one reason larry might have been distracted recently...
A jury of eight women and four men deliberated for just under a day at a court in Redwood City, near San Francisco, before pronouncing Adelyn Lee, 33, guilty of two counts of perjury, one count of preparing a false document and one count of offering a false document into evidence.
Lee, a former administrative assistant at Oracle, once had a relationship with the company's billionaire chairman and chief
executive, Lawrence Ellison.
Ellison, 52, who founded the company and turned it into a Silicon Valley powerhouse, was a key witness in the three-week trial in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City.
Lee was fired in 1993, days after her last date with Ellison. Later that year, she filed a wrongful termination suit against the
company, alleging that Ellison had had her fired for refusing to have sex with him.
The cornerstone of Lee's suit was an e-mail message that she alleged was sent by her boss, former vice president for sales Craig Ramsey, to Ellison on April 22, 1993. It read: "I have terminated Adelyn per your request." The suit was settled out of court for $100,000.
But prosecutors later filed criminal charges against Lee, accusing her of breaking into Oracle's computer system and sending the e-mail message herself.
Testifying at the trial earlier this month, Ellison denied he had had Lee fired for refusing to have sex.
Ellison said Lee peppered him with requests for expensive gifts like a Rolex watch and an Acura sports car during their sporadic, 18-month relationship.
Company officials said Lee was fired for tardiness and for having an abrasive attitude.
Lee's attorney Gordon Rockhill said many employees at the high-tech company could have doctored e-mail records and said the evidence did not prove her guilt.
In a statement released after Tuesday's hearing, Ellison said sexual harassment was a crime.
"It is not always the case, however, that everyone accused is guilty and everyone making a claim is telling the truth. Today a jury of 12 unanimously determined that Adelyn Lee's sexual harassment claim was based on her perjured testimony and evidence that she manufactured. And that's a crime too," Ellison said.
[ yahoo.com ]
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maybe larry can now get back to the business at hand...acquiring a company with a strong global brand & channel well-suited to push his NC paradigm?
show me da money, larry! |
