Legal News

Stephen ?Smooth as Butter? Neal Wins Acquittal for Former McAfee GC

By Dan Slater

Has the summer of vindication been granted an extension into the fall? The latest: Cooley Godward Kronish partner Stephen Neal (pictured), who led the defense for Kent Roberts, the former McAfee general counsel who was indicted on charges over mis-dated stock options, has won his client an acquittal.

Despite yet another example of a discovery gaffe that potentially prejudiced the defendant, Roberts was acquitted because, according to one juror, the government couldn’t prove intent. Here’s the report from the Recorder. Juror William West, a retired contract negotiator and a graduate of Golden Gate University School of Law, told the Recorder that deliberations focused on what Roberts knew in 2000, when the option grant was changed. While Roberts clearly realized in later years that his stock option grant was tainted, West said, the government couldn’t prove Roberts intended to commit a crime at the time of the option grant itself.

“Nowhere in the e-mail trail was there an indication he had initiated what the government called ‘a scheme to defraud’ the company, or to get the option repriced,” West told the Recorder. “Certainly he went along with it, but there was no evidence he initiated what ultimately resulted in a repricing of his options. That was a big issue for me and the jury.”

Apparently, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel didn’t care much for the case against Roberts either. “I would strongly recommend against pursuing this further,” she told Assistant U.S. Attorney Laurel Beeler. “This was not a case where any money was lost as a result of this.”

As for the lawyers’ performance, West, the juror, characterized it as youth and eagerness on the part of the prosecutors versus age and experience for the defense. “Stephen Neal, he was smooth as butter,” he said. “I know he didn’t come cheap.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment to the Recorder. Roberts still faces SEC charges related to stock option backdating at McAfee.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 06, 2008 (boomark / email).