Michael Jackson has added another lawyer to his team-- Ben Brafman of New York.

We think we know how this came about--Johnnie Cochran. Geragos acknowledged on Rivera at Large a few weeks ago that Michael had consulted Johnnie. Johnnie no longer takes criminal cases. The last major criminal case Johnnie tried was with Ben Brafman--the defendant was Sean "Puffy" Combs, who was acquitted. Ben was lead counsel. We think it's pretty clear that Johnnie recommended Ben to Michael Jackson.

Mark Geragos says he's happy about Ben's addition to the team.

"Michael and I agreed that expanding the team would best serve his interests as we work toward his acquittal on the false chargesthat have been leveled against him," Geragos said in a prepared statement.

"I felt strongly about working with Ben, someone I have long respected and admired. Ben will join me tomorrow in Santa Maria at Michael's arraignment, where Michael will enter a plea of not guilty," Geragos said.

Brafman is a top notch lawyer. He will be an asset to the team, no question about it.

In a press statement today, the lawyer for former Enron Chairman Ken Lay said Lay felt betrayed by Andrew Fastow who pleaded guilty yesterday.

Ramsey said Lay had no knowledge that any of Enron's "special-purpose entities" that Fastow created had been used to illegally bolster the company's books, or that Fastow and others were siphoning money into their own pockets.

"Absolutely Andy Fastow had the trust of Ken Lay and the board up through at least October of 2001," Ramsey said. "Lay had the right to rely on that person at the very top of the chain," he added.

Lay's lawyer said Lay will be speaking publicly in the near future. We think that will be a mistake. One of the counts in Martha Stewart's indictment is based on statements she made protesting her innocence. No matter what Ken Lay says or doesn't say, he is not going to talk himself out of an Indictment if his former cohorts at Enron tell the Government he knew what was going on and either tacitly or expressly approved it. Once the Government has you in their cross-hairs, your protestations of innocence rarely have any effect. As we've said before, the jails are filled with people who thought if they could only explain things, the cops or prosecutors would see it their way.

Our unsolicited advice to Ken Lay: You have a Fifth Amendment right to stay silent Use it.

A new Associated Press poll has been released in which the public was asked whether they thought the current crop of celebrities facing trial would get a fair trial and whether celebrities face a tougher or more lenient battle in the criminal justice system.

The celebs at issue: Kobe, Michael and Martha.

The answers: More people thought Kobe would get a fair trial. More people thought Martha would be convicted. More blacks than whites thought Kobe and Michael would not get a fair trial. And, not suprisingly, most thought that the rich and famous had a better chance at winning.

How would you have answered?

Former CFO of Enron, Andrew Fastow, pleaded guilty today and agreed to a ten year sentence and the forfeiture of over $20 million. He also agreed to cooperate with the Government in its continuing investigation of others, presumably Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay.

Those close to the case expect Skilling will be charged soon and that Lay will be under great scrutiny.

Lea Fastow is set to plead guilty this afternoon. Andrew will to stay free on bail and not begin his sentence until after he he has finished his cooperation--probably months from now. Amazing what benefits you can get when you agree to cooperate.

Only one Enron exec is now in jail--Ben Glisan Jr. is doing five years after pleading guilty without a plea bargain and refusing to cooperate.

Update: Andrew Fastow's plea agreement is here (pdf).

Update: We have read the plea agreement and it is one of the toughest ones we've ever seen. There is no right of appeal provided he gets no more than ten years; He can't ask for a sentence less than ten years; He can't collaterally attack the sentence; The Government will not ask for a (rule 35) sentence reconsideration based on Enron-related cooperation; the conditions of cooperation are onerous. If either he or his wife don't fulfill their ends of the bargain, both deals are off. We can only imagine what Mr. Fastow's guidelines would have been had he been convicted at trial in order for him to accept this plea--as one of our commenters point out, it had to be life or close to it. The only concession (other than time) he got appears to be the guarantee that he doesn't begin his sentence until his wife finishes her's.

The Colorado Supreme Court will hear oral argument Thursday in the Lisl Auman case. From a press release received today:

In a case that could set national precedent for felony murder, the Colorado Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case of Lisl Auman who is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

“Nothing less than the future of American jurisprudence is at stake in Lisl’s case because our system has never before knowingly punished someone for a crime they had no intention or desire to commit,” said Gerald Goldstein, former President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Lisl was in police custody at the time of the crime. We write more about her case today over at the new group blog American Street . Visit Lisl's website for more details. Her case is one of a grave injustice. We hope the oral arguments go well.

Rush Limbaugh's medical records will stay sealed pending further review by the Court. The ACLU will be allowed to join the case.

An appeals court on Tuesday ordered prosecutors to turn Rush Limbaugh's medical records over to the courts and keep them sealed until further review. The court also ruled that the American Civil Liberties Union can join the conservative talk show host in fighting to keep the documents private, creating an unlikely alliance in the case.

