by Lynne Huntting
In motor racing terms, it was a slow getaway for the court case involving Champ Car boss Kevin Kalkhoven in Oakland on Monday, with much talking but very little actual progress being made.
Kalkhoven, also co-owner of the PKV Racing team, was absent from the proceedings as none of the defendants or plaintiffs appeared in court, but all were well represented by a battery of attorneys. The opening day was, instead, reserved for further pre-trial conference, with part of the discussion centring on two motions by Kalkhoven to further define issues, along with an outlining of the parameters and rules for the scheduled 19-day jury trial set to begin today [23 October].
Judge Claudia Wilkins expects that jury selection will be quick, leaving time for opening arguments from each side and the first input from witnesses. She expects to be done with the evidentiary part of the trial before Thanksgiving, leaving time during the break for both sides to prepare their closing arguments.
Kalkhoven, along with three other directors of the JDS Uniphase Corporation, face a securities litigation case after being accused of allegedly using false or misleading statements to artificially inflate the company's stock price and then selling more than $2 billion of their own holdings before the company's true financial state became public.
Kalkhoven's PKV team raced in Surfers Paradise, Australia, at the weekend but, again, he was not present. According to a team spokesman, Kalkhoven was 'in Europe working on Champ Car business', while other sources suggested that he was visiting Bahrain and/or Dubai to look into staging potential CCWS races in the region.
