Kansas City, Mo. ? A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Westar Energy Inc. must pay more than $3 million in delinquent legal bills submitted by a former executive on trial for looting the company.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ruled that former chief strategy officer Douglas Lake was entitled to some legal fees, although she refused to completely discredit the company’s argument that legal bills submitted by his New York-based attorneys were unreasonable and that it didn’t have to pay more than regional attorneys would charge.

Lake and David Wittig, Westar’s former chief executive, are scheduled for trial in January on charges that include conspiracy and circumvention of internal controls. Under agreements the two men signed while working for Westar, the utility promised to pay any litigation costs tied to their work, a common provision for corporate executives frequently targeted in court by unhappy shareholders or customers.

Robinson didn’t give Lake’s attorneys the full $6 million they had requested, saying some of their fees may eventually be found to be excessive. She said the two sides can resolve the difference after Lake’s guilt or innocence is determined, which could take years.

In the meantime, Robinson ordered the company to pay Lake’s legal bills going forward as he prepares for his third trial.

A judge would referee any disagreements over future bills, she said.

“By enacting these procedures, the court makes clear that it is not authorizing Lake a ‘blank check,”‘ Robinson wrote in her 37-page ruling. “Indeed, Lake’s counsel suggested at a recent hearing that the third trial would be much less complicated to try, as much of the previous work may be duplicated.”

Edward Little, Lake’s lead defense attorney, said he was largely pleased with the ruling.

“I think it’s eminently fair, but it’s clear we haven’t been paid for all of our fees,” he said.

Little and other members of Lake’s defense team said last month they would withdraw from the case because of the lack of payments. Little declined to comment on whether Thursday’s decision changed his mind.

Robinson has scheduled a hearing on that motion for July 18.

Westar spokeswoman Karla Olsen said the company “will comply with the court order” and won’t pass the cost on to ratepayers.

In a separate ruling Thursday, Robinson said federal prosecutors can reimpose restrictions designed to keep Lake, of New Canaan, Conn., and Wittig, of Topeka, from spending or transferring assets that could be forfeited if they are found guilty. But she said the legal fees advanced by Westar are off-limits.

“The court finds that under the current circumstances of these proceedings, the government has not established probable cause that the advanced legal fees are traceable to the remaining conspiracy charge,” she wrote.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on the rulings.

Jeff Morris, a Kansas City-based defense attorney for Wittig, noted that Robinson still has to rule on a number of issues surrounding what assets can remain part of the government’s restrictions. But he said the judge’s ruling in Lake’s legal-fee case will help in Wittig’s fee case, currently proceeding in Shawnee County court.

“We’re certainly pleased the court isn’t going to allow Westar to hide behind the government’s restraining order as it has in the past,” he said.

Wittig and Lake, who served as chief strategy officer before the two were forced out of Westar in late 2002, were originally charged with wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and circumvention of internal controls. Prosecutors said they used a series of schemes to increase their compensation and tried to hide their actions from shareholders and securities officials.

Their first trial ended in a mistrial in December 2004. They were convicted of most charges in September 2005, but an appeals court threw out those convictions and said the most serious charges of wire fraud and money laundering couldn’t be retried.

The company has paid $4.7 million of the roughly $12 million in fees Lake’s attorneys say they have incurred.

Westar officials stopped paying Lake’s legal bills shortly after the first trial, claiming the hourly rates charged by his New York-based attorney were excessive and that he had too many lawyers working on the case. They said the $4.7 million was about what they would have paid to a Kansas-area firm for the entire four year’s worth of litigation because local attorneys charge lower rates.

They have made similar comments in refusing to pay Wittig’s Washington, D.C.-based attorneys.

In May, a Westar attorney said the company would pay future legal bills for Lake but only if “a reasonable number of attorneys” charged rates similar to those in Kansas, which are often half of those on the East Coast.

Lake’s attorneys claim the employment agreements Lake signed don’t limit where an executive can hire his legal representation.