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Non-Tech : The ENRON Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jw who wrote (3830)	4/11/2002 4:25:29 PM
From: opalapril	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

The Mysterious Death Of An Enron Exec cbsnews.com WASHINGTON, April 10, 2002 It may be the biggest outstanding mystery in the Enron story: the death of Cliff Baxter, a former top Enron executive. He'd just agreed to testify to Congress in the Enron case. A congressional source tells CBS News that Baxter wasn't a target in the probe, he was to provide evidence against others. But on the morning of January 25th he was found in his car - shot dead. Police were criticized for calling it a suicide before investigating, so they kept the case open. The fact that it's still open more than two months later has made the Cliff Baxter case prime fodder for murder conspiracy theories, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. Adding to the mystery is a letter - perhaps a suicide note - that Baxter's wife is fighting to keep private. Groups like the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation want at least part of it made public. "I believe very strongly that Enron is mentioned in it," said Joel White, the group's attorney. More questions are raised in police, autopsy and lab reports obtained by CBS News. Police won't talk while the case is open, so CBS News asked two experts - independent coroner Cyril Wecht and former homicide detective Bill Wagner - to review the reports. While suicide appears likely, both experts say the documents make it impossible to discount foul play. Asked why he couldn't rule out murder, Wagner said, "because murder can be made to look like a suicide. ... Someone who is knowledgeable about forensics can very well have the ability to stage a murder, commit a murder and stage it to look as if it was a suicide, understanding what the police are going to be looking for." The experts found several things highly unusual. First the peculiar ammunition: not regular bullets but something called "rat-shot". "This kind of ammunition cannot be easily or readily traced back to the gun from which it was fired," explained Wecht. "It's not as frequently used by people for any reason. It's not the type of ammunition one finds in guns - it has a specific purpose: shooting at snakes and rodents in order to get a distribution pattern of the small pellets contained within the nose portion of the bullet. It's not something that a person is likely to have and to use if they intended to kill themselves," said Wecht. Other unanswered questions include mysterious wounds on one hand and unexplained shards of glass in Baxter's shirt. All reasons to look deeper to rule out murder. But Wagner says glaring police errors may make it harder to close the books on the Baxter case. First, nobody wrapped the hands to preserve evidence. "When the body did finally arrive for the autopsy, the hands hadn't even been bagged," said Wagner. "I'm just amazed frankly that the hands were not bagged," Wecht said. "From what I've seen looking at the vehicle, it doesn't appear they even fingerprinted it," continued Wagner. "The police narrative is vague for this type of investigation. It's important to get a timeline of the events that took place through the course of investigation - that appears to be lacking in the original report from the crime scene. Without that, without being able to piece together what was done when, it's very difficult to understand the events that took place and how they unfolded from that report," said Wagner. The gun and other evidence were moved before photos were taken. The body was moved as well. There's a puzzling mention of blood outside the car from someone laying Baxter on the ground. Wagner says that only should have happened if rescuers pulled him out to revive him. But even that scenario doesn't add up - the body is back in the car when the funeral home arrives "and that's something that is not explained in the police reports," said Wagner. "I think there were some very important things omitted from the original investigation report that should have been included in it. I would like to have known what were the first couple things the Fire Department did to treat the victim allegedly as he was sitting in the car and from that point how did they change the initial crime scene. What was moved? Did they remove the body from the vehicle? It's actually unclear how they treated the actual scene," Wagner said. Incredibly, even though an autopsy is required by law, none was ordered. By the time that decision was reversed, Baxter's body was being processed at a funeral home. The coroner says police still won't tell her exactly who handled and who saw the body before it finally reached her and won't even give her routine information. The official finding on Baxter's death may well end up being suicide, but for now his death certificate remains unsigned. And at least one provocative question is left permanently unanswered: what, exactly, Cliff Baxter would have told investigators about the biggest corporate scandal in history. cbsnews.com Questions left unanswered in Enron execs death khou.com

To: jw who wrote (3830)	4/13/2002 12:01:37 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

'I Just Can't Go On,' Ex-Officer Wrote The New York Times April 12, 2002 By JIM YARDLEY SUGAR LAND, Tex., April 11 - In a pained handwritten note, J. Clifford Baxter, the former Enron vice chairman, described himself as tormented and ashamed but did not mention the Enron scandal or whether it was leading him to take his own life. "I am so sorry for this," Mr. Baxter wrote to his wife, Carol, in the note, which the Sugar Land police released today. "I feel I just can't go on. I have always tried to do the right thing but where there once was great pride now its gone. I love you and the children so much. "I just can't be any good to you or myself. The pain is overwhelming. "Please try to forgive me. "Cliff." Early on the morning of Jan. 25, Mr. Baxter was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. His body was discovered inside his parked Mercedes-Benz a few blocks from his home in a subdivision of Sugar Land, an affluent suburb of Houston. The Harris County Medical Examiner's office has ruled his death a suicide, though the Sugar Land police have left the case open, awaiting results on what officials described as routine tests involving DNA and ballistic information. A police spokesman said today that the case was expected to be closed early next week. The existence of the note had generated much speculation about whether Mr. Baxter had offered any details about Enron. He had retired from the company in May 2001, about seven months before Enron filed for bankruptcy protection. Former colleagues said Mr. Baxter had criticized some of the accounting practices conducted by the former chief financial officer, Andrew S. Fastow, whose off-balance-sheet partnerships later contributed to the company's collapse. Colleagues also said that Mr. Baxter had clashed with Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former chief executive, though Mr. Skilling testified before Congress in February that the two had been close friends. In the days and weeks before his death, Mr. Baxter had been named a defendant in at least one civil lawsuit filed against officers of the company, and Congressional investigators had subpoenaed him to testify. The Sugar Land police department released the note late this morning after the state attorney general ruled that it and other related documents should be made public under the Texas Open Records Act. Within hours, a state judge issued a temporary restraining order on the release of the documents after a motion was filed by Mr. Baxter's wife. The order came too late to prevent the release of the note. A hearing will be held in the next 14 days to determine whether other items, including a police report and photographs taken at the scene, will be released. nytimes.com