Week Sixteen of the corporate criminal case of the decade was closing argument week, and the lawyers used the full 12 hours over two and a half days that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake allocated for such argument.
As with opening arguments, lawyers and the mainstream media tend to overestimate the importance of closing arguments, which really are more about reinforcing the views of jurors — particularly the leaders on the jury — rather than actually changing any juror’s opinion about the case.
Having said that, even though cases are rarely won during closing argument, cases can be more easily lost during closing if an attorney gets careless. I wasn’t able to attend the Lay-Skilling closing arguments because of prior commitments, but my sense from reading the transcript is that none of the lawyers who participated in closing arguments came close to losing the case for their client.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathy Ruemmler handled the first part of the Enron Task Forceís closing, and — although competently presented — I found reading her argument to be quite tedious.
Indeed, Ruemmler’s delivery was so slow in the initial hour and a half of the presentation that Judge Lake suggested at the lunch break (outside the presence of the jury, of course) that she might want to pick up the pace a bit.
Rather than focusing in on specific allegedly false statements or specific testimony of witnesses, Ruemmler relied more on generalities and provocative words — Lay and Skilling’s statements were “lies,” they were “arrogant,” their testimony was “ludicrous” or “patently absurd” or “outrageous” while favorable testimony of Task Force witnesses was “compelling.”
Given that virtually every factual issue relating to the Task Force charges was hotly-contested during the trial, my sense in reading the transcript was that such outspoken declarations did not mesh particularly well with Ruemmler’s presentation of evidence relating to those contested issues.
A friend who attended Ruemmer’s closing noted that one spectator dozed off in the middle of her presentation and that several of the jurors appeared to be bored stiff.
Probably sensing the chloroforming effect that she was having, Ruemmler after lunch tried to liven things up a bit by punctuating her remarks with hand claps, although one can only wonder whether that might have seem contrived in comparison to the rather bland presentation.
The Financial Times had the best observation about the performance in commenting that “trial-weary jurors” would likely “enjoy a little variety” when Lay lawyer Mike Ramsey delivered his closing argument, noting that Ramsey “missed most of the trial while recovering from heart surgery. It is hard to say whether the jurors or Ramsey have had the more pleasant experience.”
Upon reflection, there may be a couple of valid reasons for Ruemmler’s curious approach.
First, the Task Force may gauge that it’s far ahead with the jurors in what is a fundamentally weak case and thus, a rather bland closing argument reduces the risk of a mistake that could lose that perceived advantage.
Moreover, Ruemmler was the Task Force prosecutor who gave the over-the-top closing argument in the odious 2004 trial of the Nigerian Barge case (which appears to be currently unraveling on appeal) and compounded that dubious performance by absurdly calling for the immediate imprisonment of Merrill Lynch executive Daniel Bayly during his subsequent sentencing hearing. U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein ignored the Task Force’s proposed sentence.
Inasmuch as certain inflammatory statements made by Ruemmler during closing argument have been raised by the four Merrill Lynch executives in the appeal of their convictions, Ruemmler may have chosen a more vanilla approach in Lay-Skilling to avoid a similar appellate attack.
Despite the restrained nature of the presentation, Ruemmler still hammered on two central themes that the Task Force has emphasized while presenting its case ó (i) the real presumption in the case (“Enron went broke, Lay and Skilling made a lot of money in leading the company, and thus, they must be guilty of some crime”), and (ii) the testimony of the supposedly numerous number of former Enron executives who testified against Lay and Skilling as cooperating witnesses of the Task Force.
As I’ve noted many times during this trial, that latter theme is particularly disingenuous given the Task Force”s icing of dozens of former Enron executives who would have provided exculpatory testimony for Lay and Skilling, including six such witnesses for whom the Task Force specifically declined the Lay-Skilling team”s request for immunity toward the end of the defense’s case.
