Article originally posted on Pollard & Koenig, attorneys website. Newspaper origin, if any, is unknown.

Lawsuit next for twice-wronged man
By Sean Gardner

A Queens man who was released in 2002 after spending 10 years in prison for murder he didn't commit was acquitted yesterday on assault charges after spending another 10 months in jail awaiting trial.

It took only an hour and 15 minutes for a jury to acquit Lazaro Burt, 32, of charges he shot Ronald Laws, 28, in the left thigh in May.

"We suspected that Laws shot himself in the leg, either intentionally or unintentionally, and then tried to frame Lazaro in order to get money from his multimillion dollar lawsuit," said Burt's defense attorney, Mark Pollard.

Before his arrest in the Laws shooting, Burt had filed a $30-million suit against the state for the decade he wrongfully spent in prison after his arrest in the murder of Wilfredo Cesacro.

On Aug. 20, 1992, Cesacro's girlfriend, Lissette Saillant, was groped by a man on a street corner in East Elmhurst. Cesacro was shot to death by the groper in the ensuing confrontation.

Saillant identified Burt as the shooter and, based largely on her word, he was convicted of murder and sexual assault.

In 2001, lawyers for a Wall Street firm took on Burt's case pro bono. With the help of private investigator Michael Race, they located Saillant, who said police had pressured her into making an identification she knew to be wrong.

At the same time, the Queens district attorney's office started an investigation after an arrested drug dealer said Jarrett Smith, a Burt look-alike, was Cesacro's killer. Another witness also identified Smith, who was later convicted.

Burt was released on Sept. 26, 2002. He couldn't find a job and was receiving $275 in case and food stamps on welfare. Then, three weeks shy of a year out of jail, Laws accused him in the shooting.

Laws did not return phone calls yesterday. In a previous interview, he said he and Burt were in a car on May 29 when Laws stopped to speak with a group of men. Burt and one of the men were rivals from a decade before. Laws said Burt shot him because Burt believed Laws was trying to set him up for a fight.

Burt's defense team had a different theory.

"My argument was this guy's a bold-faced liar, a low-level street hustler and a con man," Pollard said. "This is nothing but a hustle to get this guy's money."

Pollard said they were suspicious of the accusation from the start because Laws was the only witness, there was no bullet casing or blood found where Laws said the shooting occurred, and it took Laws three months to identify Burt. Pollard said suspicion turned to disbelief when Race tried to speak with Laws and was given the name of the lawyer.

"I asked him, ‘Is this because you have a lawsuit you're going to file' and that's when the mother threw me out," Race said. "He's a moneyminded complainant."

Burt was expected to be released from Rikers Island last night and couldn't be reached for comment.

Patrick Clark, a spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said, "The jury has spoken, and we accept its verdict."

Attorney Ron Kuby, who is handling the $30-million civil suit filed by Burt, said that price may have just gone up.

"He spent eight years in prison (plus two years awaiting trial) for a murder he didn't commit; now he has spent another 10 months in jail for a shooting he didn't do," Kuby said. "I think the Queens district attorney's office should declare a moratorium on future Lazaro Burt prosecutions."