We now realize Lee Wolfe is the perfect opening witness to outline the discrepancies between what Joe Nacchio told Wall Street and what was being debated on the executive floor at Qwest. He was the middleman.

Wolfe put a human face on the allegations that Nacchio knew Qwest's targets couldn't be hit but reassured Wall Street, all the while selling stock.

The only problem with that testimony was prosecutor Leo Wise's habit of skipping around chronologically, which drew frequent rebukes from Judge Edward Nottingham.

Unfortunately for the prosecution, Wolfe did selling of his own, exercising 20,000 of his 45,000 vested options in January 2001. While his $646,000 profit is dwarfed by Nacchio's $100 million in sales, Wolfe actually used a greater proportion of his usable options than Nacchio did.

That's why it came up in prosecution questioning, in an attempt to head off the defense attack that would surely follow. It was in response to Wise that Wolfe said, "I knew deep down that I had material information . . . and I knew it was wrong."

Defense attorney John Richilano opened his cross-examination with a barbed, "You sure seem eager to tell your story, don't you?" That prompted Wolfe to say, "I'm telling the truth." Nottingham immediately cut them off, saying he had no patience for the two arguing with each other.

Richilano continued to question Wolfe on the sale, suggesting he was testifying to avoid prosecution. It seemed the sole purpose of the cross-examination would be to destroy Wolfe's credibility.

But Richilano took two detours. In one he started asking technical questions about Qwest's network capacity, prompting a reminder from Nottingham that a cross-examination is supposed to stick to the things that were brought up when the prosecution was doing the questioning.

Then Richilano took a lengthy and exhausting tour through the official Qwest investor-relations datebook. For meeting after meeting in early 2001, Richilano illustrated that Qwest executives other than Joe Nacchio met with analysts and investors.

He was trying to undermine Wolfe's testimony that Nacchio was responsible for nearly all the investor communication. But since jurors have already heard audio recordings of Nacchio on conference calls, will they really be swayed by learning of meetings where an analyst flies in to meet with a half-dozen Qwest division heads?

Wolfe takes the stand again today, so Richilano still has time to deliver more blows. All in all, though, Wolfe seems to have helped the prosecution.

Comment on David Milstead's blog at RockyMountainNews.com.