Skilling Seeking Trial Separate From Lay
Fri Aug 20, 8:44 PM ET
news.yahoo.com
By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer
HOUSTON - Enron founder Kenneth Lay doesn't want to go to trial
alongside his one-time protege, former CEO Jeffrey Skilling. The feeling
is mutual.
Both argue in court filings - Skilling in
papers filed Friday, Lay last week - that the
allegations against them thinly overlap if at
all, so they should be tried separately.
The government wants to try them and the
third co-defendant in their pending
indictment, former Enron chief accounting
officer Richard Causey, together in March
next year. Lay wants a trial as soon as
possible, and Skilling and Causey want
another year and a half to prepare.
Lay's legal team asked that he be tried
alone, and said he would forego his right to
face a jury and leave his fate in a judge's
hands if that would get a speedy trial.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake said he would
rule on all the separate trial requests by early
October.
The 53-count indictment charging each man
with various crimes stemming from Enron's 2001 collapse began in
January with a few charges against Causey. Skilling was added as a
defendant in February, and Lay was added last month.
Skilling and Causey each face more than 30 counts of conspiracy, fraud,
lying to auditors and insider trading in relation to alleged schemes
stretching over nearly three years before Enron's crash. Prosecutors
allege they participated in various schemes to fool investors and
analysts into thinking Enron was healthier than it was, and both profited
from sales of inflated stock.
Lay faces 11 counts of conspiracy, fraud and lying to banks. The much
narrower case against him alleges that he took the reins of the
conspiracy after Skilling abruptly resigned in August 2001 after serving
as CEO for just six months. Charges of bank fraud and lying to banks
allege Lay misled banks about using loans to buy Enron stock on
margin.
All three have pleaded innocent.
"The addition of Lay to the indictment has only heightened the risk that
even the most conscientious, well-instructed jurors will be unable to
'compartmentalize the evidence' as it relates to Skilling and Lay,"
Skilling's lawyers said in Friday's filing.
Skilling's team also asked Lake to consider a separate trial for Causey
on some of the charges - money laundering and insider trading - that
don't overlap with those against Skilling.
But Causey also wants a trial of his own because, among other things,
Skilling and Lay have more notoriety.
"Of all onetime Enron employees, Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling
unquestionably have the highest name recognition among the general
Houston populace," Causey's lawyers said in another filing Friday.
While Causey "harbors grave doubts" about whether he can receive a fair
trial at all in Houston, a trial separate from Skilling and Lay "will at least
increase the likelihood that we can impanel a fair and unbiased jury," his
lawyers said.
But if a complete separation isn't granted, Causey - like Skilling -
wants certain charges against his co-defendants that don't overlap with
charges against him to be addressed in a separate trial.
Skilling and Causey's lawyers also plan to ask that they be tried outside
of Houston and the 13-county area from which jurors are chosen to
ensure a fair trial. Lake told the legal teams he wanted them to file
change of venue requests within 20 days of his ruling on separate trials,
but Skilling and Causey want to hold off on submitting a change of venue
request until March.
In court papers filed earlier this week, Skilling and Causey said they
need time to hire experts and conduct surveys of potential jurors to
gauge whether they can be fair or if they already overwhelmingly believe
the former executives are guilty. |