Limbaugh's attorneys argue that the seizure violated Limbaugh's privacy and that the investigation was politically motivated. No criminal charges have been filed against Limbaugh. The ACLU joined the case Monday in support of the claim that Limbaugh's constitutional right to privacy has been violated.

Differences have been worked out and both Andrew and Lea Fastow are expected to plead guilty Wednesday in Enron cases. Mrs. Fastow's original deal called for a five month prison sentence, followed by five months of house arrest, but the Judge said he would not agree to be bound by that amount of time without first reviewing a pre-sentence report.

It appears Lea Fastow has now agreed to go ahead and submit to the pre-sentence report and hope Hittner decides to sentence her as the government and her attorneys agreed. Lawyers in the case have indicated the likely range of punishment for her one tax offense would be 10 months to 16 months in prison. Andrew Fastow's deal is for a 10-year prison term.

More and more top level execs are choosing trials over plea bargains. Why? Sometimes they have no one to rat out above them. Sometimes the sentence concessions aren't enough. Many of them don't believe they did anything wrong.

In 2002, 86% of defendants charged in federal court pleaded guilty. That may be changing in 2004. Between steeper guidelines for financial crimes, Ashcroft's memos directing prosecutors to charge the most serious offense possible and available deep pockets to finance a top-notch defense, it makes sense to say to the Government, "Prove it."

First up: Martha Stewart; Frank Quattrone (retrial following mistrial); Rigas Family(Adelphia); and Scott Sullivan (WorldCom). Still on the fence: The Fastows (Enron).

Wow. Enron wife Lea Fastow turned down the plea deal and will go to trial on Feb. 10.

All we can say is she has one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the country--Mike DeGeurin--and if he's supporting her decision, it's very likely the Government's case is weak. The rejection very well may be a statement by the defense that avoiding the risk of losing at trial was worth a five month sentence and not a day more. Even though she faces years in prison if she's convicted.

Lea Fastow is charged with six counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, aiding and abetting and filing false tax returns. Her Indictment is here (pdf).

If she's convicted, she will be sentenced in accordance with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The guidelines initially will be calculated according to the dollar amount of any fraud or loss to the victims, the dollar amount of any laundered money and the dollar amount of the tax evasion. Plus, she would be held accountable for all relevant conduct.

She could even be sentenced for conduct she was acquitted of, in the event a jury returned a verdict of guilty on less than all counts. U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 1B1.3(a)(2) requires a court to consider all such conduct done in connection with any larger course of criminal conduct of which the offense of conviction was a part. Courts can consider conduct of which a defendant was acquitted for sentencing purposes, so long as the conduct is proven by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Watts, 519 U.S. 148 (1997). In other words, the reasonable doubt standard applies only at trials, not at sentencings.

Bump and update:Judge now accepts the plea bargain, with some modification. Lea's lawyer says they are deciding whether to accept it.

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original post 1/7 6:25 pm

Bad news for Enron spouse Lea Fastow today. A judge rejected her plea deal.

The judge reportedly rejected it because it called for a five month sentence and did not give him the opportunity to give her a longer sentence if he thought one was warranted.

Her trial is set for Feb. 10. We suspect a revised plea deal will be submitted. The count to which she has agreed to plead guilty calls for a sentence of up to 16 months.

Lea's husband, Andrew Fastow, Enron's former financial chief, is negotiating before a different judge for a ten year sentence.

The Fastows' goal, as we reported here, was to have Mrs. Fastow out before Mr. Fastow went in, so one of them would be with the children.

Here's a look at the Enron cases scheduled for trial in 2004.

The Judge in the Scott Peterson case gave a big victory to the defense today when he ordered a change in venue for the Scott Peterson murder case.

Defense lawyer Mark Geragos said in court papers that Peterson has been demonized and that the prosecution's argument ''can be boiled down to the old adage, 'Sure we can give him a fair trial, then we will take him out and hang him.'''

Geragos said surveys showed there was less bias against Peterson in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

The perp walk effect was also a factor, will prosecutors never learn?

When Peterson was brought in for booking, a crowd of more than 100 people waited outside the jail, some shouting ''murderer.''

Shades of Timothy McVeigh at the Noble County Courthouse in Oklahoma, being marched through the angry throngs shouting "baby killer."

Maybe this will be a lesson to prosecutors that they allow defendants to be demonized in the media at their peril.

We'll be discussing the change of venue and the prosecution request for a gag order in the Michael Jackson case with Lester Holt on MSNBC today.

Federal Judge David Hittner has advised the parties in the Fastow (Enron) case that he wants to have a meeting to try and salvage the Fastow plea deals.

U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner told attorneys Thursday morning he wanted to discuss the circumstances of a plea involving Lea Fastow, a former assistant treasurer at Enron, so a plea in another Enron-related matter could go forward. He did not name Andrew Fastow, whom people close to the case said was negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors that could send him to prison for 10 years and force him to pay $20 million. "We are going to lay it all out," Hittner said.

We wrote about the collapse of Lea Fastow's plea deal yesterday.