Complications in Adelphia Trial Raise Caution Flag for Reporters

Journalists scrambled to sift through complicated charges after the jurors for the Adelphia Communications Corp. case declared a mistrial for Michael J. Rigas.

The former vice president of Adelphia was acquitted on July 9 of conspiracy and wire fraud charges, but jurors were split in their decision on the remaining 15 counts of securities fraud and two counts of bank fraud.

That ultimately led to declaration of a mistrial. Barry Meier of The New York Times included a telling comment from one juror, "We wanted to let him go."

Federal prosecutors charged Michael Rigas, his father John Rigas, brother Timothy Rigas, and Michael Mulcahey -- all former executives of the cable company -- with looting it for personal luxuries and hiding $2.3 billion in debt. The jury found John Rigas and Timothy Rigas guilty on 18 counts of bank fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy. Mulcahey, former assistant treasurer, was acquitted on all charges he faced.

Amid the dramatic financial scandal trials this year, readers were less interested in Adelphia largely due to the technical charges involved, according to Brooke Masters of The Washington Post.

"It was hard to convey all along that, for both Michael Rigas and Michael Mulcahey, the evidence was not as strong."

Unable to dedicate daily coverage to the 18-week long proceedings, Masters said she did not have the concrete examples that would separate the sexy details from the actual facts of the case. The actual charges were far more complicated. "During the trial, the government built an extensive case against John and Timothy Rigas, but offered less evidence tying Michael Rigas and Mulcahey to the alleged misdeeds," wrote Masters.

"I write for a general interest newspaper," said Masters. "We have to explain to people why this is bad."

Masters expressed the grave nature of this trial with comments from federal prosecutors that it "involved some of the most egregious misuse of a public company's money in recent memory." She outlined the charges keeping the language as simple as possible and providing background as needed, focusing on the general breadth rather than specifics.

"All three cases have been complicated by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that calls into question the way the federal sentencing guidelines would apply to this and other cases," reported Masters.

Further muddling the trial was the fact that four men were being tried. Both Masters and Meier chose to take each one at a time. The separate charges; conspiracy, bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud; and the following acquittals and convictions for each man were plainly laid out.

Jerry Zremski of The Buffalo News smartly addressed the complexity of the case particulars directly while simultaneously moving the news forward to the next step. "Friday's proceedings marked the end of a complex 18-week trial. Sand scheduled the next proceeding in the case, a hearing on sentencing and other issues, for Sept. 21."

Even after the sentencing of John Rigas and Timothy Rigas, the news may not be over. When the mistrial was announced, the Unites States Attorney's office asked for the judge to schedule a new trial for Michael Rigas.

Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism