Word: houstons
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...appeal, and there is precedent - all the way to the Supreme Court - to attack a white-collar fraud conviction based on the fine points of the kind of jury instructions given by Judge Simeon Lake. "A 'willful blindness' instruction is a very good ground [for appeal]," says Houston defense attorney Joel Androphy. Willful blindness, which Judge Lake specifically cited in the jury instructions as a valid factor in finding guilt, means a jury can find a corporate executive guilty if he personally did not cook the books, but was suspicious or knowledgeable of the goings on in his company...
...jury necessarily identified any financial issues, accounting issues,? he said. ?There's no way in just a couple days they could fully comprehend the law and at the end of day apply the law to the facts and come up with an intelligent verdict." Indeed, David Berg, a Houston attorney and author of The Trial Lawyer: What it Takes to Win, contends that Lay ?was convicted on all counts because he was so obnoxious on the stand...
...Seven years after making a $1.1 million gift to endow a chair in economics at the University of Missouri, Lay is now trying to have the money returned. Last September, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he personally sought to have the money - as yet unused - transferred back to Houston to assist 14 charities in relief efforts, including preacher-author Joel Osteen's megachurch. Five months later in February this year, the trustee for Lay's assets went to the campus in Columbia, Mo., seeking the money to pay for legal fees instead. The trustee went home empty-handed...
...threatened legal action against his alma mater last fall after he got no action on his request that the $1.1 million be given to such Houston area charities as the American Red Cross, the Catholic archdiocese charities, and five churches, including the one run by Osteen, best-selling author of "Your Best Life Now." Lay's deadline for a reply came and went with no lawsuit, but in February, the trustee for his finances arrived seeking the money for lawyer's fees...
...gift to the University of Missouri in 1999. It should not be used to enhance Mr. Lay's image in Houston when juries are about to be selected," Battistoni told TIME after learning of the attempt to reclaim the money. Lay's spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly rejected the Scrushy parallel, noting that the Lays were long-time philanthropists, who gave nearly $25 million to non-profits between...