Reasonable people can differ over whether criminalizing corporate agency costs is sound public policy, but there is no serious question that the Task Force”s effective preclusion of exculpatory testimony for Lay and Skilling from this trial is a serious affront to the principles of justice and the rule of law upon which our criminal justice system is based.
The Task Force prosecutors’ repeated references during closing on the large number of Enron executives/cooperating Task Force witnesses who testified against Lay and Skilling — intimating “how could all these people be lying?” — only underscores the fact that this jury should not have been prevented from hearing from the many former Enron executives who would have provided exculpatory testimony for Lay and Skilling.
The fact that this key issue in the trial has been largely ignored outside a few other blogs is a startling reflection of the fact that a mainstream media that has already convicted Lay and Skilling in the court of public opinion is not ready to confront the grave implications of such prosecutorial abuse, even when such abuse is now regularly emerging in other cases.
As expected, Daniel Petrocelli”s performance on behalf of Skilling was the most entertaining of the closing arguments. Indeed, Petrocelli performance in this trial — win or lose — has cemented his reputation as one of the best trial lawyers in the U.S., and his closing argument reflected that status.
Juggling passion with keen insight and genuine self-deprecation, Petrocelli skillfully challenged the Task Force’s entire theory of the case while using the specific language from the Task Force’s indictment juxtaposed against specific excerpts of testimony from various Task Force and defense witnesses.
The fact that the Task Force attempted to suppress use of the indictment during the trial seemed to empower Petrocelli.
Particularly effective was Petrocelliís dismemberment of the Task Force’s key conspiracy allegation, which the Task Force barely touched on during the trial:
Let me ask you a question, . . . Do you know when this conspiracy started? . . . You’ve heard the whole Government’s case. They’ve given their closing argument. Do you know when [the conspiracy] started? Do you know what happened? What event started it? Was there a meeting? Was there some kind of conversation? Was — what was there? When did it — when did it happen? Where did it happen? Can you answer these questions?
By the way, if you hesitate — if you hesitated, that’s reasonable doubt. Right there. .
. I can’t answer these questions. I probably know this case better than anybody, I will immodestly say. Yes, some of my client’s traits are rubbing off on me. I don’t know when this conspiracy happened. I don’t know who’s in it. I don’t know where it happened. I don’t know how it happened. I can’t tell you the foggiest thing about it. .
. . How can that be? How can that be? How can we have gotten this far? How can we be closing the case and sending it to you and nobody knows where the conspiracy is?
Yet, that conspiracy allegation is the lynchpin upon which the Task Force used extensive hearsay testimony during the trial and kept out exculpatory testimony for Lay and Skilling. But for the Task Force designating those witnesses with exculpatory testimony as unindicted co-conspirators and prompting them to decline to testify on the basis of their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, the testimony in this trial would have been dramatically different.
Petrocelli also hammered away at the presumption underlying the Task Forceís case:
Mistakes are not a crime. [Skilling] made a lot of mistakes. He said, “I should have sold those assets off in the international arena. I didn’t do a good job. I miscalculated on broadband. I was a step behind. I should have better anticipated the collapse of the bandwidth market. I trusted Andy Fastow. If I knew now what I knew then, of course, there wouldn’t be an LJM. I made mistakes.”
Mistakes are not a crime. They may lead to liability in a civil case, which it felt like we’ve been in for three months; and God knows, he’s been sued in 200 cases. If he made mistakes and it violates civil laws, then he’ll have to deal with that; but this is a criminal case. Mistakes are not a crime.
Finally, Petrocelli explained why the credibility of the Task Force’s cooperating witnesses is suspect:
[Task Force prosecutors] talked about lies and choices. That’s the theme of their case: lies and choices. Well, the Government, that applies to them, too. They had choices. . . If they really wanted to get the truth out of this case, they didn’t have to use cooperators. That was their choice. If they wanted to use cooperators, they didn’t have to make these deals with them. That was their choice. If they wanted to use cooperators, they didn’t have to put off their sentencing. Not one of them has been sentenced. [. . .]
