Topeka ? The upcoming trial of former Westar Energy executives could be affected by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling limiting prosecutors’ ability to use a federal statute in corruption cases, according to a defense lawyer in the Westar case.

The Thursday ruling from the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of “honest services” fraud, which made it a crime to “deprive another of the intangible right to honest services.” The ruling means the honest services statute can be used only in cases involving bribery and kickbacks.

The 1988 federal statute has been used to prosecute public officials and corporate executives who have breached their duties to shareholders and clients. The statute means that while an official accepting bribes isn’t necessarily stealing money, he isn’t giving the “honest services” he should to the public or his employer.

The ruling was tied to appeals by former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling and Conrad Black, a former newspaper owner in the Hollinger International media empire.

Former Westar CEO David Wittig and his former top strategy officer, Douglas Lake, are charged with conspiring to loot the state’s largest electric utility and trying to hide their actions. Wittig and Lake, who were forced out of Westar in late 2002, are charged with conspiracy and circumvention of internal controls.

The two, who have denied wrongdoing, are scheduled to go on trial Sept. 20. The trial would be their third — the first ended in a hung jury, and their convictions in the second trial were overturned on appeal. The third trial is expected to run 10 to 12 weeks.

Patrick McInerney, the chief attorney representing Lake, said “Honest services” is at the “heart of the indictment and the government’s (charges)” against Wittig and Lake.

“The judge will have to decide how much impact honest services has on this case,” he said.

According to the Supreme Court’s ruling, “without bribery or kickbacks, there is no honest services fraud,” McInerney said. He said bribes and kickbacks have never been alleged in the case against Wittig and Lake.

“Our position on honest services has been that we believe it was overly broad,” McInerney said.

On Friday, prosecutors were reviewing the ruling and would be filing a brief with district court by the July 9 deadline, said Jim Cross, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas.