A Douglas County jury Friday found Lawrence Rieke innocent of providing liquor to teenagers, one of whom later killed a woman while driving drunk.

Moments after verdicts of “not guilty” on all four misdemeanor counts were read in Judge Robert Fairchild’s courtroom, Rieke, 54, Merriam, silently left the building alone and walked to his car in the parking lot.

He declined to comment. So did his attorney, Mike Riling.

Friends and family of Felicia Bland, the 39-year-old Lawrence woman who died in the Sept. 16, 2000, crash on Kansas Highway 10, had plenty to say.

“God knows the truth,” said a tearful Yoland Reyes of Lawrence, Bland’s sister. “I hope he’s happy. It’s all because of him that we don’t have our sister, whether he wants to admit it or not.”

The jury deliberated about nine hours during two days before reaching verdicts shortly before 5 p.m.

Prosecution witnesses testified that the afternoon of Sept. 16, 2000, Rieke bought beer and shots for his stepson, Sean Scott, then 16, while at The Wheel, 507 W. 14th St. They also said Rieke bought alcohol for another stepson, Mike Scott, and his friends Brian Stockton and Sean Brewer, all Kansas University students ages 18 or 19.

The Scotts, Stockton, Brewer and others who were in the bar were among the prosecution witnesses.

That evening, Sean Scott was driving to his Johnson County home when he lost control of the car he was driving on K-10. The car crossed the median and struck the westbound car driven by Bland.

In August 2001, Sean Scott was placed on five years’ probation after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The probation was ordered after Johnson County District Judge Janette Sheldon reversed an earlier decision she had made to send Scott to youth camp for more than two years.

The judge’s reversal had angered Bland’s family, and her brother Richard Ramos, Lawrence, said he didn’t get his hopes up for convictions in Rieke’s trial.

“After what happened in Johnson County, I’m not surprised,” Ramos said afterward outside the courtroom. “It’s not right for him to get away with it.”

“I don’t know how they arrived at the verdicts. Those kids didn’t have anything to gain by not telling the truth,” Ramos said of the Kansas University students who testified against Rieke.

Ramos wore a white wire ribbon shaped like an angel on his shirt in honor of Bland.

“I know in my heart something good will come out of this,” Ramos said. “Maybe, just maybe, people will think twice before they make such horrible choices.”

During his testimony, Rieke denied buying alcohol for anyone that afternoon at The Wheel. He said he was only in the bar 20 minutes. He blamed Mike Scott, with whom he said he had a difficult relationship, for leading others to believe he paid for drinks.

According to trial testimony, Mike Scott and others in the bar had been drinking earlier during the day.

Rieke still faces a pending civil lawsuit filed by Bland’s family. Her husband, James Bland, was too upset to attend the trial, Ramos said.

Among others named as defendants in the lawsuit filed nearly a year ago were Sean Scott; Sean’s mother, Dana Rieke; Kansas University; and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $75,000 for negligence.