"From what I heard as the evidence was presented at this trial, there wasn't enough evidence that he acted in a criminal manner to bring this crane down," said the lawyer, Howard S. Hershenhorn.
She is tiny – barely 5ft tall – dressed all in black, and when she speaks, her voice is so soft that the architects in hard hats have to crane down to hear what she is saying.
Experts later praised Mr. O'Brien for guiding the crane down where no one else would be injured, but Mr. O'Brien lost his right leg in the accident.
Firefighter Andy Lindley said: "Luckily the crane driver saw the dog prior to him sending his crane down to pick the rubbish up.
Those slings were holding a heavy metal collar, which slid down the crane, bringing down the beams on the ninth and third floors, a point that the prosecution and the defense have agreed on.
The Fire Department got the first 911 call at 8 06 a.m., with the caller saying a "crane was down," said Firefighter Chris Villarroel, a spokesman.
"Is it possible that he had a heart attack before the crane went down?" Mr. Aidala said in court, giving an example of why Mr. Bleidner's condition might be relevant.
A sound booth was completely created from scratch to accompany a crane shot down to Madonna.
For now, toward evening, exactly a month after we'd left Murmansk, one of the cranes swooped down from above, like an enormous red hawk, took the first pile of Russian iron ore, and deposited it on the Chinese pier.
SOROK ISLAND, South Korea — After the clod-covered offramp is smoothed over with asphalt, after the road signs are put up and the construction cranes taken down, a bridge, long anticipated, will open here in September.
When the construction cranes come down next summer from the upgrading units of the Millennium Project of Suncor Energy, costs will be around $9 a barrel, roughly one quarter of 1970's levels, according to Rick George, Suncor's hard-driving, Colorado-raised chief executive.
