It took a Manhattan jury mere hours yesterday to acquit the postal driver accused of leaving the scene of the accident that killed the bicycling sister-in-law of O.J. Simpson Dream Team lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
Ian Clement, a 64-year-old father of two, had faced a maximum of seven years in prison for allegedly knowingly driving way after leaving Marilyn Dershowitz, 68, crushed to death in Chelsea last summer.
“I’m relieved. My sympathies lie with the Dershowitz family,” Clement said grimly on his way out of court.
Clement had taken the stand last week to say that he simply hadn’t seen the 68-year-old lawyer as she peddled westward on West 29th Street on July 2, 2011. He’d had no idea that she’d fallen or that the rear right wheel of his seven-ton truck had run over her, he told jurors.
This despite video evidence that appeared to show Clement stopped five cars behind the victim at the same red light moments before the tragic accident and no other tall vehicles nearby to block her from his view.
The victim’s brother-in-law, the Harvard law professor famous for his work on behalf of Simpson and Claus von Bulow, did not attend the trial, and was not in court when the verdict came down.
But he was a continually absent presence; in both opening and closing statements, defense lawyer John Arlia accused the powerful legal family of pressuring prosecutors to pursue Clement, forcing prosecutors to call the DA’s original investigator to the stand to rebut the claim.
“I’m a strong believer in the jury system,” said the victim’s husband, Nathan Dershowitz, also a lawyer. “The jury gets its information, and it makes its vote.”
He cryptically added, “I’m sorry I wasn’t part of the prosecution team.”
Asked if that meant he was unhappy with the work of Manhattan prosecutors on this case, the grieving husband said, “You can understand what I’m saying.”
In a statement released after the verdict, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. said, “We respect the jury’s verdict. However, far too many cyclists and pedestrians are killed in crashes with motorists each year, in every borough of our city.
“Often times, these deaths are not crimes, but they are of grave concern to this office, as they forever change the lives of victims, their families and the drivers involved.
“We will continue to file charges where we believe the evidence merits them and do everything we can as an office to make our streets safer for everyone.”
Both sides agreed that Marilyn Dershowitz had been bicycling about a minute behind Nathan — himself a behind-the-scenes Dream Team member — and fell while negotiating a narrow space between Clement’s massive truck and a parked postal trailer.
Clement told jurors last week that he felt a “bump” as he unwittingly rode over the woman and immediately pulled to the side, as supported by surveillance video.
He saw traffic stopped through his rear-view mirror, and heard horns honking behind him, he had testified.
But after more than two minutes of his waiting in his cab, no one approached his vehicle and he drove off believing he was uninvolved, he argued.
Jurors declined to comment on the verdict.
Additional reporting by David K. Li and Georgett Roberts