Chron chats with Enron prosecutor Ruemmler

The Chronicle's John Roper has a post-Enron trial interview with prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler, the second in command of the government's Enron Task Force, today. Though Ruemmler doesn't say anything earth-shattering — the trial would have been the right place for that, right? — she does give some behind-the-scenes insight into the prosecution's work against former Enron execs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. Among the details was what the prosecutors did in the courtroom when they felt like they were gaining ground: They passed notes!

"My one regret was we didn't save those notes," Ruemmler said with a laugh.

She recalled one note, passed to her by fellow prosecutor John Hueston, with particular amusement. The note came while a government witness was doing especially well battling with a defense attorney during cross-examination.

Hueston drew a picture depicting the witness as Godzilla with the defense attorney hanging from the monster's mouth.

"I remember when Skilling said nonchalantly on direct, 'I don't have any recollection of selling that stock on Sept. 6,' I just (wrote) to Sean, 'Wow! That's as good as it gets?' " Ruemmler said.

When a female witness for the defense started getting angry during the government's cross-examination, Ruemmler recalls writing to a colleague: "She's gonna blow!"

Ruemmler, 35, said she and the other task force members devoted themselves entirely to their case for the past two years (she has only been home, to the D.C. area, twice since the end of November). Their main concerns outside of building their case were making sure the defense didn't surprise them with new evidence and that government witnesses weren't caught unawares. And they weren't. "What it told us is that our witnesses were telling the truth," Ruemmler said.

Even though the prosecutors came from a variety of backgrounds, they worked well together, she said. And they got good feedback for their victory: The night the verdict was read, the team had a celebratory dinner at Ibiza, and several people came up to congratulate them. "(They) were not saying it in a 'You got those guys' way. They felt that we represented the United States and them well. That's sort of meaningful," Ruemmler said.