NEW YORK (AP) — A construction crane owner was acquitted of manslaughter and all other charges Thursday in the May 2008 collapse of his 200-foot-tall rig that snapped apart and killed two workers, which fueled concerns about crane safety.

James Lomma sat expressionless, looking frozen, as a judge announced his verdict in the only criminal trial stemming from the accident on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Lomma chose not to have a jury in the two-month trial.

The victims’ relatives shook their heads as Lomma and his two companies were acquitted.

The case marked Manhattan prosecutors’ second try at holding someone criminally responsible for two deadly crane collapses that came within two months of each other in 2008. Together, the fallen cranes killed nine people and spurred new safety measures here and in some other cities — scrutiny recently renewed after another Manhattan crane collapse killed a worker this month.

“Although we are disappointed with the judge’s verdict, each case we have brought in this area has put increased scrutiny on the construction industry as a whole, and has had a cascading effect on safety practices,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said.

The crane was starting work on the 14th floor of what was to be a 32-story apartment building when the top portions of the rig came off, crashed into a building across the street and plummeted to the ground.

The crane operator, Donald C. Leo, 30, died after nearly being decapitated. Ramadan Kurtaj, 27, a sewer company employee who was working on the ground, was pulled from the wreckage and died.