Topeka — Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to schedule the third criminal trial for a pair of former Westar Energy Inc. executives.
Former Chief Executive Officer David Wittig and former chief strategy officer Douglas Lake are charged with conspiracy and circumventing internal controls to secretly boost their compensation at the Topeka-based utility.
Their first trial ended in a hung jury in 2004. They were convicted on most counts in 2005 but the convictions were later thrown out.
A third trial was scheduled for September 2008 but the men appealed, challenging the constitutionality of being tried again. That appeal failed this summer.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson will hold a hearing Monday in Topeka to schedule the third trial. Prosecutors would like it to begin Dec. 8.
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ralphralph (anonymous) says…
gittarope
dudedog12 (anonymous) says…
It's all about money people, they'll never gettum, they have to much money. They are slippery / evasive... In the mean time they are running loose sipping mint juleps and basking in the sun..
magnus (anonymous) says…
Well, I see ralphralph knows how to mash words together too. What do you suppose he wants a rope for? Maybe to pull his head out of his ...?
This third trial is nothing but a waste of tax-payer dollars! The Feds should have dropped this case a long time ago! Had they done so they would have saved lots of tax-payer money and millions of Westar money as well! But instead the local U.S. Attorney's Office has blown their budget on this case, and has left Westar paying for Wittig & Lake's legal bills for all three trials!
And what an ass Richard "Dick" Hathaway is for requesting to have the trial start just two weeks before Christmas! Since it has taken the Feds seven years to get to this point I think they can wait until January, after the holiday season is over!
frogtoad (anonymous) says…
Does this mean rates will go up again?
shorttrees (anonymous) says…
Can we get a new judge on the job?
kmat (anonymous) says…
frogtoad - these trials and the rates you pay have nothing to do with each other. Ever heard of the KS Corp. Comm.?
http://www.kcc.state.ks.us/about/inde...
And dudedog is just as clueless. Not sitting in the sun enjoying life. Working just like the rest of us. You know nothing about them.
Shorttrees is correct. Robinson needs to get off the case. There are some grudges here and these charges aren't going to stick in court anyways. They really needed the other charges, that got thrown out at the Federal leve,l in order to really prosecute on the remaining charges. Just a big waste of tax payers money.