Quattrone Lawyer Says Judge Shows Hostility

A lawyer defending former investment banker Frank Quattrone at his retrial complained Tuesday that the judge’s body language conveyed to jurors that he was hostile to the defense.

U.S. District Judge Richard Owen said he was puzzled by the complaint. He also rejected a defense claim that he had unfairly interrupted questioning of witnesses, saying he was just trying to move the trial along.

The sparring between Owen and defense lawyer John W. Keker came outside the presence of the jury on the third day of Quattrone’s retrial on federal charges of obstruction of justice. The trial is being held in Manhattan.

Keker said he had watched the judge “puffing your cheeks, leaning on your hands” in a way that showed jurors he was “extremely impatient and hostile to the defense.”

Quattrone is accused of obstructing justice by forwarding an e-mail that encouraged employees at Credit Suisse First Boston to destroy documents that were under federal subpoena.

The former Silicon Valley banker contends that he was following bank policy on file cleanup and that he did not know the scope of the investigations that were underway. The government was looking into CSFB stock allocation at the time.

Quattrone’s first trial ended in a mistrial in October.

Tuesday, CSFB lawyer Kevin McCarthy testified that concerned legal officials at the bank sent out a broad notice two days after Quattrone’s e-mail, urging employees not to destroy documents related to 1999 and 2000 initial public offerings.

And a CSFB legal assistant testified that Quattrone told her in 2000 that he had “zero to do with” the bank’s allocation of shares for two IPOs, VA Linux Systems Inc. and Selectica Inc.