Congrats to blogger John Byrne, who was part of the team who heard those two magic words -- not guilty -- before Judge Williams last week.  It was an interesting case involving monkeys... yes, monkeys:

A Cambodian official accused of illegally importing wild, long-tailed macaque monkeys into the United States that were destined for Miami was acquitted Friday of conspiracy and smuggling charges after a two-week federal trial. Masphal Kry, 47, the deputy director of the Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity for the Cambodian Forestry Administration, had been under home confinement in Virginia since his arrest in November 2022 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. 

Now, Kry is back at home with his family in Cambodia. “He should never have been charged, and we are grateful to the jury and the court for seeing that justice was done in this case,” said lead counsel, Mark MacDougall, of Washington, D.C., who worked on Kry’s defense with Coral Gables attorney John Byrne. 

Kry was the only defendant named in an indictment to face trial in Miami. Seven other defendants from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, and Hong Kong, including Kry’s boss, the general director of the Cambodian Forestry Administration, are at large.

(via the Miami Herald)