Thursday, October 24, 1996
NEWS
Steve Scott
Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
Jurors acquitted a North Dallas man Wednesday on charges that he threatened to kill a witness who testified against him in a 1990 child custody hearing.
Sadri "Sam" Krasniqi, 57, had faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the third-degree felony charge of retaliation. He was accused of making threats last year toward a court-appointed adviser who investigated charges of child sexual abuse against Mr. Krasniqi and recommended in the 1990 hearing that parental rights for him and his wife be terminated.
The prosecutors called the verdict "a disgusting result."
Jurors told lawyers after issuing Wednesday's verdict that they were not convinced that Mr. Krasniqi's comments, some of which were published in The Dallas Morning News, were intended as serious threats.
Their verdict incensed Assistant District Attorney Robert Dark.
"We had 12 members of our community who totally and utterly disregarded the solemn oath they took to base their verdict on the evidence and the law," Mr. Dark said. "There's absolutely no way they could've found this man not guilty if they had followed the law."
Defense attorney Reed Prospere disagreed, saying his client's comments were the product of years of feeling culturally misunderstood and victimized by the court system. Mr. Krasniqi did not testify.
"Let's face it - all of us probably have said things in the heat of anger or the depth of despair that in the clear light of good judgment we wish we wouldn't have said," Mr. Prospere said. "I think that's what they based their verdict on in this case."
A Dallas civil court jury severed the parental rights of Mr. Krasniqi and his wife, Sabahete "Kathy" Krasniqi, in April 1990 after witnesses testified that they had seen Mr. Krasniqi fondling his daughter, then 4 years old, in a Plano gymnasium. Mrs. Krasniqi was accused of violating a court order that her husband be kept away from their two children.
In a criminal trial in February 1994, a state district judge in Collin County found Mr. Krasniqi not guilty of sexual assault. The case drew national attention because of the Muslim couple's public campaign to regain custody of their children, who were adopted by a Christian family.
The case that led to Wednesday's verdict was one of three retaliation charges for which prosecutors were seeking convictions. In two others, Mr. Krasniqi was accused of making threats against a Plano woman who reported the original sexual abuse allegation to police and against a caseworker for the state Child Protective Services agency.
State District Judge Lana McDaniel instructed jurors not to decide Mr. Krasniqi's guilt or innocence in those cases because there was insufficient evidence for them to consider. Prosecutors said the ruling amounted to two more not-guilty verdicts.
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