Monday May 3 8:46 AM ET

Jury Rules For Dead CIA Agent In LSD Case

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A jury Friday ruled against the estate of an artist who said he was driven mad by a clubfooted CIA agent who slipped LSD into his drink in 1952.

In a case involving a dead plaintiff, a dead defendant and a dead judge, the suit revolved around the activities of the late Sidney Gottlieb, head of the CIA's Cold War efforts to control the human mind.

In the 1950s and 1960s the CIA gave mind-altering drugs to hundreds of unsuspecting Americans in an effort to explore the possibilities of controlling human consciousness.

The practice came to light during widely publicized congressional hearings in the mid-1970s. Gottlieb died last month.

The New York suit was brought by Stanley Glickman, an American artist who had been living in Paris in the early 1950s.

Glickman, who died in 1992, alleged that he had been drinking with a friend and three other men at a bar. One of the men, who had a clubfoot, offered him a drink and halfway through the beverage, Glickman said he had such severe hallucinations that he had to be hospitalized.

Glickman's family brought him back to the United States for treatment several months later, but he never fully recovered. The suit was not filed until 1983, after the congressional hearings involving Gottlieb -- who had a clubfoot -- were broadcast.

After 16 years, the case finally went to trial and was nearing final summations Tuesday when presiding Judge Dominick DiCarlo died Tuesday while exercising in a federal court gym.

The case was immediately transferred to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, who had thrown out the suit in 1997. However, it was later reinstated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Closing arguments were held Thursday and the jury deliberated about seven hours before ruling against the artist's estate.