So Glisan doesn’t make a deal at that time because he’s not prepared to do everything they want him to do until he ended up in the hole in solitary confinement and then in hard prison with two convicts and a single toilet. And then that changed his mind. Then he got a chance to come out on furloughs, see his family, go to a camp. That’s what happens to people. . . . it could happen to anybody, . . . It robs you of your free will. It’s not right. [The prosecution] can do it. You don’t have to accept it, though. You don’t have to believe those witnesses. You can demand a higher quality of proof.
But as entertaining as Petrocelli’s closing was to read, the most surprising development of the closing arguments was the performance of the Lay defense team, which — along with Lay — has come under some heavy criticism in the media and the blogs during the trial. When I heard that Lay and his team had decided to have all four lawyers on the team do a part of the closing argument, I must admit that I first thought that such an unusual approach was a recipe for disaster.
However, I was wrong. Lay attorney Bruce Collins led off with a superb analysis of the charges against Lay, and again used the specific language in the Task Forceís indictment as a guide for the jury in comparing the actual charges against the testimony and the evidence. Collins is not blessed with Petrocelli’s panache (few are), but his closing was a clinically effective breakdown of the Task Force’s entire case against Lay.
Mac Secrest — who performed admirably when forced at mid-trial to take on the lion share of the Lay defense when Ramsey was disabled by surgery — followed with an astute analysis of the Task Force’s cooperating witnesses, pointing out how their credibility is undermined by the very terms of their plea agreements and the substantial amount of time that the Task Force expended in rehearsing their testimony.
Following Secrest, Chip Lewis gave his short, verbal assault on Task Force prosecutor John Hueston (“Don’t come to Houston, Texas and lie to us”), which seemed a bit over-the-top in reading it, but then the folksy Ramsey followed Lewis with a relatively short (12 minutes) and measured commentary on the nature of reasonable doubt and reminding the jurors that they, not the Task Force, are really who represent the United States in the courtroom.
Finally, Task Force director Sean Berkowitz finished the closing arguments on Wednesday morning with a fast-dash rehash of many of the same points that Ruemmler hit on Monday.
Berkowitz’s performance was workmanlike, but he has never seemed particularly enthralled with the Lay-Skilling indictment, which was prepared well before he joined the Task Force. During the trial, Berkowitz did not fare particularly well during the cross-examination of Skilling and seemed to struggle at times with some of the arcane business principles and practices that were involved in the case.
Consequently, it’s really not surprising that he closed with the following analysis of what he thinks the case is about:
You [jurors] get the final word in this historic case. You get to decide whether [Lay and Skilling] told truths or whether they told lies. Black and white. I submit, ladies and gentlemen, that, when you consider all of the evidence, you will conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that these men lied. They withheld the truth. They put themselves in front of their investors. And I’m asking you to send them a message that it’s not all right. You can’t buy justice. You have to earn it.
Or were Lay and Skilling simply struggling on behalf of shareholders to put the best face possible on an innovative but admittedly highly-leveraged company with a booming and profitable trading operation that found itself in a fatal credit crunch when the commercial paper market dried up in response to public disclosure of Fastow’s financial shenanigans, the company’s relatively low credit rating, a falling stock price, and the uncertainty of an anxious post-9/11 stock market?
Those two starkly different frameworks are essentially what the parties have presented to the jury during this trial. Which one the jurors choose to adopt will ultimately determine the outcome.
So, where does that leave us? The jury went home for the weekend after deliberating for a day and a half without any communication to Judge Lake.
The betting markets continue to predict convictions of both men at around a 70% probability, although the bet on a Skilling conviction has not increased during the trial while the bet on a Lay conviction has risen markedly. The betting market is probably a reasonably good measure of the public’s attitude about the case after being deluged with mostly anti-Enron media reports for over five years now.
