Judge Puts Former Enron Chief Executive on Curfew

A federal judge Friday ordered former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey K. Skilling to stop drinking and put him on a curfew in response to a drunken scuffle outside a New York bar last month.

Prosecutors wanted U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy to increase Skilling’s bond to $7 million from $5 million, prohibit travel outside of Texas and impose a midnight curfew.

Stacy ordered the curfew but left details to be worked out with court officials. The judge also ordered Skilling to undergo alcohol abuse treatment, which his lawyer said he began two weeks ago.

Skilling attorney Daniel Petrocelli said the treatment was “going quite well.”

Skilling, 50, charged with nearly three dozen counts of fraud and other crimes stemming from Enron’s colossal collapse in 2001, has been free on bond since his arrest in February.

The bond hearing stemmed from prosecutors’ allegations that Skilling grew hostile after a night of drinking in Manhattan last month.

They say Skilling accused some patrons at the bar of being FBI agents, attempted to remove a license plate from a car to ascertain the owner’s identity, and tried to lift a woman’s blouse in search of a wiretap.

Police responding to a call about an altercation took Skilling and his wife to a hospital for evaluation.

A blood test showed Skilling’s blood-alcohol level to be 0.19% -- more than twice the legal driving limit in many states. His bond had required that he avoid excessive alcohol.