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April 21, 2005

No Contest plea entered in Alex Lifeson's trial

Good news for Rush fans! Alex Lifeson's legal ordeal is over.

The last 2 weeks had seen a number of setbacks for the prosecution. First, a former employee of the hotel gave an interview to the Naples News that contradicted many of the accusations against Lifeson and his son, Justin Zivojinovich. While Lifeson has been accused of pushing or pulling a deputy down a flight of stairs, the witness says that it was the deputy that pushed Lifeson, causing them both to fall.

Then the case against Justin's wife, Michelle Zivojinovich, was dismissed by a judge. She had been charged with a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest without violence.

Most recently, during the trial of Justin Zivojinovich, who had been charged with a felony count of resisting arrest with violence, following the presentation of the prosecution's case, the judge found that "while there was a potential for violence, no violence was offered" and reduced the charge to the misdemeanor of resisting arrest without violence.

Lifeson had been charged with 2 counts of battery of a law enforcement officer and one count of resisting arrest with violence. Both he and his son have entered pleas of No Contest to the misdemeanor charge of resiting arrest without violence and have been sentenced to one year's probation. Since the judge did not find them legally guilty, after they sucessfully complete their probation they will be able to petition the court to have their records expunged.

During Justin's trial, the prosecution had only one of the three deputies involved in the altercation testify. The judge apparently did not find his testimony credible as it was the basis for the resisting arrest with violence charge that he subsequently reduced. The prosecution has said that they offered the plea agreement to Lifeson as well as his son because many of the same witnesses would be testifying at Lifeson's trial as well.

While this isn't a total vindication for Lifeson, when you look at it, it comes pretty close. The prosection has gone from charging him with 3 felonies that could have netted him up to 15 years in prison to not even getting an actual guilty plea to the misdemeanor count of resisting arrest without violence and a year's probation. That two separate judges (the one for Michelle's trial and the one for Justin's) found that the prosecution's case was not credible enough to support the charges filed is, I think, important to note.

Lifeson has pubished a statement about the pleas which can be read here.

Posted by thorswitch at April 21, 2005 06:10 PM

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