Judge Tosses Out Crowe Plotters' Case

By Stephen M. Silverman

Monday June 24, 2002 01:00 PM EDT

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Australians Philip Antony Cropper, 36, and Malcolm Brian Mercer, 37, who were standing trial for allegedly trying to extort money out of Russell Crowe, are off the hook. According to Reuters, New South Wales District Court Judge John Williams on Monday ordered the jury in the case to throw out all charges against the two men, who had been accused of using a security videotape that reputedly showed Crowe, 38, behaving badly. Their alleged attempt was to blackmail the "A Beautiful Mind" star into paying them off not to make the tape public. Prosecutor Colin McPherson said at the trial, which ran all last week, that Crowe appeared to start an early morning fight outside the Saloon Bar nightclub in Coffs Harbor, a resort town north of Sydney where the actor owns a cattle ranch. The video footage, reportedly from November 1999, depicted Crowe "manhandle one particular male person . . . and he remonstrated fairly heavily with a female person," McPherson said, according to Reuters. But Judge Williams said the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the men had made an unwarranted demand or had threatened the star, who was not in court for the trial. Furthermore, according to the Australian Associated Press, the jurist said the only evidence that was presented of an attempt to make a demand against Crowe was based on a conversation between Cropper and one of Crowe's friends, rugby league coach Craig Coleman.