San Diego

A new judge was appointed to a conspiracy case Thursday after defense attorney C. Logan McKechnie was found in contempt of court and jailed for three hours by the previous judge.

McKechnie orally challenged San Diego Municipal Court Judge Herbert Exarhos on Thursday, a day after Exarhos ordered him jailed for not informing him that his client, Robert Boeckman, was hard of hearing and couldn’t hear 2 1/2 hours of testimony.

Exarhos told McKechnie, of Lakeside, that he was inclined to deny the challenge and that he could be fair to McKechnie despite the contempt ruling. The judge told him the challenge motion must be in writing for it to be official. McKechnie then withdrew the motion.

Superior Court Judge David Gill issued a stay late Wednesday delaying McKechnie’s one-night jail term and $500 fine until Dec. 4. The stay was obtained by the other attorneys in the case. McKechnie was in custody for three hours.

Boeckman is accused of paying three others to kill a former Oklahoma state legislator, Robert Barr III, 46, who had sued Boeckman, 27, and his father for fraud involving an oil company.

The case of Boeckman and the other defendants was reassigned to the presiding department in Municipal Court, where Judge Robert Cooney was assigned to handle the preliminary hearing.

The attorneys and their clients agreed to stipulate that the testimony of two Oklahoma witnesses that occurred Wednesday did not need to be repeated before Cooney when the hearing resumes on Monday.

Because Boeckman said he couldn’t hear most of what happened Wednesday, he read a transcript of the proceedings before the case could begin Thursday.

Exarhos told McKechnie on Wednesday that his “conduct has embarrassed this court” after Boeckman said he heard very little of the testimony.