Topeka ? An attorney who also represents former Enron Corp. chief Kenneth Lay told a federal judge Monday she should remove herself from the retrial of two former Westar Energy Inc. executives because she exhibited bias during their first trial.

Earl Silbert, also a former Watergate prosecutor, flew to Kansas solely to argue that point before U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, who oversaw last year’s 10-week trial of former Westar chief executive David Wittig and his top deputy, former executive vice president Douglas Lake.

Prosecutors are retrying both men on charges they tried to loot the state’s largest electric utility before leaving the company in late 2002. The first trial ended in December when Robinson declared a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict on more than half of the 40 charges against them.

During that trial, Robinson criticized Wittig and Lake’s attorneys in court and imposed restrictions on them, including stationing a federal marshal closer to the defense table and limiting the number of defense attorneys in the courtroom. She has even banned one attorney from appearing before her.

Silbert said federal appellate courts had made it clear that judges must avoid crossing the line between criticism of conduct and injudicious condemnation of attorneys.

Robinson said she was only responding to the attorneys’ misbehavior and signs of disrespect, which included snickering and using profanity in response to her rulings.

“When judges see outrageous conduct, they have to respond,” Robinson said Monday from the bench.

Robinson said she would rule soon on the request, as well as a defense request to move the trial out of Topeka and perhaps outside the state. Their first trial was in Kansas City, Kan. The second trial is set to begin May 9 for Wittig, of Topeka, and Lake, of New Canaan, Conn., on 40 counts of fraud.

Their attorneys told Robinson on Monday that negative publicity about Wittig and Lake made it impossible for them to receive a fair trial in Topeka.

“Topeka absolutely hates Mr. Wittig, and to an extent Mr. Lake,” said Edward Little, Lake’s attorney.

Prosecutors said Wittig and Lake used company planes for personal travel, pushed Westar to invest in or buy companies in which they had personal interests, manipulated a proposed merger with another utility to bring themselves millions of dollars, abused an executive relocation program and conferred with Westar’s outside legal counsel to remove members of the board critical of their compensation.

Prosecutors want to force Wittig and Lake to surrender all compensation they received while at Westar: $27.9 million for Wittig and $9.4 million for Lake.