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Matthew Karim Borowski was one of three people charged following a March 6, 2008, incident in which an 8-year-old boy was taken from his grandparents' home on Fence Post Road in Stafford.

There was a heavy police response to the reported abduction, and the case received widespread publicity.

Prosecutor Teresa Polinske said that the child’s mother, Carianne McHale, had gotten Borowski and another man to assist her in a violent abduction. Borowski and McHale are engaged and recently had a child together.

But during yesterday's jury trial, Polinske was unable to prove that the grandparents had legal custody of the boy. The grandfather, Bill McHale, testified largely in favor of the defendants. Polinske unsuccessfully tried to have him declared a hostile witness.

After the prosecution rested its case, defense attorney Jim Ilijevich asked Judge J. Martin Bass to dismiss the charges. Bass did, and the jury was sent home.

Ilijevich argued there was no evidence that anyone had legal rights that superseded the mother’s. He said that when the grandparents tried to stop Carianne from leaving with the child, Borowski had every right to come to her aid.

Ilijevich said he didn’t blame the police for responding as they did, but criticized the prosecution for going forth with the case. He said the family has reconciled and the grandparents have been trying to get the case dismissed since June.

“Once [the prosecution] realized it wasn’t what they thought, that should have been the end of it,” Ilijevich said. “They should have known they didn’t have a case.”

Charges were still pending against Carianne McHale and Varun Sethi. It was not clear how the dismissal of the charges against Borowski will affect the other defendants.