DENVER-
It wasn’t a spread sheet that brought down former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio, more an improvised three-foot-wide band of paper.
Jurors traced developments in the case on the paper. Words in red suggested suspicion. Yellow indicated innocence and black was raw information, The Denver Post reported.
There was a lot of red, juror Anna Garduno told the newspaper.
Deliberations had begun one week earlier with one juror she didn’t name absolutely certain Nacchio was guilty. “Fry him; I don’t need to hear anything,” said the juror said, according to Garduno. Most remained unsure.
Foreman Carroll Danforth Weatherly, a United Airlines pilot, led the jurors methodically through the evidence and testimony in an atmosphere that remained cordial.
Weatherly “kept everything on track, kept it on an even keel,” juror Doug Stoneman said.
One date stood out – April 24, 2001—the day Nacchio had told Wall Street he saw no reason to back away from double-digit growth projections. His executives had warned him repeatedly that those numbers were unrealistic.
“I went in thinking he was innocent,” Garduno said. But it was clear Nacchio knew by the time he spoke in the April earnings call that Qwest was headed for trouble, and then he sold his stock.
By Thursday morning all but three jurors were persuaded of his guilt on insider trader charges. Through the day two more were convinced, and then the last holdout, crying, joined them.
Garduno knew what was coming, and her heart sank as Joe Nacchio welcomed an initial string of “not guilty” verdicts with a smile.
“You could see Mr. Nacchio smiling and his son and wife crying, and I felt horrible because they thought he was off the hook, and that was going to change,” she said.
The guilty verdicts began to roll in at count 24 in the insider-trading case against Nacchio and didn’t stop until U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham had read verdicts for all 42 insider-trading counts.
Nacchio, who did not testify, will appeal. Sentencing is set for July 27.
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Information from: The Denver Post,
