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Friday, Aug. 21, 1998
Microsoft trial to be delayed two weeks
News media lawyer opposing closed pretrial interviews for Gates, other executives
By TED BRIDIS
Associated PressWASHINGTON - The antitrust trial against Microsoft will begin next month two weeks later than planned, a federal judge said Thursday.
Meanwhile, a news media lawyer said he will push harder to allow the public to watch the government's upcoming questioning of the company's billionaire chairman, Bill Gates, and other executives. A federal appeals court has effectively closed those interviews.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson agreed to a joint request by Microsoft and the Justice Department to delay the trial until Sept. 23, in part because of the legal fight to let reporters and the public watch the pretrial interviews with Gates and other executives.
Jackson reluctantly agreed last week to open the interviews. A three-judge panel of the appeals court didn't specify on Wednesday whether Jackson was right or wrong, but it ordered the interviews to resume in private while delaying any decision in the case until after Sept. 29.
That is long after the last of any pretrial depositions and effectively bars the public from watching.
Lee Levine, the media attorney representing several news organizations, said Thursday he will ask the appeals court to make its decision more quickly, in time for the public to attend at least some depositions.
``The matter (of media access) is still very much in doubt,'' Levine said.
Another attorney in Levine's firm, Jay Brown, said lawyers decided not to take their case to the full appeals court or to the U.S. Supreme Court because ``the chance of success is not rosy.''
The court had been asked to consider whether an obscure 1913 law requires depositions be open in federal antitrust cases. The rarely used law says such depositions ``shall be open to the public as freely as are trials in open court.''
It was unclear after Thursday's hearing when the government might interview Gates.
Microsoft lawyer John Warden said the company offered Gates as early as today or Saturday. But Justice lawyer David Boies argued that until the appeals court had ruled to keep the depositions private, Microsoft was contending Gates wasn't available anytime soon.
``Strangely, after the court of appeals decision, he suddenly became available,'' said Boies, who indicated he was too busy with other cases to interview Gates on the West Coast until at least Wednesday next week.
Warden then began to argue further, but the judge signaled to both lawyers he wanted silence.
``I don't care,'' the judge said.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web