At NY civil trial, Mets hope to shed Madoff taint

Lawyers for the owners of the New York Mets face a March trial to decide how much the team could owe other investors caught on the losing end of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff's massive fraud.

Federal Judge Jed Rakoff (RAY'-koff) has made two rulings in the owners' favor. That increases the odds they won't be forced to sell the team.

In September, the judge capped their potential losses at $386 million and said they could not be made to pay more than $83.3 million unless they were "willfully blind" to the fraud. On Tuesday, Rakoff blocked a trustee who's trying to recover money for thousands of investors from appealing his September ruling until after the trial.

The trustee seeks $1 billion. The trial is set for March 19.

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