However, I continue to believe that that this jury’s verdict will depend largely on the leaders of the panel.
If those leaders were predisposed to convict Lay and Skilling from the outset of the trial, nothing in this four month slog is likely to have changed their position.
But if even one of those leaders is skeptical of the Task Force’s methods or case, then the Task Force has not presented nearly a strong enough case to ensure convictions by any stretch of the imagination. If the leaders have doubts, then my sense is that a mix of acquittals and a hung jury on some counts ó similar to what occurred in the first Enron Broadband trial is a distinct possibility.
The jury returns on Monday to deliberate and will do so through Thursday of each week until a verdict is reached.
In the meantime, the Task Force and the Lay team began the trial yesterday of Lay on the charges relating to Reg U, which prompted Ramsey to comment awhile back “I thought Reg U was a tomato sauce.”
That case is being tried to Judge Lake without a jury and will likely conclude early next week. Judge Lake has already stated that he will not announce a verdict in that case until after the Lay-Skilling jury comes back with its verdict.
By the way, speaking of the Enron Broadband case, the first re-trial of that case is expected to go to the jury next week.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the jury in that trial decides the core issues relating to Enron’s Broadband unit differently from the way the Lay-Skilling jury decides those same issues?
In the wacky world of criminalizing corporate agency costs, it could happen.
Opening Bell: 5.19/06
Milberg Weiss Case May Resemble Arthur Andersen’s, Lawyers Say (Bloomberg) It was a shame to see Arthur Andersen go. There were thousands of lost jobs, billions in destroyed economic value, and countless hours wasted in the process. Their problems were…
Tom,
I was at closing arguments and heard Berkowitz say (I think three times) that you have to “earn” justice. Since when? I have no legal background and may be naive, but I thought that justice was my right as an American citizen. Will you please shed some light on that? Thanks.
Beth, Berkowitz’s statement has no legal substance. As with much of the Task Force’s case, it’s an appeal to class prejudice of the jurors against rich people such as Lay and Skilling. The reason that Berkowitz used the line on rebuttal rather than Ruemmler using it on the prosecution’s opening part of closing arguments is so that the defense would not be able to slam the prosecution for making such an absurd — but superficially appealing — statement.
OK, so that explains the Task Force’s strategy for using the phrase. But the superficial appeal may be short lived if/when any of the jurors remember the Pledge of Allegience. Berkowitz et al would have the jury believe that the Pledge should be changed to “liberty and justice for all – except for Lay and Skilling” and that might just offend the jurors.
By the way, I admire you for having the courage to publicly talk about the prosecutorial abuse issues in this case. Hope the Enron Task Force doesn’t come after you, too.
Maybe there should be a Liberty Task Force against the Enron Task Force (and its like)—– Play Ball.
The guilty verdict on all counts is justified. Kenneth Lay was paid an obscene amount of money to be aware of every important detail of the functioning of Enron. He was guilty of either: 1. Gross incompetence if he had no idea that the entire company was being gutted, or; 2. Criminal activity involving faked blackouts in California, theft of company profits, theft of operating funds and theft of employee retirement accounts. He deserves many years in prison and the level of poverty he inflicted on his former employees.
Countless Houstonians and many others have greatly benefited and will continue to benefit from Ken and Linda Lay’s past generosity. Before you read further, make a mental note of how many different charities you yourself have chosen to donate money to.
I took my family to the zoo today, and watched my children play in the unique prairie dog town exhibit that is part of the children’s zoo. The children crawl through tunnels and poke their heads up next to real, live prairie dogs in the middle of the exhibit. Very heart-warming, especially if you like prairie dogs and children. It made me laugh and my kids loved it! I was then surprised to look over and see a plaque stating that the exhibit had been donated by Ken and Linda Lay — I had just heard of the verdict on the way to the zoo, and the juxtaposition of the dire straits of Ken Lay versus his incredible gift of the prairie dog town was jarring.
