Trial, Week 4: Justice juggernaut picking up speed?

After a long weekend, we expect the Lay/Skilling trial-ravaganza to return with renewed vigor. Last week, things ended on an upbeat note when the third witness — yes, that's right, three whole witnesses in three weeks! — took the stand. That third witness was accountant Terry West, who started working at Enron in 1981, before it was even called Enron. West testified that her boss was told in 2000 to decrease the company's estimated earnings per share by a penny, which didn't work out mathematically but presumably was a way for Enron's leadership to mislead investors and analysts.

Due on the stand this week are Paula Rieker, who was second in command of investor relations at Enron (behind Mark Koenig, who testified for a long, long, long time in the first two weeks of the trial), and Wesley Colwell, the former head accountant for Enron's trading arm. As we wait for them, it's interesting to revisit the recollections and revisions of Ken Rice, ex-head of Enron Broadband Services, who altered some of his testimony under cross-examination (via enronOffLine).

Also from enronOffLine, CNNMoney.com looks at the intimidation factor in Courtroom 9B, particularly Jeff Skilling's potty mouth, KUHF reviews Week 3 of the trial with UH law dean Nancy Rapoport and the Chron's Mary Flood gives pointers to anyone who's interested in making the scene downtown to try to catch a piece of the trial action for themselves. We're also grateful to the Chron for providing a diagram of the courtroom in case you want to build your own version out of papier mache or Legos. (If anyone actually does built the courtroom out of Legos, be sure to send us photos. We wouldn't want to miss that.)