...with a little of Bono's help ofcourse.
R.E.M.'s Peter Buck Cleared
by Josh Grossberg
Apr 5, 2002, 10:50 AM PT
For Peter Buck, it's not the end of the world as he knows it.
But he's feeling fine.
To the relief of R.E.M. fans, a London jury on Friday acquitted the group's guitarist of five charges stemming from his alleged air-rage incident last year.
Buck was found innocent of a laundry list of offenses, including two counts of assaulting the cabin crew, causing damage to the plane, being drunk on an aircraft and disobeying captain's orders during a British Airways flight from Seattle to London in April 2001.
In his defense, Buck claimed that, while seated in the first class section of flight 48, he had taken a sleeping pill along with a glass of wine, "blacked out" and didn't realize how the combination would affect him. He also claimed he had little memory of what happened.
The jury apparently believed the day-sleeper bit.
After the verdict was read, Buck reportedly wiped his brow and breathed a huge sigh of relief. His wife, Stephanie, burst into tears. And R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe wiped his eyes and hugged his longtime pal.
Outside the Isleworth Crown Court, Buck's attorney, Neill Blundell, read a statement from the rocker: "I am grateful to the court, the jury and my lawyers, to my family, friends and supporters who have stood by me throughout this experience.
"I am obviously relieved to be finished here, and I look forward to be returning my attention to my family, my band and music."
The acquittal followed three weeks of testimony in which a number of Buck's musical buddies, including bandmates Stipe and Mike Mills and U2's Bono, took the stand as character witnesses to counter the prosecution's claims of Buck being a rampaging rock star. Each talked about the passion the 45-year-old musician had for his family and that he was not the drunken lout the prosecution and airline officials made him out to be.
"There's what's called a 'Southern Gentleman' and Peter is my definition of such, which is someone who's considerate of all people, and genteel, and polite," testified Stipe. "[He is] someone who follows the Golden Rule: You treat people as you'd want to be treated, no matter who they are."
Bono said, "I came over because he's actually famously known for being a peaceable person, and of all the people in the music business, I couldn't believe my ears and eyes when I first saw these reports. It did not add up to the person I had to twist his arm to get him to go to a boxing match once...because he thought it was an aggressive sport" Bono also noted that Buck is a "very quiet man" who "loves his kids so much" and does not abuse alcohol or drugs.
The Buck ruckus allegedly took place April 21, 2001, as the rocker was en route to London to join his bandmates for a South Africa benefit concert in Trafalgar Square in front of Nelson Mandela.
Prosecutors accused Buck of being a not so shiny happy rock 'n' roller after downing 15 glasses of red wine, overturning a breakfast cart, mistaking another cart for a CD player, tussling with crew members and splattering them with yogurt. Flight attendants also testified that Buck had to be pulled away from an exit door after he declared he was "going home" in mid-flight.
When the plane landed at London's Heathrow airport, Buck was taken into custody by British police and spent two days in jail before being released on $30,000 bail.
He later issued an apology for his behavior.
"I am very sorry for the incident and of course, very embarrassed about the whole thing," Buck said at the time.
For its part, British Airways said through a spokesperson that Buck was welcome to book a flight again on the airline anytime.
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