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Judge McCarthy's Decision

Judge McCarthy made a ruling less than a month from the end of the trial. On Dec. 18, 2002, McCarthy read his 12-page decision from his bench in front of the attorneys and their clients. He acknowledged that Popov had been attacked and that he wouldn’t condone such violent behavior. But the judge exonerated Hayashi from being a part of the "gang of bandits" who set upon Popov: "Mr. Hayashi was not a wrongdoer."

"Mr. Popov was grabbed, hit and kicked," McCarthy wrote. "People reached underneath him in the area of his glove. Neither the tape nor the testimony is sufficient to establish which individual members of the crowd were responsible for the assaults on Mr. Popov. The videotape clearly establishes that this was an out-of-control mob, engaged in violent, illegal behavior."

McCarthy apparently feared that setting a precedent that would allow such behavior in the stands in the future, but also said it was impossible to know if Popov gained control of the ball or would have done so if he hadn’t been mobbed: "Perhaps the most critical factual finding of all is one that cannot be made," he wrote. "We will never know if Mr. Popov would have been able to retain control of the ball had the crowd not interfered with his efforts to do so. Resolution of that question is the work of a psychic, not a judge."

He concluded that Popov and Hayashi must sell the ball and split the profits. Lee was disappointed by the verdict in that Hayashi was penalized for the behavior of the other fans, but pleased his client was freed from blame.

Life in the Spotlight

When the trial was over, Lee tried to begin settling back into life away from the spotlight. Yet Lee acknowledges the national media attention has brought changes to his life and his client’s. He says Hayashi, an intensely private man at the start of the trial, learned to "come out of his shell" and enjoyed talking to the media and strangers on the street. Lee was approached by numerous friends and acquaintances as well as media.

A friend of Lee’s son approached Lee at a bowling alley to tell him, with great excitement, that he had seen him on the nightly ESPN sports news show, SportsCenter, during the trial. The boy had been watching the show with his father, an employment lawyer, who hadn’t been able to impress his son as much by recently winning a $90 million lawsuit.

"They were so impressed, not by any fancy lawyering, but by the fact I was on Sports Center," said Lee, grinning. "I would have been happy to have won that $90 million lawsuit."

While at an Albany Little League tryout this spring, a local television crew surrounded Lee for an interview. And at a pre-season meeting for the league umpires, grown men even asked for his autograph.

"They actually wanted me to sign a ball," Lee said, shaking his head. "Is that amazing or what?"