Jury selected for case against Skilling and Lay

updated 7:23 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2006

HOUSTON - A jury of Houston-area residents was selected Monday for the trial of former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, accused of orchestrating the massive fraud that came to symbolize an era of corporate scandals.

A court clerk swore in the 12 jurors and four alternates, and U.S. District Judge Sim Lake instructed them not to talk about the case during their service. He also ordered them not to read, listen to or watch news reports about the trial.

Lay, the Enron founder, said he was pleased with the panel: “My fate is in their hands, and we’ll get on to making the case for my innocence.”

Daniel Petrocelli, the head lawyer for Skilling, said he believed the jurors would listen with open minds and understand that “this is a court of law, not a court of public opinion.”

Eight women and four men were selected as jurors in the trial, while two women and two men were chosen as alternate jurors. They were all picked after just one day of jury selection in Houston federal court.

Further details about the jurors’ backgrounds were not immediately available because their jury questionnaires, filled out weeks ago, have not been made public, and the judge conducted individual questioning of potential jurors on Monday at the bench.

Opening statements were scheduled Tuesday morning in the trial — perhaps the premier criminal case to emerge from corporate scandals that began when Enron went under in 2001. Earlier in the day, the judge had told a pool of almost 100 potential jurors: “I can assure you this will be one of the most interesting and important cases ever tried.”

The first prosecution witness was expected to be Mark Koenig, former head of Enron’s investor relations department, who worked with Lay and Skilling on quarterly conference calls with analysts. He pleaded guilty in August 2004 to aiding and abetting securities fraud. Earlier this month he revised his plea agreement, attributing to Skilling a statement that Koenig originally said he himself made on a 2001 call. The statement was designed to mislead analysts about why Enron folded its money-losing retail energy unit into the company’s profitable trading unit.

While thousands of Houston-area residents were laid off in the flame-out of the energy giant, the judge made clear Monday that the jury box was not the place to avenge those who lost jobs or investments.

“We are not looking for people who want to right a wrong or provide remedies for those who suffered in the collapse of Enron,” Lake said.

Lay, 63, and Skilling, 52, appeared relaxed and ready as they arrived at a federal courthouse here, flanked by lawyers and watched by a horde of reporters and photographers, some of whom had camped out overnight to secure places inside.

A reporter asked Lay how he felt, and he answered, “Fine, how are you?”

Skilling declined to comment, but his attorney Daniel Petrocelli said, “We’re looking forward to it. We’re ready.”

Inside the 11th-floor downtown courtroom, Lay and Skilling stood and turned to face the jury pool briefly before the judge began a lengthy set of instructions and questions designed to make sure jurors would bring no bias to the case. Otherwise they maintained serious faces, Lay occasionally flipping through papers.

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