Wittig to call additional witnesses at retrial

? It took 10 weeks to unsuccessfully try former Westar Energy Inc. CEO David Wittig last year on charges that he tried to loot Kansas’ largest electric utility.

Wittig on Friday asked for a change in procedure that could make his retrial, scheduled to begin May 9, even longer.

Attorneys for Wittig joined a motion filed Thursday by his co-defendant, former Westar chief strategic officer Douglas Lake, demanding that prosecutors call witnesses to certify the authenticity of business records placed into evidence.

Defense attorneys complained throughout that trial that U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson was allowing prosecutors to submit business records into evidence using only affidavits of authenticity from the document custodians, which is standard procedure in many trials.

But the attorneys said not being able to challenge the people certifying those records violated their clients’ constitutional right to confront their accusers. And they said some of the certifications went beyond simple authentication and included statements they said bordered on being “testimonial” and could have been challenged in court.

“It is not the defendant’s intention to delay or complicate the trial needlessly,” wrote Lake’s attorney, Edward Little, who said many documents can be agreed to ahead of time. “In the end, however, business records should only be admitted if they are subject to stipulation or live testimony.”

A spokesman for U.S. Atty. Eric Melgren declined to comment on the motion.