The Case Against William by Mark Gimenez Read Free Book Online Page A

Ken Lay, the
chairman of the board, and Jeffrey Skilling, the CEO, had been indicted. Even
Enron's accounting firm, the venerable Arthur Anderson, had been indicted for
obstruction of justice.
    Frank's
client, a thirty-year-old vice president in title but in fact just a
Harvard-educated paper-pusher, had been charged with criminal fraud. He was
guilty only of criminal stupidity, and there weren't enough prison cells in
America to incarcerate all the executives guilty of that offense. He was just
a kid who had followed orders and believed in the company; he had put every dime
he made into Enron stock. He had lost everything—his job, his savings, his
retirement funds, his reputation—just like the employees. But he had been
caught up in the wide net of justice thrown out by the Justice Department in
response to political posturing by members of Congress. They netted the sharks
but also the shrimp. After a four-week trial, the jury had acquitted his
client, one of the few Enron defendants who weren't convicted. As he walked
out of the courthouse after the verdict, angry former Enron employees spat on
Frank. That was a first. Many Americans had cheered O.J.'s acquittal, but
then, he had only been accused of brutally murdering two innocent people,
including his ex-wife whose head had almost been cut off. Frank's client had been
accused of financial malfeasance resulting in the loss of jobs and the value of
Enron stock. But Frank had long ago learned that being a criminal defense
lawyer meant having the courage to live with the fact that just verdicts often
were not popular verdicts.
    And
that the hardest verdict to live with was his own verdict of himself.
    Frank
gave William a man hug and a high-five and Becky a bear hug and a forehead
kiss.
    "I'll
see you guys Thursday or Friday. Becky, you're in charge until Mom gets home."
    His
wife was house hunting.
    He
would rehearse his closing argument during the three-hour drive to Austin. He
would face the jury at 10:00 A.M.

Chapter 5
    "Ladies
and gentlemen of the jury. Over the last two weeks, you have witnessed
something that is not supposed to happen in America: a political persecution.
A politically motivated criminal prosecution brought by a politically ambitious
district attorney. Mr. Dorkin, the Travis County District Attorney,
desperately coveted the seat in the United States Senate that the defendant,
Martha Jo Ramsey, now holds. Mr. Dorkin, a life-long Democrat, sought support
for a campaign run from the leading Democrats in Texas. But he received no
support. So he plotted his revenge. Not against his fellow Democrats, but
against the defendant. Against a Republican. He took trumped-up charges to
two grand juries, both of which declined to indict. But as they say, the third
time's the charm.
    "He
finally got his indictments.
    "Four
charges of official misconduct. Second-degree felonies. He claims that
Senator Ramsey, while serving as Texas Secretary of State, used state employees
to conduct her personal and political business and then ordered them to destroy
records evidencing such acts.
    "Wow.
That sounds pretty serious, doesn't it? A corrupt politician in Texas. We've
seen a few of those, haven't we? We've had politicians who bought prostitutes
with state money. Who used inside connections to make profitable stock and
land purchases. Who even stole state welfare funds. So what was the felony
crime Senator Ramsey is alleged to have committed?
    "She
had her secretary write thank-you notes."
    Two
jurors rolled their eyes. The senator was very well liked in the state of
Texas. So Frank had tried not to alter that affection. Each morning on their
way into the Travis County Justice Center, she had given interviews for the
throng of reporters, smiled for the cameras camped out front, and signed
autographs and taken photos with her constituents. She looked like a
television mother, like the mom in that show Frank watched reruns of as a kid, Leave
it to Beaver . Would June Cleaver