Legal News

Judge to Nacchio: Report to Prison on April 14

By Ashby Jones

When last we’d visited Joe Nacchio, he was clinging to a vine in a rushing river — a metaphorical vine extended by Denver federal district court judge Marcia Krieger. Krieger had allowed the former Qwest CEO to stay out of prison for the time being, at least until she reviewed his broader request to stay out of prison pending his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Well, to continue with this metaphor, the vine has just slipped from his hands, and Nacchio is once again rushing toward the waterfall. Judge Krieger on Tuesday ordered Nacchio to report to prison by noon on April 14 to start a six-year sentence on his insider trading conviction. Click here for the AP story; here for Judge Krieger’s ruling; here, here and here for posts on other recent news on Nacchio.

In her ruling on Tuesday, Judge Krieger said Nacchio hadn’t shown he would likely win a reversal of his conviction or be granted a new trial. While Krieger said she had not considered whether Nacchio’s conviction was proper or what the outcome of an appeal might be, she did say she had considered whether his appeal raised a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in a reversal, new trial or new sentence without prison time.

Apart from his appeal to the Supreme Court, Nacchio has asked Krieger for a new trial on grounds that testimony from former Qwest Chief Financial Officer Robin Szeliga in a pending civil case against him could lead to acquittal. Krieger has yet to rule on that request.

Nacchio is to report to the minimum-security Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill satellite camp in Minersville, Pa. FCI Schuylkill has a weight pile.

Nacchio’s lead appeals attorney, Maureen Mahoney, was out of the office Tuesday and was not available for comment.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 08, 2009 (boomark / email).