Adelphia Judge Raises Possibility of Mistrial

NEW YORK -- The judge presiding in the Adelphia Communications Corp. fraud trial of the Rigas family Monday called a miscalculation by the U.S. government "an egregious error" and said it could prompt the defense to request a mistrial, Dow Jones reported.

In questioning former Adelphia director Dennis Coyle last week, the government had sought to show that Rigas-owned businesses incurred debt that was improperly guaranteed by Adelphia.

Coyle testified that management led him to believe that any entity incurring debt that was guaranteed by the company had to meet certain financial standards. Individually, the Rigas-owned entities didn't have sufficient operating cash flow to meet these tests.

However, on Thursday Coyle conceded that publicly filed credit agreements covering the borrowing arrangements said that the tests applied collectively to all the businesses involved, including Adelphia, which had much greater operating cash flow.

On Monday Coyle testified he first realized his understanding of how the tests worked was wrong Thursday.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 3/15/04