Staff Writer

ONEONTA —After three hours of deliberation, a jury in city court found lawyer Andrew Van Buren guilty of three of five charges Thursday.

Van Buren was found guilty of one count each of disorderly conduct, trespassing and littering. He was declared innocent of resisting arrest and a second count of trespassing.

"I received a fair trial, and ... the jurors in the case —all of them, including the alternates —did honor to their oath, for which I am very grateful," Van Buren said Thursday night. "And I'm glad the case is over, very glad."

When asked if he was disappointed with the verdict, Van Buren said, "I was disappointed with the jury's decision with disorderly conduct, otherwise I am not disappointed."

Judge Walter L. Terry III sentenced Van Buren to a $250 fine for each count, with a $60 surcharge for the count of disorderly conduct, due on Feb. 7. Van Buren was also was given a one-year conditional discharge, with the condition he be evaluated by the Otsego County or Delaware County Mental Health Clinic.

"The court is somewhat puzzled as to the reason Mr. Van Buren took it in his hands to come to Oneonta," Terry said. "I don't know what purpose was served by sitting in his car at 4 in the morning because if there was any serious event I don't know what Mr. Van Buren would have done."

The maximum for each count was $250 in fines plus 15 days in jail. Terry explained Thursday night why he decided against jail time for Van Buren.

"There wasn't any violence out there, there wasn't anyone punching anybody," he said. "It appeared that the maximum fines and the conditional discharge, as well as the mental health evaluation, would be the best under the circumstances."

Prosecuting lawyer Michael Breen would not comment on the verdict.

Van Buren, who successfully defended Colin Davidson in the garage-brawl trial, was arrested following a March 28 incident.

Van Buren allegedly parked his car on the property of 244 Chestnut St. in what he said was an attempt to protect his client after a rock had been thrown through the window of the apartment next door to where Davidson was staying. After his presence was reported to Oneonta police, Van Buren supposedly used profanities toward the officers and threw a coffee cup into the street.

Terry said the trial was the longest in his experience as judge and, before that, as city prosecutor.

"I think you've also broken the record for being in the longest trial in Oneonta City Court —four days," he said, before sending the jury into deliberations.

The four men and two women deliberated for more than three hours, asking that the laws on trespassing and resisting arrest be re-read. Juries for misdemeanors at the local level are composed of six people instead of 12.

"We weren't thinking about the time really," said forewoman Mary Anne Ross of Oneonta. "If needed, we would have stayed longer."

Ross wouldn't comment on how the jury reached the verdicts it did.

"Within the parameters of what we were given, we tried to be as fair and honest with each other as we could," she said.

Van Buren filed a claim in September alleging city police "physically assaulted" and "battered" him during his arrest. The city and its police department are named in the claim, which also seeks $11 million in damages.

Van Buren said Thursday he was undecided regarding that claim.

"The jury's verdict doesn't really impact that one way or another," he said.

The nature of his arrest was one of the points Van Buren covered in his closing statement earlier Thursday afternoon, rebutting a question from his cross examination the day before that the police cut him some slack.

"When I threw my coffee cup in the middle of the street, they were on me like dogs," he said.

He later said, "I'm not going to win any points for style or grace, but I obeyed every command made by those police officers."

He also brought up his criticism of the police department for alleged racial bias in the investigation of the garage-brawl trial.

"The charges filed against me are the price that I have paid for being an outspoken critic of the Oneonta police department," he said.

In his summation, Breen said, "There are so many things you can do in this country to redress what you think is wrong," adding that one of them was not calling someone obscenities in the middle of the street.