Lawyer May Withdraw From Retrial of Hunter : Courts: The defense of the former J. David executive has reportedly run up a $2-million bill. Her attorney wants another week to ‘make adequate arrangements,’ apparently dealing with compensation for his services.

Nancy Hoover Hunter’s lawyer said Monday he may withdraw from her next trial but asked for another week to try to work out a way to “make adequate arrangements,” apparently financial, so he can stay on the case.

In a brief hearing, U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam granted Los Angeles lawyer Richard Marmaro the extra time after Marmaro said he was “not ready right now” to commit himself to defend Hunter, already convicted on four counts of tax evasion and now facing a slew of other charges.

Hunter, 51, a former Del Mar mayor, was convicted in December after an eight-month trial of four counts of tax evasion. A jury acquitted her of one other tax charge but deadlocked on 192 other counts, primarily fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from her role as a top executive at the failed La Jolla investment firm of J. David & Co.

Federal prosecutors have said they plan a second trial next month on the 192 counts. And, last week, Marmaro and local counsel Robert Brewer asked for a retrial on the four tax evasion counts, claiming the jury found Hunter guilty of a phantom tax law and that Gilliam improperly pressured the jury.

Once the new trial ends, with or without the four tax evasion counts, Hunter faces yet another trial, again stemming from the J. David affair, a Ponzi scheme in which investors lost $80 million. That case involves 56 counts of conspiracy and using the mail to sell unregistered securities.

Prosecutors have charged that Hunter played a key role in the scandal, in which money from new investors was used to pay off earlier investors at J. David and little actual trading was done.

Immediately after her Dec. 11 conviction, Gilliam ordered Hunter to jail without bail to await sentencing. Next Tuesday, Hunter will make her first appearance in court since that order when Gilliam formally continues the sentencing hearing to March 6.

Hunter’s ex-lover, firm founder J. David (Jerry) Dominelli, pleaded guilty in 1985 to fraud and tax evasion in connection with the scheme and is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

Marmaro did not say Monday what “arrangements” he needed to make to keep working on Hunter’s behalf. It was reported last month that Hunter’s ex-husband, George Hoover, put the cost of her defense so far at $2 million, so much money that Hunter was seriously considering asking for a public defender at her second trial.

In her only comments Monday, Assistant U.S. Atty. S. Gay Hugo reminded Gilliam that a lawyer may withdraw from a case only for a good reason, and that “the failure of a (client) to pay compensation” is not good enough.

Gilliam asked Marmaro to report Feb. 21 about his further involvement in the case.

The judge also noted that, in asking last week for a retrial on the four tax evasion counts, defense lawyers also requested that a second trial be held in San Francisco. They contended that Hunter can’t get a fair trial in San Diego because there has been so much publicity about her case.