David Gerger, appellate counsel for former Dynegy finance employee Jamie Olis filed Mr. Olis’ appellant’s brief with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this week in which Mr. Gerger contends that Mr. Olis’ conviction and 24-year prison sentence should be overturned because of insufficient evidence and U.S. District Judge Sim Lake‘s alleged misapplication of federal sentencing guidelines.
Interestingly, Mr. Gerger also represents former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow in connection with his plea bargain with the Enron Task Force, and Judge Lake is also overseeing the pending high profile criminal cases of former Enron executives Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Richard Causey.
One of Mr. Gerger’s main arguments is that Mr. Olis’ sentence should be subject to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Blakely v. Washington that suggests that federal judges should be prohibited from increasing a sentence using factors not proved before a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Previous posts are here on the Blakely decision.