Still a Reasonable Doubt

From the first, the family of Samuel Bronfman II figured on a guilty verdict for the two men accused of kidnaping the young Seagram liquor heir. Anything less would be a slap at Sam and them--a judgment that the "victim" had really masterminded the crime for the $2.3 million ransom. Late last week, as 120 people crowded the White Plains, N.Y., courtroom, the jury filed back after 19 hours and 30 minutes of deliberation and delivered a stunning decision: not guilty of kidnaping.

At the defense table, Mel Patrick Lynch, 38, a New York fireman, and Dominic Byrne, 54, a limousine-service operator, sobbed. The jury pronounced both guilty on the charge of extortion. That verdict will almost certainly mean prison for the two Irish Americans--but shorter terms than a kidnaping conviction would have carried. Thus ended one of the strangest criminal trials of this decade.

The Bronfman entourage* reacted swiftly and angrily. Jonathan Rinehart. a family spokesman, called the verdict an ''outrageous travesty." Said Sam

Bronfman, 23: "I think it's a pretty sad system when you have a guy who gets kidnaped and his kidnapers are caught red-handed and they get off."

Interviewed by TIME Correspondent Mary Cronin, Bronfman recalled in a husky voice how he felt during what he has often described as his nine-day ordeal in August 1975: "You've only one thought in mind: staying alive. As long as you are alive, you are alive. The only thing I feared was death." He claimed that Lynch once told him that he had made a mistake in undertaking the kidnaping. The wrenching experience of the trial, Bronfman said, made him sympathetic with Patty Hearst. "I am more cynical and skeptical." Added Bronfman, who has continued to work at his job as a promotion copywriter for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: "I am a private person. My interests are basic and simple. I love my wife, I want to make her happy and I want to do something constructive in my life."

But the jury's verdict--which casts doubt on all of Bronfman's claims about the kidnaping--may not permit him to slip peacefully into obscurity. Several jurors at trial's end openly charged him with engineering his own abduction. Said one. Mrs. Amelia Dricot, a house wife from Mount Vernon, N.Y.: "I think he planned the whole operation." As early as the first evening of the jury's deliberation, eight jurors voted to acquit the defendants, two wanted to convict, and two remained undecided.

Apparently the defense summations crystallized the uncertainties of the jurors. The lawyer for Byrne hit hard on the contention that Bronfman had plenty of opportunities to escape. Lynch's attorney, Walter J. Higgins Jr., argued that Sam Bronfman did not want to wait until he was 40 to get his hands on his immense trust fund. Also, the lawyer contended, neither the 63 witnesses nor the state's evidence clearly supported the kidnap charge. Summed up Higgins: "The facts reek of reasonable doubt."

The jurors evidently agreed. William Link, 30, an employee of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., said they believed Bronfman had faked his imprisonment. The rope used to bind him was flimsy, for one thing, and the blindfold placed on him looked like a flip visor. According to Link, the jurors also thought Bronfman was lying when he taped an emotional plea to his father, then a moment later changed his voice and said briskly, "Do it again." On the stand, Bronfman was unconvincing. He appeared to choke up when he looked at the jury, said Link, and compose himself when he turned to the judge.

According to Link, Lynch's allegations that he had a homosexual affair with Bronfman and that Bronfman pressured him into the kidnap scheme by threatening to expose his homosexuality, did not play much of a role in the jury's deliberations.

Byrne and Lynch face sentencing Jan. 6 on the extortion conviction, which they plan to appeal. Said Carl Vergari, the Westchester district attorney whose office prosecuted the kidnaping case: "I am going to recommend the maximum sentence to the judge"--15 years. Vergari does not suspect Sam Bronfman of involvement. He said flatly: "I am convinced that Lynch and Byrne are guilty. I wouldn't have tried them if I wasn't convinced." Nevertheless, in the minds of many people, a cloud of suspicion will inevitably linger over Sam Bronfman.

* Including Sam's father. Edgar, chairman of Seagram who had just returned from Washington. DC where with 14 other business leaders, he had conferred with President-elect Jimmy Carter

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