Stern's Closing Tips Off the Jury on the Maximum Sentence

In his closing, Herbert Stern, lead counsel for Joe Nacchio, may have tipped off the jury that Nacchio was facing 420 years.  He referred to the plea agreement made between the government and Robin Szeliga, the former CFO of Qwest.  Recall that she pled guilty to a single count of insider trading.  Stern noted that the one count carried a maximum penalty to 10 years.  It's a short step to multiply this number by the number of insider trading counts (42) in the indictment. 

Quotes from the closing are below.  The entire closing can be found at the DU corporate governance web site. 

• "And that is Ms. Szeliga, who I had never spoken to, who the Government took four proffers from. Remember?"

• "Remember Ms. Szeliga, relatively young woman, at least from my point of view, couple of young children. She committed a great crime. She sold 10,000 shares of stock to remodel her kitchen. She had to enter a plea agreement, subjecting her to up to 10 years' imprisonment for one count of insider trading concerning the sale of 10,000 shares of stock for the purpose of remodeling her kitchen."

The sentencing guidelines would no doubt call for a sentence of many fewer years, but the jury does not know that.  Judge Nottingham did instruct the jury that punishment was an issue for the court and should not be factored into guilt or innocence. 

Comments

[Anonymous]

Fix your headline. "Tip's" should be "tips"

[J. Robert Brown]

Thanks much