Baxter Death Looks a Lot Like Foster's

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NewsMax.com

Feb. 7, 2002
Reed Irvine

The death of J. Cliff Baxter, the former vice chairman of Enron, looks a lot like that of former White House Deputy Counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr. Foster’s death was pronounced a suicide by the U.S. Park Police when they found a gun in his hand. The media accepted the word of the police, who had made no investigation worthy of the name.

The day after Baxter’s death, the New York Times reported that the Sugar Land police had "ruled out foul play but a justice of the peace ordered an autopsy as a precaution." Like the U.S. Park Police in the Foster case, they ignored the rule that an unattended violent death must be investigated as a homicide until they have enough evidence to rule that out. Dr. Joye Carter, the Harris County medical examiner, pronounced it a suicide without even knowing if the gun found in Baxter’s car belonged to him.

The police requested a trace on the gun, confirming information from a source close to the family that no one identified it as Baxter’s. That was also the case with the gun found in Foster’s hand. Finally the FBI agents working on that case got Foster’s widow to say that the 1913 black revolver resembled the modern silver revolver that she brought to Washington from Arkansas.

That was accepted as positive identification by Special Prosecutor Robert Fiske and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Their reports concealed the fact that the two guns were different colors and ages.

The autopsy found that Baxter was killed by a contact shot to his temple, not by a conventional .38 bullet, but by rat-shot, small pellets used to kill rats. If the police found any .38 rat-shot ammunition in Baxter’s home, they aren’t talking about it. Nor have they revealed if Baxter’s fingerprints and blood were found on the gun. In Foster’s case, his fingerprints and blood were not found on the gun in his hand.

The claim that Foster killed himself came as a shock to his family, close friends and co-workers. Close friend Webster Hubbell told a partner at the Rose Law Firm not to believe the stories that Foster committed suicide. Mrs. Foster accepted the suicide finding, but Vincent Jr., the oldest son, told classmates that his father did not kill himself.

The New York Times reported that a former business associate of Cliff Baxter called Baxter the day before his death, congratulating him for having criticized Enron’s practices before resigning. Someone had suggested that Baxter hire a bodyguard, and Baxter told the caller, "I’m a businessman. Why do I need a bodyguard?" The Baxter family, according to close friends, all believe he was murdered.

The police have a suicide note, but they refuse to say where it was found, who found it, if it was in Baxter’s handwriting and if his fingerprints were on it. They won’t disclose what it says. A reliable source says it doesn’t mention his wife and children and is not really a suicide note.

The note in the Foster case that was allegedly found in his briefcase did not mention his family or suicide. It was in 17 pieces. Foster’s fingerprints were not found on any of them. The contents were released, but copies of the handwritten note were withheld for over two years. Then three independent experts examined it and said it was a forgery.

The medical examiners in both cases have records of deference to police and prosecutors in performing autopsies. Dr. James Beyer, who did the Foster autopsy, had ruled two cases to be suicides that second autopsies found to be homicides.

Dr. Beyer concealed or destroyed an X-ray he had taken of Foster’s head. He lied to explain its absence. The X-ray no doubt confirmed an FBI report that the police found no exit wound in Foster’s head and that the fatal bullet was a small caliber and was not fired by the .38 found in his hand.

Dr. Joye Carter was accused of falsifying an autopsy report when she was the chief medical examiner in Washington, D.C. In Harris County, an employee charged that Dr. Carter fired her because she reported the suppression of evidence favorable to a murder defendant and two cases of destruction of evidence. The employee sued. The county paid $325,000 plus her legal costs, to settle.

The media are calling Baxter’s death a suicide. Earnest Taylor, Sugar Land’s police chief, says nothing to discourage that. The Foster case shows that if he stalls long enough the cover-up will succeed.

Reed Irvine is chairman of Accuracy in Media.

NewsMax.com

The Missing Witness, Cliff Baxter

Feb. 13, 2002
Reed Irvine

As Enron executives and former executives appear before congressional committees and plead the Fifth Amendment or lose their memories, there has been no mention in the media of a key witness who would very likely not plead the Fifth or forget the details of practices that he complained about before he retired from his position as vice chairman of Enron last May.

That key witness is J. Cliff Baxter, who was probably shown the door because he had complained to Chairman Ken Lay about one of the 2,800 partnerships that Enron created to conceal its debts, inflate its profits and siphon off millions of dollars for some of its investors and a few of its own executives.

Baxter specifically criticized the LJM2 partnership. On Feb. 12, the Wall Street Journal reported the discovery of a document that shows that Ken Lay was involved in approving some of the transactions of LJM2 even though both he and his wife had claimed that he was not fully informed about the operations of the partnerships.

The Journal ran this story on the day that Ken Lay invoked his right not to incriminate himself when he appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee. Cliff Baxter, who knew a lot about LJM2 and other matters that might incriminate Ken Lay, had been subpoenaed by one Senate committee, and his lawyer had been notified that a House committee was interested in talking to him.

Unfortunately, Baxter will not be able to testify before either one. He was found dead in his Mercedes, close to his home in Sugar Land, Texas, at 2:23 a. m. on Friday, Jan. 25. He had been killed by a gunshot to the temple. A .38-caliber handgun was found in the car.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 28 that the Sugar Land police had "quickly put out a press release with the headline 'Suicide.' " Someone must have reminded them that in such cases they are supposed to make an investigation to rule out the possibility of homicide. They soon changed the headline to "Death Investigation."

The medical examiner who performed the autopsy that same day called it a suicide without waiting for the results of the police probe. The media promptly reported the death as a suicide.

The New York Times story on Jan. 26 reported that the police had concluded it was suicide, saying he "had been shot once in the head with a .38-caliber handgun" and that he "had left a note" but they would not release its contents.

In the weeks that have followed, the only additional information the police have released is that they requested a trace on the gun. That suggests that no one in the Baxter family was able to identify the gun as one that he owned.

The police have also shown that they don't want to release the note Baxter allegedly left. They have asked the Texas attorney general for a ruling on whether the law requires them to release it.

If the gun had been identified by a family member as one that belonged to Baxter; if he owned .38 rat-shot ammunition, the type that killed him; and if his fingerprints had been found on the gun and the spent casing, that would be pretty good evidence that homicide could be ruled out.

In addition, if the note was written in handwriting that qualified experts have found to be Baxter's, and if it explains to his family why he decided to kill himself, that would help rule out homicide. If his fingerprints were on the note, that would wrap up the case for suicide.

The failure of the police to report the discovery of such evidence points in the opposite direction.

Some news stories have suggested that Baxter was distraught, but that is not what his family says, according to a sources close to them. He was trading in his 72-foot yacht for a larger one. He is said to have completed the transaction the day before he died.

The New York Times reported that a friend had called Baxter that same day to compliment him for having been an Enron whistleblower. The friend revealed that Baxter had said, in an undisclosed context, "I'm a businessman. Why do I need a bodyguard?"

Maybe he did. Maybe he was warned. Since the police are not exploring that angle, one of the committees probing Enron might consider looking into Cliff Baxter's untimely, for him, demise.

Reed Irvine is chairman of Accuracy in Media.

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