I challenge you to find anyone who has donated to as many charities around Houston as they have — and I ask you to consider, as I have, whether the massive good that Ken has done for people in any way outweighs the charges that the judge and jury have convicted him for. He was used as a scapegoat by federal prosecutors, by their own public statements after the verdict. It seems likely that the judge will send him to prison for what will most likely amount to a life sentence for him because of federally-mandated sentencing guidelines that do not allow judges to weigh any mitigating factors.
I believe that society is not better off with Ken Lay behind bars. You may be of a more vengeful set of mind — but where does that kind of emotion get you in life? Just now, I copied the list of the non-profit organizations that Ken and Linda Lay have donated to from the website http://www.kenlayinfo.com. (Now, before you read the list, think back to the mental list of charities which you have donated to. And when you read the list below, count the number of times you possibly have personally benefited from their contributions.)
PERSONAL CONTRIBUTIONS MADE BY LINDA AND KEN LAY TO NON PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS FROM 1995-2005 A.D. Players, Houston Albert Einstein College of Medicine Of Yeshiva University Alley Theater, Houston Aloha Racing Foundation Alpine Christian Academy Alzheimer’s Association Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Disorders Association, Inc. – Houston & Southeast Texas Chapter American Action Fund For Blind Children And Adults American Cancer Society American Diabetes Association (Texas Affiliate) American Festival For The Arts, Houston American Foundation For AIDS Research (AmFar) American Foundation For Suicide Prevention American Heart Association, Houston Division American Indian Youth Running Strong American Ireland Fund American Jewish Committee, Houston Chapter American Leadership Forum Houston American Lung Association of Texas American Red Cross, Greater Houston Area Chapter AmeriCares Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, CO Anti-Defamation League – Southwest Region Arbor Pre-School, Houston Aspen Art Museum, CO Aspen Ballet, CO Aspen Camp School For Deaf, CO Aspen Center For Enviromental Studies, CO Aspen Friends Sunshine Kids, CO Aspen Historical Society, CO Aspen Junior Hockey, CO Aspen Music Festival and School, CO Aspen Public Radio, CO Aspen Recreation Center, CO Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, CO Aspen Snowmass Council of The Arts, CO Aspen Valley Hospital, CO Assistance League of Houston Association of Handicapped Artists The Barbara Bush Foundation For Family Literacy Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Baylor College of Medicine Cancer Center, Houston Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, Houston Bellaire Little League Bering Omega Community Services, Houston Beta Leadership Fund Beta Theta Pi Foundation Bethel Baptist Church, Columbia, MO Bethel Independent Presbyterian Church Blessed Sacrament School Blue Bird Circle, Houston Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, FL Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston Boys And Girls Harbor Inc., Houston Boy Scouts of America, Sam Houston Area Council Briarwood School, Brookshire, TX Brookwood Community, Brookshire, TX Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum, Houston Calallen Baptist Church Camp For All Foundation, Houston Campus Crusude For Christ Cancer Fighters of Houston Cancer League, Inc. Cancer Support Capn League Carecen Care Charity Casa de Esperanza de los Ninos, Houston Center For Aids Center For Popular Culture Challenge Aspen, CO Champion Forest Baptist Church Chapelwood Foundation, Houston Chapelwood United Methodist Church, Houston Child Abuse Prevention Network Child Advocates, Inc., Houston Child Development Center of Houston-Galveston ChildHelp USA Christian Hope Church Christian Relief Services Charities Church of The Brazos, TX Citizens For Animal Protection, Houston Colorado Rocky Mountain School, CO Communities in Schools Houston, Inc. Community Partners Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Covenant House Texas, Houston Cowboy Artists of America Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, Houston Crystal Cathedral Church, CA Crystal Cathedral Ministries, CA Daughters of The Republic Of Texas D.E.B.R.A. of