Associated Press

Mel Patrick Lynch

Dominic Byrne

Two are sentenced

for extortion in Bronfman kidnap

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A judge rejected emotional pleas yesterday from lawyers for two men convicted of extortion in the Samuel Bronfman kidnap case and sentenced the pair to terms ranging from 3 to 12 years in state prison.

Justice George Beisheim Jr. said that although Mel Patrick Lynch and Dominic Byrne were found innocent of kidnaping the heir to the Seagrams whisky fortune in the bizarre 1975 case, he believed their extortion of $2.3 million was "a very serious crime.'

Lynch was sentenced to a minimum of 4 to 12. years and Byrne to from 3 to 9 years. Both already have served nearly 17 months while being held without bail.

However, Dist. Atty. Carl Vergari said the time served will not be counted in the minimum terms.

Walter Higgins, lawyer for Lynch, 38, a suspended New York City fireman, said later he believed, a 'special prosecutor should look into Bronfman's role in the kidnap plot. Lynch contended Bronfman engineered the whole thing to sextort money from his father, Edgar, head of the Seagram distillery empire.

Lynch said he had a love affair with Bronfman band had been forced to go along with the plot under threat of exposure as a homosexual.

edt voVergari charged Higgins with making a "ludicrous grandstand play."

Four of the jurors who heard the case were in the courtroom for the sentencing. All told reporters they believed that young Bronfman had engineered a hoax abduction. They said they thought Lynch and Byrne, 55, should have been set free. 943 06