By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A lawyer charged with helping a "Smurfs" entrepreneur try to extort more than $11 million from his son-in-law was acquitted of grand larceny charges at trial on Tuesday.
Jurors in the trial of 81-year-old Stuart Jackson rendered a not guilty verdict to the elderly lawyer, who was charged with trying to help Stuart Ross, 74, who brought the "Smurfs" to the U.S., blackmail his son-in-law, a Blackstone Group executive, out of millions.
Prosecutors said Jackson and Ross received a $50,000 check from Jackson's son-in-law, David Blitzer, after they threatened to ruin his reputation unless he gave them the money. The matter was under investigation at that point and the DA was already building a case against the pair.
Jackson, who was fully exonerated by Tuesday's verdict, faced up to seven years in prison if he was convicted at trial.
"[The case] should never have been brought — it was a domestic dispute between father in law and son-and-law," Jackson said after the verdict.
Ross, who pleaded guilty in October, is trying to withdraw his plea. He claimed it was entered under duress when he was incarcerated and battling cancer.
