A man who was accused of stealing a woman’s cellphone on a San Francisco Municipal Railway bus in August was acquitted by a jury last week, according to the city’s public defender’s office.
Ronnie Morrisette, 26, was arrested in connection with a robbery on a 14-Mission bus that had stopped near the intersection of Ninth and Mission streets around 2 a.m. on Aug. 11.
But after a weeklong trial, Morrisette was acquitted last Wednesday of robbery, assault, false imprisonment and other charges, according to the public defender’s office.
In the robbery, a woman had her iPhone snatched out of her hands by a thief who then ran off the bus, police said.
The public defender’s office stated that the victim had thought Morrisette was the thief, but that the thief had instead run past Morrisette, an innocent bystander, while fleeing and that the victim was confused.
A jury sided with Morrisette, finding him not guilty of all charges after less than a day of deliberations, according to the public defender’s office.
“After three months of sitting in jail, waiting for justice, an innocent man was finally vindicated by the jury and granted his freedom,” Morrisette’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Peter Santina, said in a statement.
Morrisette has since been released from jail.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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