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Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE
Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.

NOT GUILTY
    On another front, having earlier written that a Schenectady construction fellow involved in downtown rejuvenation was facing criminal charges for allegedly assaulting a neighbor and might soon be in jail, I am honor-bound to report that he went to trial on those charges and was acquitted.
    He is Jeffrey Civitello, and he is officially not-guilty of all charges — assault with a snow shovel, assault with his fists, and harassment — which I take as a tribute to the charms of his attorney, Jay Kelleher, more than a certification of his actual innocence.
    Kelleher concedes that Civitello did indeed hit his neighbor in the face with his hand, whether clenched or not, but the jury cleared him of that charge anyway, so sometimes it’s hard to figure.
    Civitello is not entirely out of the woods. He still faces assault charges arising from an unrelated incident on Albany Street last October, not to mention charges of attempting to bribe a witness to that incident, whatever it might have been, so I’ll probably be doing another followup at some point.
    But for now, please put him on the beat-the-rap side of the ledger.