6 CLEARED OF KILLING MEXICAN TV HOST

Suspects Framed, Rights Group Says

MEXICO CITY -- A judge yesterday absolved all six people accused of
murdering a popular television host.

The case of the slain television personality, Francisco Stanley, officially
fell apart yesterday, although Mexico City's Human Rights Commission had
put it in doubt long ago.

The case has been a cause celebre among human rights officials and some
political analysts, who said it showed the defects of Mexico's justice system.

Stanley, a caustic comic whose show, "One After Another," was a top-rated
feature on Mexico's TV Azteca, was shot four times by two gunmen outside a
taco restaurant during broad daylight in June 1999.

The police and prosecutors developed a complicated conspiracy theory in the
case brought by Samuel del Villar, until recently Mexico City's attorney
general. It was based in part on del Villar's unsubstantiated theory that
cocaine kingpins had conspired to seize control of TV Azteca.

Police and prosecutors charged that Mario Benzares, Stanley's television
sidekick and the butt of his brutal insult humor, dreamed up the crime to
gain control of the show and the company that produced it.

They accused Paola Durante, a bit player on the show, of taking the plan to
a major drug dealer, Luis Amezcua, whom they said Stanley owed money for
cocaine.

A jail house snitch was the key witness against Durante and the linchpin of
the case. Prosecutors also charged the comedian's chauffeur and bodyguard,
along with an alleged triggerman.

In Mexico, suspects are tried by a judge, not a jury. For 16 months,
Durante, 24, and the rest of the suspects were imprisoned while awaiting a
ruling in their case.

Durante's mother and stepfather asked the city's Human Rights Commission to
look into the case. The commission reported almost a year ago that Durante
was the innocent victim of an elaborate frame-up.

Prosecutors and the police bought and shaped the testimony and evidence
against Durante, the commission reported.

The jail house informant turned out to be mentally unstable, prone to
flights of fantasy, but sane enough to have recanted his testimony in April.

None of that was good enough to free the accused until yesterday's ruling.
Prosecutors have five days to appeal.

Mexico City's first opposition government, headed by the leftist Democratic
Revolution Party, had advertised its aggressive prosecution of the six
defendants as part of a crackdown against crime.