Judge Sets 2006 Trial for Enron Founder Lay

[FaGal]

Judge Sets 2006 Trial for Enron Founder Lay
Kristen Hays
The Associated Press
04-22-2005

Enron founder Kenneth Lay's trial on charges related to his personal banking will be held next year, a judge decided Thursday.

Lay is accused of lying to banks about his intention to use their loans to buy Houston-based Enron stock on margin before the company crashed in December 2001. Prosecutors had wanted the trial to begin as early as next month.

"The desire to try this case fairly outweighs expedition," U.S. District Judge Sim Lake said.

Lay said in court papers last week and repeated in court Thursday that he wanted Lake to hear and decide the banking case at the same time that jurors are deliberating the verdict of a larger fraud and conspiracy case pending against him, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and former top accountant Richard Causey. That trial is slated to begin in January and is expected to last several months.

Prosecutors expressed concern that Lay may decide later he wants a jury trial on the bank charges. Lake questioned Lay to make sure he understood he was giving up his right to a jury trial.

"We have confidence in your honor and think a bench trial is the most appropriate way for it to be decided," Lay told the judge.

The case will go to trial within a "couple of hours" of the start of deliberations on the conspiracy case, Lake said.

"I think it's a very wise ruling. There obviously has been a lot of gamesmanship by the task force and by me," said Mike Ramsey, Lay's attorney. He called Lake "the best fact finder."

Andrew Weissmann, head of the Enron Task Force, declined comment.

In their request for an early trial, prosecutors noted Lay's oft-repeated and publicized desire for a speedy trial since he was indicted in July on 11 counts and became a co-defendant alongside Skilling and Causey.

Lay sought a separate trial and offered to forgo a jury if that would get his case rolling by last autumn. His legal team's fervor diminished when Lake granted a separate trial only on the banking counts, leaving him lumped in with Skilling and Causey on seven counts of conspiracy and fraud.

Lake scheduled the trio's trial for January, and Lay said he wanted the banking case to be tried by a jury after the larger case concludes. He switched to asking for a bench trial after prosecutors said they would accept a bench or jury trial in the banking case.

Skilling and Causey each face more than 30 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and others for allegedly being in on or knowing about schemes to fool investors into believing Enron was healthy when it wasn't. The narrower charges against Lay in that case allege he took over the ruse upon Skilling's abrupt resignation nearly four months before Enron failed.
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