Topeka ? The third federal criminal trial of two former Westar Energy Inc. executives, set to begin Sept. 9, will likely be postponed as court officials await the outcome of a pending appeal.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson also told attorneys for former Westar CEO David Wittig and former chief strategy officer Douglas Lake that her staff would need about 30 days after that decision to prepare the pool of potential jurors because of the extensive publicity surrounding the previous trials.

“While everyone here is raring to go, I don’t think we’ll be ready to go by (the trial date),” Robinson said.

Despite that outlook, however, Robinson didn’t rule on a motion by Wittig and Lake to delay the trial, saying she would take it under advisement.

Wittig and Lake, who were forced out at the Topeka-based utility in late 2002, are charged with one count of conspiracy and up to 14 counts of circumvention of internal controls. Prosecutors claim they used a series of schemes to increase their compensation at Westar and then attempted to hide it from shareholders and regulators.

Their first trial ended in a mistrial and their second ended in convictions on most counts, including wire fraud and money laundering. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned those convictions last year and prohibited prosecutors from retrying the men on the wire fraud and money laundering counts, saying the evidence was lacking.