A Brooklyn baseball coach accused of attacking an opposing team's fans with a metal bat has been found not guilty.
A jury yesterday found 36-year-old Ernest Cruz not guilty of assault, menacing, harassment and weapons charges related to the 2007 incident at Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge. Cruz, a popular volunteer coach, had been suspended from his job as a school aqide since the incident, according to The New York Daily News.
Defense lawyer Stacy Richman told the Daily News after the verdict was read that Cruz never should have been charged.
"All he did was try to pull his kids away," Richman said.
Cruz had said the other team's fans had pulled out bats and began punching and kicking him as he held back his own players from fighting.
Cruz had faced up to seven years in prison. He says he hopes to return to his coaching job at Norman Thomas High School in Manhattan.
