A Cook County judge threw out charges against two suburban friends on trial Wednesday for causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage at Trump International Hotel and Tower shortly after a third co-defendant pleaded guilty in return for probation.
The three friends, allegedly angry after being cut off while drinking at the hotel's Sixteen bar and restaurant, were charged with criminal damage to property for opening a water valve in a fifth-floor stairwell last February.
Water gushed from the pressurized pipe at about 250 gallons a second, rushing down a stairwell, destroying two elevators and damaging the lobby's Italian marble floors, according to prosecutors.
After the trial for all three had started with prosecutors' opening remarks, Benjamin Nitch, 26, suddenly decided to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of two years of probation and 480 hours of community service. Nitch, who allegedly opened the valve, was also barred from Trump Tower.
Later Thursday, after prosecutors completed their evidence, Judge Thaddeus Wilson threw out the charges against Carl Koenemann, 26, and Daniel Maradei, 25.
"I think it's clear that there is no direct evidence that these two defendants did anything illegal in that stairwell," Wilson said after hearing nearly two hours of testimony.
Even though the building's security director testified the high-rise has 186 cameras, none captured who opened the valve.
Koenemann and Maradei embraced their families outside the courtroom after their acquittal.
"Justice was served!" shouted one of their fathers as they left the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
"They're good kids, and they've got their whole life to work and do everything," said the mother of one of the two defendants who declined to give her name. "They really didn't know what happened until right after."
The three friends had been drinking much of the day, according to testimony. They had first gone to the Polar Beer Festival at the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery at noon, then stopped at the Public House for drinks four hours later and ended up at Trump Tower around 6 p.m., testified Chicago police Detective James Rider.
At the bar, they loudly played music from a speaker connected to a cellphone, said Bryce Gangel, who was working as a hostess that night. A bartender cut them off after serving them a $43 round of drinks, prosecutors said. And then one of them made a "sexual remark" to the hostesses as they left, Gangel testified.
The three took the stairs down from the 16th floor instead of the elevator. Both Koenemann and Maradei later told police they thought Nitch had opened the fifth-floor valve but didn't see him do it.
For 10 minutes, water burst out of a 2.5-inch opening, spilling down the stairwells and into the elevator shafts. Alarms led building engineer Nate Dorgan to rush up the stairs and close the valve, he testified.
The water caused two elevators to essentially short-circuit and sparked minor fires, said E.J. Zitkus, director of building security. The costs to repair those elevators alone totaled $568,000, prosecutors said.
Water also seeped into the "porous Italian marble" in the building's lobby, Zitkus testified.
Video recordings captured the three taking an elevator up to the bar, leaving the stairwell and then exiting the hotel. Days later, Chicago police tracked the suspects down after Trump security provided them Koenemann's credit card receipt for the bar tab, according to testimony.
Nitch told police he had accidentally bumped into the standpipe, causing the water to leak out. But Dorgan testified that was impossible, testifying the valve has a threaded cover that must be unscrewed and takes two to four full rotations of a turnwheel to open.
The trial began with an assistant state's attorney delivering a brief opening statement, but then a long delay took place over defense allegations that prosecutors had improperly waited until Wednesday to turn over certain statements Nitch had given authorities.
The judge barred prosecutors from using the new evidence at trial.
After hearing the judge would recommend probation, Nitch decided to plead guilty to one felony count of criminal damage to property. He had not previously been offered a plea deal by prosecutors.
The charge carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison on conviction.
Twitter @SteveSchmadeke