critical of the prosecution and the law it tried to apply. "This statute is so vague that anyone who opens their door to young people who like music has to fear being prosecuted," she said. "The case was started by an attorney general who frowns on dancing," she said, referring to John Ashcroft.

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