All together now, a big sigh of relief: The Lay/Skilling trial is in the home stretch. Really, we promise. Ahhhhhhh. Mmm. Oh, yeah.
Oh, excuse us. Back to the news. Ex-Enron Chairman Ken Lay finished his six days of testimony yesterday, once again denying that he dumped Enron stock because he thought the company was in trouble in late 2001. Under gentle questioning by defense lawyer George "Mac" Secrest, Lay told jurors that he was so optimistic about Enron's future that he had 5 million shares of company stock when Enron went into bankruptcy at the end of 2001. Lay reiterated his claim that he drew $1 million in credit from Enron days before the bankruptcy because he needed financial wiggle room to get his personal books in order. "I continued to have faith in Enron stock most of the way through 2001, certainly into November 2001," Lay said.
Secrest also revisited prosecution allegations that Lay tried to influence government witnesses during the trial — in particular, Enron risk expert Vince Kaminski, whom Lay tried to contact even though Kaminski was on the government witness list. Lay said he "was surprised" Kaminski was going to be a witness and acknowledged that it would have been inappropriate to meet with him. Prosecutor John Hueston reminded Lay that the list of possible government witnesses, including Kaminski, was released months before the trial.
Hueston delivered a parting shot at Lay, telling him, "You have a long list of people to blame for Enron's collapse, sir, and the list gets longer and longer as you sit on the stand. Your list of people to blame, sir, did not include yourself, did it?" (Lay, remember, said Enron's downfall was caused by ex-CFO Andy Fastow, short-sellers and The Wall Street Journal.) Lay responded by saying he wasn't responsible for anything except hiring and firing Fastow.
Lay's testimony was followed by brief appearances from three community leaders: former mayor Bob Lanier, Astros owner Drayton McLane and the Rev. William Lawson. Lanier called Lay "straight as a string" and Lawson, who called himself a good judge of character, said Lay was neither a liar nor a hypocrite.
From the 11 News Blog came a report of a humorous incident in Tuesday's proceedings. While Lay was discussing comments his lawyer Mike Ramsey made about former Enron treasurer Ben Glisan Jr.'s testimony for the prosecution — Ramsey said watching Glisan testify was like watching a trained monkey — Lay said, "I wouldn't try to defend my monkey one way or the other." Oops!
Judge Sim Lake has asked attorneys to wrap up testimony by May 11 so closing arguments can begin May 15.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit