November 9, 2004 in Business

Skilling seeks to move trial out of Texas

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HOUSTON — Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling wants to face a jury in Phoenix, Atlanta or Denver because too many potential jurors in the Houston area associate his name with words like “pig,” “snake” and “evil,” according to a court filing.

Such visceral reactions merit moving the as-yet unscheduled trial of Skilling, Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former top Enron accountant Richard Causey to cities that didn’t absorb the emotional and economic impact of Enron’s 2001 collapse, Skilling’s lead trial lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, wrote in a 75-page change of venue request filed Monday.

Skilling and Causey face more than 30 charges each including fraud, conspiracy and insider trading that allege they were in on various schemes to make investors believe Enron was healthy so they could pocket millions from sales of inflated stock.

Lay faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in a narrower case alleging he took over the financial ruse when Skilling abruptly resigned in August 2001. Lay also is charged in a separate case with four counts of bank fraud and lying to banks.

All three have pleaded not guilty.

Causey’s legal team expected to file a similar venue change request Monday. Michael Ramsey, Lay’s lead lawyer, said Monday his team was considering joining the Skilling request.

Skilling’s request to move the trial was prepared with input from a jury and polling expert and Rice University social scientist Stephen Klineberg, among others.

The government will file a response before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake issues a ruling.

Petrocelli said widespread media coverage in Houston of Skilling, Lay and other defendants has siphoned their ability to find 12 unbiased jurors in the 13-county area from which jurors in Houston are selected.

The filing also claims that potential jurors will feel pressure to punish the scandal-choked company’s former top executives.

“The strong feelings of sympathy and pathos that exist in Houston for Enron’s perceived victims are matched in intensity only by Houstonians’ open hostility toward Skilling, his co-defendants, and other Enron executives they believe are responsible,” the filing said.

Potential jury pools in Denver, Phoenix and Atlanta have been exposed to much less Enron-related publicity, the filing said.

A polling and jury expert surveyed between 770 and 805 potential jurors in Houston, Phoenix, Denver and Atlanta. Results showed nearly 32 percent of Houston respondents had negative descriptions of Skilling, but Atlanta had the most of the other three at 13 percent.

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