HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth L. Lay wants different juries for his two trials next year.
Lay and two other former Enron executives are to be tried Jan. 17 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.
Lay also faces a second trial on four separate bank-fraud charges related to his personal Enron stock holdings. In a brief filed yesterday, Lay's legal team told U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III in Houston that the former Enron chairman doesn't want the jury at his January trial to also decide the second one.
The judge suggested last month that using the same jury for the second trial might save time.
The judge made the remark in setting Jan. 17 as the trial date for Lay, former Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey K. Skilling, and Richard A. Causey, Enron's one-time chief accounting officer.
The January trial is the premier criminal case to emerge from the Justice Department's lengthy investigation of Enron's collapse in December 2001.
"Judge Lake believes it will be expedient to have the second trial right away because the attorneys will already be in court, they'll have a qualified jury, and they'll not waste any more time," said Philip H. Hilder, a former federal prosecutor in Houston.
Michael Ramsey, Lay's attorney, considered the judge's idea, but said in yesterday's filing that using the same panel would damage his client's right to an impartial jury in the second trial.
Even if Lay is acquitted in the first trial, "there exists a substantial possibility that jurors will not be able to simply disregard all of that argument and evidence, and will use it - intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or subconsciously - to infer a propensity on the part of the defendant to commit the other offenses, similar in nature, upon which they are called to deliberate in the second trial," the filing said.
Lay can be ready for trial on the bank charges two months after the Jan. 17 trial ends, so his lawyers won't have to prepare for both trials simultaneously, the filing said.
Lay's legal team also asked that Lay receive a trial separate from Skilling and Causey on all 11 charges pending against him as soon as possible. In addition, Lay offered to forgo a jury trial and let Lake try the case against him if that would help gain a speedy trial.
Lake last year granted a separate trial on the bank charges - one count of bank fraud and three counts of lying to banks - but kept Lay lumped with Skilling and Causey on seven other counts of conspiracy and fraud. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Andrew Weissmann, head of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Skilling and Causey were each indicted more than a year ago on more than 30 counts including conspiracy, fraud and insider trading for allegedly knowing about or being involved in schemes to fool investors into believing Enron was financially healthy in the years leading to its crash. Lay was added to the indictment in July.
The conspiracy and fraud charges against Lay allege he took over the ruse upon Skilling's resignation in August 2001. The bank charges allege Lay misled banks when he used loans to buy Enron stock on margin.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this article.
Lay and two other former Enron executives are to be tried Jan. 17 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.
Lay also faces a second trial on four separate bank-fraud charges related to his personal Enron stock holdings. In a brief filed yesterday, Lay's legal team told U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III in Houston that the former Enron chairman doesn't want the jury at his January trial to also decide the second one.
The judge suggested last month that using the same jury for the second trial might save time.
The judge made the remark in setting Jan. 17 as the trial date for Lay, former Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey K. Skilling, and Richard A. Causey, Enron's one-time chief accounting officer.
The January trial is the premier criminal case to emerge from the Justice Department's lengthy investigation of Enron's collapse in December 2001.
"Judge Lake believes it will be expedient to have the second trial right away because the attorneys will already be in court, they'll have a qualified jury, and they'll not waste any more time," said Philip H. Hilder, a former federal prosecutor in Houston.
Michael Ramsey, Lay's attorney, considered the judge's idea, but said in yesterday's filing that using the same panel would damage his client's right to an impartial jury in the second trial.
Even if Lay is acquitted in the first trial, "there exists a substantial possibility that jurors will not be able to simply disregard all of that argument and evidence, and will use it - intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or subconsciously - to infer a propensity on the part of the defendant to commit the other offenses, similar in nature, upon which they are called to deliberate in the second trial," the filing said.
Lay can be ready for trial on the bank charges two months after the Jan. 17 trial ends, so his lawyers won't have to prepare for both trials simultaneously, the filing said.
Lay's legal team also asked that Lay receive a trial separate from Skilling and Causey on all 11 charges pending against him as soon as possible. In addition, Lay offered to forgo a jury trial and let Lake try the case against him if that would help gain a speedy trial.
Lake last year granted a separate trial on the bank charges - one count of bank fraud and three counts of lying to banks - but kept Lay lumped with Skilling and Causey on seven other counts of conspiracy and fraud. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Andrew Weissmann, head of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Skilling and Causey were each indicted more than a year ago on more than 30 counts including conspiracy, fraud and insider trading for allegedly knowing about or being involved in schemes to fool investors into believing Enron was financially healthy in the years leading to its crash. Lay was added to the indictment in July.
The conspiracy and fraud charges against Lay allege he took over the ruse upon Skilling's resignation in August 2001. The bank charges allege Lay misled banks when he used loans to buy Enron stock on margin.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this article.
