Keating Hearing Will Continue Through Friday : Lincoln S&L;: Judge’s ruling could jeopardize the start of the criminal securities fraud trial scheduled for Aug. 2 in L.A.

A judge presiding over the $130.5-million restitution hearing against former Lincoln Savings & Loan owner Charles H. Keating Jr. and six others ruled Monday that the enforcement hearing will continue through Friday.

The ruling by Paul J. Clerman, an administrative law judge, could jeopardize the start of the state criminal securities fraud trail scheduled to begin Aug. 2 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Only last week, Clerman ordered that the civil proceedings brought by the Office of Thrift Supervision be halted today so that lawyers for Keating and his former top aide, Judy J. Wischer, could prepare for the criminal trial.

He changed his mind after attending a midday hearing Monday before Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito, who is presiding over the criminal trial.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office sought the hearing before Ito to explore the possibility of getting the criminal trial delayed for up to 15 days so the OTS could continue its hearing.

Ito said several times that he needed to get the criminal trial started by Aug. 2, partly for reasons of logistics. A pool of 300 prospective jurors will be assembled and last-minute pretrial motions must be heard, he said. Ito said he expects the trial to last six months. In addition, he said he had 125 other criminal trials backed up and had to fit the Keating trial in when he could.

But Ito threw the ball back in Clerman’s court by saying that any continuation of the OTS hearing would probably force him to grant a request by defense attorneys to delay the criminal trial. Defense attorneys, however, have sought to go to trial Aug. 2.

The OTS is seeking a lifetime ban against Keating, Wischer and five others for their role in the 1989 collapse of Lincoln. It also is seeking restitution for four deals that the agency says caused losses at the Irvine thrift. Regulators said Lincoln is the biggest single thrift failure to date, costing taxpayers $2.6 billion.