Lay Waives His Right to a Jury Trial

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth L. Lay, facing federal fraud charges, asked a judge Monday for a speedy trial, even if it meant giving up his right to have his fate decided by a jury.

“We are so confident in Ken Lay’s innocence that we have taken the bold step to waive his right to a jury trial,” said Lay’s attorney, Michael Ramsey. “While we would strongly prefer to go before a jury, we believe that a speedy trial is so important that we are willing to waive this right.”

“There’s been some talk that it’s difficult to pick a jury here in Houston,” Ramsey added. “It may be. It may not be.”

Lay, Enron’s former chairman and chief executive, also asked to be tried separately from fellow defendants Jeffrey K. Skilling, also a former Enron CEO, and Richard A. Causey, the company’s former chief accounting officer.

Lay asked U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to schedule his trial for Sept. 14. The request said a bench trial probably would last about three weeks, whereas a full jury trial would last “closer to eight weeks.”

Legal experts said Lay might face a hostile jury pool in Houston.

“He believes it would be difficult to find jurors who don’t hate his guts,” said Michael S. Perlis, former assistant director of the Securities and Exchange Commission and now a partner with the Century City office of law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. “A judge might take a more legalistic approach rather than an emotional approach.”

Ramsey said his goal was to clear his client’s name as quickly as possible. “There are strong feelings in Houston, one way or another, and not all of them against Ken Lay. Frankly, I would rather try the case to a jury and so would Mr. Lay, but it may be very, very difficult in this atmosphere to get one picked.”

Michael Kulstad, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, declined to comment on Monday’s developments.

Enron was a titan of the energy industry and the seventh-largest U.S. company before it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001. Thousands of Houston-area employees lost their jobs and their retirement savings.

So far, the Justice Department’s Enron task force has obtained the indictments of 31 people. Eleven either have pleaded guilty or were found guilty by a jury. The rest, like the 62-year-old Lay, await trial.

Lay faces four counts of securities fraud, three counts of making false statements to banks, two counts of wire fraud and one count each of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 175 years in prison and $5.75 million in fines, according to the Justice Department.