State Supreme Court Won’t Cut Keating’s $5-Million Bail

The California Supreme Court Wednesday declined to lift or reduce the $5-million bail of Charles H. Keating Jr., the former thrift owner being held on fraud charges in the Los Angeles County Jail.

Without comment, Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas signed an order that simply denied Keating’s petition. Only two of the court’s seven justices--Stanley Mosk and Edward A. Panelli--voted to grant a hearing on the appeal.

Keating’s lawyers could not be reached for comment late Wednesday. But they indicated earlier that they would take the bail issue to federal court--most likely U.S. District Court in Los Angeles--should the state’s high court reject the petition.

His lawyers also could ask Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito, the trial court judge recently assigned the case, to lower bail. Keating and three co-defendants are scheduled to appear Monday before Ito to settle some procedural matters.

Keating, former chairman of American Continental Corp. in Phoenix, has been in the county jail since Sept. 18 when a grand jury indictment was unsealed in court. The indictment charges Keating and the others with 42 counts of securities fraud in the sale of American Continental junk bonds through the 29 Southern California branches of the company’s former main subsidiary, Lincoln Savings & Loan in Irvine.