America Incorporated DePauw University, IN DePelchin Children’s Center, Houston DIFFA Houston DIFFA New York Diocesan Aids Ministry, Houston Disabled American Veterans Downtown Houston Association Elk Creek Baptist Church, MO Elk Lodge Education Program Endangered Species Project End Hunger Network Houston Chapter Enron Oil & Gas Scholarship Fund, Houston Ensemble Theatre, Houston Epilepsy Association of Houston Episcopal High School, Houston Escape Family Resource Center, Houston Fidelity Investment Charitable Gift Fund, Houston Linda And Ronald Finger Lupus Research Center, Houston First Presbyterian Church of Houston First United Methodist Church of Houston Food For The Poor, Inc. The Foundation For Jones Hall, Houston Foundation For The Retarded Friends of Children, Houston Friends of CISH, Houston Friends of Fondren Library, Houston Friends of Hermann Park, Houston Frontiers of Freedom Institute, VA Fulfill The Promise Campaign Galveston Historical Foundation Gathering Place, Inc., Houston George Bush Presidential Library And Museum Gethsemane Baptist Church, TX Girls Scouts of San Jacinto Council, Houston Greenville Public Library, TN Goodfellows Club of Houston Good Samaritan Foundation, Houston Grady Middle School Parent Teacher Organization Greater DC Cares Servathon Greater Houston Community Foundation Greater Houston Women’s Foundation Hands Helping Houston Harvest Christian Academy Healthcare For The Homeless – Houston Health, Empowerment, Research And Advocacy Foundation Help Hospitalized Veterans Help The Children Heritage Society of Aspen Holly Hall, Houston Holocaust Museum of Houston Hope School Horatio Alger Association Of Distinguished Americans Horatio Alger Scholarship Fund Hospice at Texas Medical Center, Houston Hospice of Lake and Sumter, Inc. Houston Achievement Place Houston African American Museum Houston AfterCare Houston Area Women’s Center Houston Ballet Houston Center For Contemporary Craft The Houston Challenge Foundation Houston Children’s Chorus Inc. Houston Community College System Houston Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Inc. Houston Fire Museum Houston Food Bank Houston Grand Opera Houston Hospice Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, Inc. Houston Museum of Natural Science Houston Parks Board Houston Public Television Houston Read Commission Houston SPCA Houston Symphony Houston Youth Symphony & Ballet I Have A Dream – Houston Incarnate Word Academy, Houston Independence Pass Foundation, Aspen, CO Initiatives For Children, Houston Inprint, Inc., Houston Institute of Religion, Houston Institute of Texan Cultures Interfaith Ministries For Greater Houston International Campaign For Tibet Iowa Barn Foundation James A. Baker III Institute For Public Policy, Houston Jamaica Beach Volunteer Fire Department, TX Jewish Community Center of Houston Jerusalem Baptist Church John Cooper School, Woodlands, TX Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas, Inc. Junior Royals of Houston Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International Kenyon College, OH KidCare, Houston L.A. Bennett Memorial Fund Lakewood Church, Houston Leadership Institute, VA Lee College, Baytown, TX Les Dames d’Aspen, CO Linda and Ken Lay Family Foundation Lustgarten Foundation Mama Jo Ministries, Inc. March of Dimes Texas Chapter Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation McLamore Family Foundation Meadow Wood Elementary Parent Teacher Association Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Houston Memorial Hermann Foundation, Houston Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Mercy Home For Boys & Girls Methodist Retirement Community, Houston Missionaries In Action, FL Moores School of Music, Houston Muscular Dystrophy Association, Inc., Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston NAACP Houston Branch Nantucket Historical Association, MA National Alliance To End Homelessness, D.C. National Center For Policy Analysis, Dallas National Depressive & Manic-Depressive Association National Jewish Foundation National Muscular Sclerosis Society National Osteoporosis Foundation National Tax Research Commission National Vietnam Veterans Neuhaus Education Center, Houston New Beginning Baptist Church Odyssey House Texas, Inc. Open Door Church Open Door Deliverance Church Open Door Mission Foundation, Houston Orangewood Presbyterian Church ORBIS Paralyzed Veterans of America Parkway