Trial, Week 3: That pesky 'truth' thing again

Another week, another witness: Sometime early this week — maybe today — ex-Enron head of investor relations Mark Koenig's cross-examination will finally end and another former exec will take the stand in the trial of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. Rice, the former head of Enron Broadband Services, confessed to securities fraud in a 2004 plea agreement; last year, he testified that Skilling helped prepare a fraudulent report to analysts in 2000. Rice said the purpose of that false report was to make Enron Broadband Services look better than it was — and indeed, the company's stock price jumped 25 percent the day the report was given. But employees have testified that Enron Broadband Services never really got off the ground and had disappeared by mid-2001, a few months before Enron went bankrupt.

Koenig, you'll remember, testified a couple of weeks ago that Skilling had a hand in lying about Enron's corporate health, though his accusations lost some edge during cross-examination. So Rice's testimony probably won't make Skilling too happy, either — all the accusations go against the defense contention that nothing was wrong at Enron before the company collapsed, and if it was, Skilling sure as heck didn't know about it.

As we get ready for Week 3, the Chronicle's Loren Steffy pulls no punches in discussing the Koenig testimony, worldwide oddsmakers are betting on convictions, and jurors hope Skilling's lawyer Daniel Petrocelli doesn't slap on a gallon of Brut again.