Northpinellas: Jury clears man after he serves three years

Jury clears man after he serves three years

By ANITA KUMAR

LARGO -- A man who served almost four years in prison was set free Friday after a Pinellas jury determined he was not guilty of stabbing four people outside a Dunedin bar in 1996.

Cable Ridenour, originally sentenced to 15 years in prison, won a new trial last year after the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that his attorney did not represent him effectively in his first trial in 1997.

Ridenour, 39, got a second chance at proving his innocence this week.

After deliberating about two hours, a jury found him not guilty of three counts of felony aggravated battery. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit John Schaefer had dismissed a fourth such count.Jeff Brown, Ridenour's attorney in this week's trial, said, "He will never get those years back."

Ridenour, who lived in Alaska but grew up in Dunedin and was visiting family at the time, spent three years and eight months in prison. Brown, who also represented Ridenour on his successful appeal, said his client plans to go back to Alaska, where he ran a hunting and fishing lodge.

Prosecutors could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Brown said this trial was different from the first in that he called witnesses to prove it was "justifiable use of deadly force." Ridenour said he acted in self-defense when he stabbed four people during a brawl at 1470 West.

In August 2000, the appeals court ruled that Ridenour's trial counsel, Michael Gonzalez of Tampa, represented him ineffectively on two important points.

First, the court said he failed to challenge a prosecutor's assertion to jurors that Ridenour had been convicted of a felony, aggravated battery. Ridenour had not been convicted of the charge. In 1991, Ridenour pleaded no contest to aggravated battery, but a judge withheld adjudication, or a formal finding of guilt, which meant he wasn't legally convicted.

The court also faulted Gonzalez for failing to call several witnesses who might have supported Ridenour's self-defense claim.

Gonzalez, who could not be reached for comment, has law offices on Cypress Street in Tampa and should not be confused with Tampa attorney Michael Celso Gonzalez, who has offices on E Twigg Street and has no connection to the Ridenour case.