The jury pool that will decide former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio’s fate includes a United Airlines captain, a teacher’s assistant, a rancher, an engineer with two master’s degrees and a power-equipment operator.
They are predominantly middle-aged, white and male. Eleven are men, seven are women. Four of the women and one of the men are minorities.
Education levels of the 18 members, six of whom will be alternates, range from high school diplomas to master’s degrees, and many have some knowledge of finance and business.
“The smallest details about a juror count,” said Tony Leffert, a former federal prosecutor and a lawyer with Robinson, Waters & O’Dorisio in Denver.
Defense attorneys kept 10 prospective jurors from being seated by issuing preemptory challenges, which require no explanation. The defense was entitled to three more challenges but didn’t use them.
Prosecutors used five of their nine challenges.
“Both sides left preemptory challenges on the table, so for their own reasons they were satisfied with what they got. These people must have said something they wanted to hear,” said Tony Accetta, a former federal prosecutor who is working as a legal analyst for The Denver Post.
Judge Edward Nottingham completed jury selection in Nacchio’s insider-trading case on Tuesday morning, the second day of the trial.
“I think we have a jury,” Nacchio’s lawyer Herbert Stern said, when accepting the last prospective juror Nottingham questioned, a radiographer with a bachelor’s degree.
Nacchio, 57, is accused of illegal insider trading in his sale of $100.8 million during the first five months of 2001. The stock was part of his compensation package.
Defense lawyers in a case like Nacchio’s want jurors who won’t resent the high-dollar executive compensation packages paid to chief executives like Nacchio, Leffert said. Jurors with financial backgrounds can be good for the defense because they have an understanding of how business works. The defense also looks for people like entrepreneurs who understand the risk and reward that go hand in hand at telecommunications companies such as Qwest.
“Part of the issue here is the huge money being made on trades. The average person who teaches school or drives a bus doesn’t understand that kind of money,” Leffert said.
Prosecutors look for jurors who can be judgmental, and see hard lines between right and wrong. People who have spent time in the military or law enforcement can be ideal, Leffert said.
So can those who have been responsible for people’s lives, like pilots, he said.
The panel includes a former Air Force instructor, a United Airlines pilot who lost money on stock options, and a woman who once served in the Air Force and is now a registered nurse.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