United Methodist Church Pirates Beach & Bay Foundation, Galveston Pitkin Animal Welfare Society, CO Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas, Inc. Platte Valley Arts Council, Inc, WY Police Activities League, Inc. – Houston Prevailing Faith Church Prostate Cancer Foundation Resources For The Future, D.C. Retina Research Foundation, Inc., Houston Rice University, Houston Rio Grande Children’s Home River Oaks Baptist School, Houston Rock of Salvation Ministries Baptist Church Rollins College Bach Festival, FL Ronald McDonald House of Houston Rotary Club of Houston Foundation Salute America’s Hereos, NY Samaritan Center Sam Houston Area Council Boy Scouts of America School of The Woods, Houston Second Baptist Church, Houston Service America of Texas, Inc. Shara Fry
er Cancer Fund, Houston Share Our Strength, D.C. Sheltering Arms Senior Services, Houston Spay-Neuter Assistance Program, Houston Society of Advancement of Women’s Healing Southern Hills Community Church Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX Spaulding For Children, Houston St. Agnes Acadmey, Houston St. Anne’s School, Houston Star of Hope Mission, Houston St. Benedict’s Monastery, CO St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation, Houston St. Joseph’s Indian School, SD St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, TN St. Labre Indian School, MT St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Houston St. Luke’s Methodist Church, Houston SOLV- Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism, OR Strand Theatre Galveston Texas St. Stephens United Methodist Church St. Thomas High School – Houston St. Thomas Kids Teen Camps, Houston Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Texas AIDS Ride Texas Alliance For Alcohol Abuse Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston Texas Heart Institute, Houston Texas Highway Patrol Association Texas Society of CPAs Texas Special Olympics Texas Women’s Hall of Fame Theatre Under The Stars, Inc., Houston The 100 Club Houston The Center For Houston’s Future The Childrenís Museum of Houston The Chinquapin School The Confessing Movement, Houston The Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston The Dream Foundation The Elks National Foundation The Fund For Animals The Hertiage Society of Houston The Hope School, Houston The Junior League of Houston, Inc. The Kincaid School, Houston The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Inc., Houston The Life Center The Methodist Hospital- The Eileen Murphree McMillin Blood Center The Menil Museum Collection, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The National Children’s Advocacy Center The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy of Texas The National Institute For Science, Law, and Public Policy The Paget Foundation The Phi Beta Kappa Society of Greater Houston The River Performing & Visual Arts Center, Houston The Sunshine Kids The Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation, Houston The Tibet Fund The Washington Home The Women’s Fund For Health Education And Research, Houston Thyroid Society For Education & Research, Houston Tourette Syndrome Association of Texas Trees For Houston Trinity Life Center United Cerebral Palsy – Houston United Negro College Fund Houston United States Olympic Committee United Way of The Texas Gulf Coast, Houston University of Houston University of Houston – Alegria University of Houston – Alumni Organization University of Houston – Downtown University of Houston – Festivals Company University of Houston – Foundation University of Maryland University of Missouri – Columbia University of Texas At Austin The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center University of Texas School of Nursing U.S. Capitol Historical Society Village Presbyterian Church Vineyard Camp VistaCare Family Hospice of Houston Vitas Hospice Volunteer Center Volunteer Houston Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Houston William A. Lawson Institute of Peace and Prosperity The Women’s Home, Houston World Outreach Ministries Xavier High School YMCA Camp Cullen YMCA of Greater Houston Area YWCA of Houston Youth Young Adult Fellowship Alliance, Silsbee, TX Zeta Phi Society Foundation Zina Garrison All Court Tennis Academy Zoological Society of Houston
Condolences to the Lay family. This is a great loss indeed, to both his family and houston. He will be missed greatly
Mick Zupan