Trial, Day 1: Nothing to see here!

Things unfolded pretty much the way we expected in the first day of the Ken Lay/Jeff Skilling trial: The prosecutor accused the ex-Enron bigwigs of lying to cover up the energy company's faltering finances, leading to artificially high credit ratings and stock prices. And the attorneys for Lay and Skilling said Enron was a swell company and there wasn't anything to worry about. The opening statements seem to have set the course for the rest of the trial: The prosecutors will try to prove Lay and Skilling knew things were going wrong and tried to cover it up, and the defense will try to prove that someone else — anyone but Lay and Skilling — brought the company down. Ho-hum.

Daniel Petrocelli, Skilling's lawyer, said Skilling was an honest, selfless guy with a passion for business. He said questionable Enron business deals under attack by the prosecution were approved by attorneys and accountants, joking that "you couldn't go to the bathroom without running into an accountant or lawyer" at Enron. Uh ... are you sure those were accountants and lawyers? "Hey, why is my accountant scrubbing the toilet?" Houstonist's favorite statement on Skilling's behalf was reported in the TrialWatch blog: Petrocelli said Skilling was so committed to Enron that he planned to put his entire life savings (between $60 and $70 million) back into the company. Which, of course, he didn't do — but it's a nice thought, anyway.

On Lay's side, attorney Mike Ramsey assured jurors that Lay "has, does and will continue to accept responsibility for the bankruptcy of Enron." That seems to contradict Lay's December speech in which he urged former Enron employees to band together and correct "this horrific legacy shaped by others." Instead of using the defense that high-powered execs don't know about shady business deals going on somewhere in their company, Lay and Skilling's teams are saying there were no shady deals to know about. And if there were, Ken and Jeff sure wouldn't have known about them.

Witness testimony will begin today, with ex-Enron investor relations executive Mark Koenig set to take the stand first. Stay tuned.

(By the way, we missed one of the Chronicle's trial-related blogs the other day: Loren Steffy's Full Disclosure, in which the business columnist is liveblogging the trial.)