Nacchio Live Blogging: Day 3, Part IV
[Note: This is not a transcript. It is my notes of the testimony and proceedings, typed as fast I can. Spelling errors will be fixed later. I will update every 15 minutes or so -- you can either bookmark and check back or refresh your screen periodically.] We're still on cross-examination of Lee Wolfe. He's been the sole witness today. I am back in the main courtroom, seated behind the Nacchio family and next to the courtroom sketch artist and Charlie Brennan, former Rocky Mountain News reporter. He's just moved to Fox News 31 to be in their investigative unit. Al Lewis, business columnist for the Denver Post is here too. 3:45 pm. Richilano reviews with Wolfe exhibit 709 which is a chart of a series of investor relation meetings at which various Qwest officials were present but Nacchio wasn't. The point: Nacchio wasn't at all of these meetings as he had said during direct examination. Nacchio didn't tell Wolfe or anyone else what not to say at these meetings. .
Richilano has Wolfe identify all the Qwest officials at these meetings by their job position. This is taking a long time, as he's going through them one by one, to establish Nacchio wasn't present at them. 4:15 pm Still going through lists of meetings that Nachhio was not at. This is incredibly boring and it's not clear what the point is of identifying the job position of each official at the meeting. Attention is waning in the courtroom and it seems to me in the jury box. Oh, we're done now! Wolfe agrees he misspoke on direct if he said Nacchio conducted almost all the meetings. Nacchio gave the presentation for Qwest in which they announced the five year plan after the merger had been announced. That five year plan was the product of an investment company's assessment of how the company would do during that period. The idea was to try and give some reasonable projection of how this new company which didn't exist yet, because this was 1999, was going to perform five years later. Richilano asks if the projection took into account other information such as government statistics. Wolfe says he doesn't know how that process worked. U.S. West and Qwest made sure that people knew that these projections are subject to several assumptions. Nobody can see into the future. They are also subject to many risks. Wolfe acknowledges he knows this because whenever he led an investor conference, he led off with forward looking investor warnings. 4:30 pm. Time to go to the gym. Let us know in the comments if you've found the live blogging helpful. Spelling and grammar corrections will be made tonight.
Comments
Submitted by Sean (Classic USWest/Qwest emp) (not verified) on Thu, 2007-03-22 11:55.
Please keep us informed, I haven't seen anything for day 4. I have shared your website & articles with different states that are not getting any info from their news media. You are doing an excellent job and those of us who lost big bucks appreciate your time and effort. You deserve a bonus for reporting the actual trial instead of just your point of views, like others. Thanks
Submitted by anon (not verified) on Thu, 2007-03-22 07:15.
have to disagree with the other commenters; as someone not particularly interested in the trial, the fact that 10 out of the last 12 entries here are trial related is less than ideal, as far as i'm concerned.
just my two cents.
Submitted by anon (not verified) on Thu, 2007-03-22 05:42.
yes, we like it, please keep it up. I'm about to turn my co-workers onto it too, so much better from a lawyer's perspective than hearing some talking head spin the proceedings. fascinating.
Submitted by Jeralyn (not verified) on Wed, 2007-03-21 19:37.
I think it's too early to tell who's winnng. We're still on the first witness. I will pass along reactions on the proceedings, but I won't identify reporters by name. That's kind of a no-no.
Submitted by Anon (not verified) on Wed, 2007-03-21 18:30.
Thanks for doing the live recap. It's much more interesting to read a semi-transcript than read the take other attendees have on the proceedings. It would also be interesting to do a poll amongst the attendees to find out who they think is winning.
Submitted by Ann M (not verified) on Wed, 2007-03-21 16:19.
I was in the court house in person Monday and Tuesday. Could not go today. Loved the fact that your blogging made it seem almost as if I were there. Great! Keep on keeping us up to the minute (almost). Especially enjoy commentary on interactions between judge and attorneys and any (rare) moments of levity. Thumbs up! ! !
Submitted by eyewitness (not verified) on Wed, 2007-03-21 16:11.
In 2000, I worked for Qwest for 1 year entering "new customers" from obviously fake/forged enrollment documents. Every document had the exact same handwriting/signature. Some of the made-up names were outrageous. Many of them were in Spanish that translated into names of body parts in English.
I brought this to the attention of my supervisor, and she said she would notify management, and removed the batch of documents I was working on. The 2nd time I brought up fake enrollment documents to my supervisor, she did nothing. The 3rd time I notified my supervisor, they moved me to a different department.
I entered tens of thousands of these documents into Qwest's database of new customers. So, while I was making minimum wage typing my fingers to the bone, Nacchio was making millions from non-existent new customers!
It makes me very happy to know Nacchio has been brought to trial. I hope the jury makes the right decision.
Submitted by professor joe (not verified) on Wed, 2007-03-21 15:42.
Yes! Very helpful. Too bad your fingers hurt -- easy for me to say, but I believe that you are, for the reasons I set out at length at the bottom of earlier blog-clips, performing a great and valuable public service. So, if your fingers hold out, please keep plugging away!
