Enron jury picked in a day

HOUSTON – A jury of 12 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.

Ten women and six men were chosen to serve as jurors and alternates in the trial, but it was not immediately clear which 12 would be the jurors.

The jurors were picked after just one day of jury selection in Houston federal court.

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.

“You have been through a rigorous selection process. You will be the judges of the facts of this case,” Lake said.

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.”

Opening statements were scheduled this morning in the trial – perhaps the premier criminal case to emerge from corporate scandals that began when Enron went under in 2001.

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 in Houston, 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.

Lake acknowledged the heavy publicity surrounding the case in the Houston area and said he did not expect jurors to “blot out” what they had seen and read, but urged them to decide based only on the evidence.

The judge also read a long list of potential witnesses in the trial, including Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr. and at least two ministers. Scattered jurors recognized some of the names, but all assured the judge they could hear the case impartially..

Lake said he would talk privately later in the day with one woman who recognized the name of one potential witness, identifying her as “my neighbor and friend.”

Jury selection occurred just blocks from the building that was once a nerve center for Enron, a Wall Street darling in the late 1990s that was considered a new-economy maverick.

But the company’s fortunes – not to mention tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investments – were shattered in 2001, as a series of complex entities designed to hide Enron debt came to light and the company went bankrupt.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” said David Tonsall, a former Enron pipeline worker who was one of thousands laid off when Enron crumbled in December 2001, and who watched Lay and Skilling walk into court Monday.

A federal indictment accuses Lay and Skilling of orchestrating a tangled scheme of accounting tricks designed to hide the debt, keep Enron’s credit rating high and maintain a healthy stock price, enriching themselves in the process.

Skilling faces 31 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and deceiving auditors for allegedly lying about Enron’s financial strength. Lay faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy for perpetuating the alleged scheme after Skilling resigned in August 2001.