(FORTUNE Magazine) – Let the trials begin! Nearly two years after the first corporate-scandal stories broke, and previously little-known names like Lay, Kozlowski, and Ebbers began cropping up in Katie Couric's teleprompter, three significant cases involving executive rogues are finally coming to trial. To bring you the best in corporate court coverage, Team Street Life--that would be myself and reporter Melanie Shanley--attended the three trials over three days (which was a bit of a trial unto itself).

The most high-profile case is probably that of Dennis Kozlowski, the ex-CEO of Tyco, charged, along with his CFO, Mark Swartz, with looting the company. Then there's Frank Quattrone, the former CSFB investment banker charged with obstruction of justice. And lest we forget, Franklin Brown, the former general counsel of Rite Aid, who is charged with conspiring to fudge his company's books and then lying to investigators. Two of the three trials are being held in Manhattan. As you might expect, that means they are media circuses with popping flashbulbs and a lottery system to determine which reporters get in on any given day. In other words, they were definitely not for me.

So I did the logical thing: I rented a Cadillac and barreled out to Harrisburg, Pa., for a road trip to the Rite Aid trial. The drive was about 3 1/2 hours, so I listened to some Jayhawks and pondered the case. When I finally arrived at the Federal Court House at 228 Walnut St. and took the elevator up to the ninth floor to courtroom No. 1, the scene was exactly as I had hoped. Real, live (alleged) corporate-crook courtroom drama, in a sleepy setting and with just a few wire reporters to keep me company.

Here's the skinny: In the late 1990s, former top executives at Rite Aid, the nation's third-largest drugstore chain, conspired to misstate earnings by $1.6 billion--which for a time became the biggest restatement of profits in U.S. history. Five of those former top execs have pleaded guilty, including the CEO, the COO, and the CFO. But Franklin Brown, the crusty 75-year-old general counsel, refused to cop a plea. That seems to have provoked the prosecutors' ire, as they initially hit Brown with a 35-count indictment. However, if that rattled Brown he certainly didn't show it. Brown sat in front of me, at the defendant's table, leaning back in his chair with his hands crossed under his chin. There was a slightly amused look on his face as Reid Weingarten, his lead attorney, cross-examined Brown's former colleague, Timothy Noonan, Rite Aid's former COO.

The day before, Noonan, who had surreptitiously taped conversations with Brown and former CEO Martin Grass, unloaded a bombshell when he told the court that a computer used by a company secretary to backdate documents was gone. "He said they'll never get her computer now. It's in the Atlantic," Noonan quoted Brown as saying. Rite Aid's CEO seemed to confirm this, saying investigators wouldn't find the PC "unless they use a Trident submarine." Wow. Confusingly, though, it may all have been a metaphor, according to the AP: "In a later, taped conversation, Brown clarified that he was 'just using an expression' to mean that the computer was gone for good. [And the secretary in question] '... testified ... that the computer was donated to her church." (That would seem to be easier to track down....)

Still, Noonan's testimony contained other surprises, like catching CEO Grass saying this on tape: "Who the hell knows how big an earnings shortfall we had? (Laughter.)" As the afternoon and the testimony wore on and the bombshells subsided, the jurors and the wire-service guys appeared to grow antsy. Me too. Only I was fortunate enough to be able to boogie out of there. Which I did.

And as I drove back across Pennsylvania and New Jersey to New York puffing on a cigar, here's what I thought: Franklin Brown is a crafty old codger who is willing to roll the dice to bet that the government can't make its case in front of a jury. He's a lawyer, so the trial doesn't particularly intimidate him. In fact, I don't think he minds the process at all, watching his former cohorts squirm on the stand as they testify about him and in the process reveal their own malfeasance. You can tell it burns the prosecutors up. There is no way they will get Brown on all of the 11 counts he now faces. Maybe on some obstruction charges. That's it.

On to the Tyco trial. Melanie attended and found Mark Swartz and the now infamous Dennis Kozlowski in the first week of jury selection. Koz arrived in court just after throwing his daughter an over-the-top wedding bash at his home in Nantucket, Mass., the previous weekend, where, a Street Life source says, "Kozlowski danced all night." Melanie reports that "Kozlowski looked the worse for wear. His shaved head appeared an unhealthy shade of tomato red. He sat at the defense table among his team of lawyers, declining to speak to his supporters. Swartz, on the other hand, was animated, kneeling beside his wife and two teenage children and chatting before the arrival of Judge Michael Obus."

Melanie also attended the trial of one-time superstar CSFB tech banker Frank Quattrone, the man who brought us the Internet IPO: "Quattrone went to trial with a gallery of supporters. George Boutros, the head of technology M&A at CSFB and a longtime partner of Quattrone's, along with several managing directors from CSFB, as well as Quattrone's parents and siblings, filled the rows behind the defense table."

Remember, none of these folks settled. They either didn't like what the government was offering or thought they could prevail in court, or both. Personally, I think the prosecutors may have a tough time. But while the defendants may win some battles, I don't think they will win the wars. Once the government has its sights on someone, it rarely lets go without jailing him for something. It'll be interesting to see. Hey, by the way, when do the Enron trials begin?

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