LOCAL : Keating: Government Is Wrong

Former Lincoln Savings & Loan head Charles H. Keating Jr. broke his silence today to rebuke prosecutors for charging him with defrauding thousands of investors who bought now-worthless junk bonds at the failed thrift.

“It’s dangerous to be right when the government is wrong,” Keating, wearing a jail jumpsuit, said to news photographers as he was being brought to court from Los Angeles County Jail for a hearing. The remark was his first public comment on his legal problems, other than his plea of “absolutely not guilty” when he was arraigned earlier this month.

Superior Court Judge Lance Ito set a tentative Dec. 5 trial date for Keating and three co-defendants, but Keating’s lawyer said he doesn’t expect the case to go to trial before next spring.

Keating has been jailed in lieu of $5 million in bail which he says he can’t raise.

“In my opinion, my client cannot possibly prepare to go to trial by that date,” Keating attorney Steven Neal told the judge. “I would resist going to trial at that date. I’m shooting for early March next year.”