A few jurors couldn't figure out whom to believe, and the way they understood the law, the defendant won a draw.

Although the defendants won the case, public mood was against them.

The defendant has also won a devoted following among a small group of bloggers.

Any sympathy the defendants may have won will have been hard-earned.

At trial, the defendant won a directed verdict because the judge decided that there was no cause of action in contract.

He has also noticed a growing number of such cases, adding that defendants "can win the battle but lose the war."

"I cannot understand how a defendant can win when they don't even show up," he said in an interview.

Increasingly in recent years defendants have won dismissal of their cases by showing that the Government's agent created the crime rather than merely monitoring it.

But Westchester's victory was not complete; the defendants also won.

Successful defendants did not win freedom but a new lower-court proceeding.