American Notes NEW YORK

When the jury foreman announced the verdict, "Not guilty," the former Democratic candidate for Vice President broke into tears. Geraldine Ferraro's husband John Zaccaro was cleared last week of charges that he solicited a bribe from a cable-television company seeking a franchise in Queens, N.Y. Acquittal was assured when the key witness against Zaccaro refused to implicate him in a bribe attempt.

The witness, Richard Flynn, a lawyer for Cablevision Systems Corp., did testify that Zaccaro told him in 1981, "It's going to cost you money" to get the contract. Flynn said he interpreted the statement not as an extortion attempt, however, but as a warning "about a process that was corrupt."

Outside the courtroom, Ferraro blasted prosecutors for bringing an "empty political indictment." Ferraro, whose family has endured numerous investigations since she was Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984, faces yet another legal hurdle: her son John Zaccaro Jr. is charged with selling cocaine at Middlebury College in Vermont.