Getting a Later Start? Unsettled legal issues...

Getting a Later Start? Unsettled legal issues may delay the opening of Charles Keating Jr.’s fraud trial until after Labor Day. Opening statements had been scheduled for Wednesday, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito said this week that he may send the jury home until Sept. 3 to give prosecuting and defense attorneys time to hash out unsettled issues. These include whether lawyers may present several Keating statements that the defense does not want jurors to hear. Keating, the former owner of Lincoln Savings of Irvine, is charged with misleading Lincoln investors about the safety of bonds of Lincoln’s parent, American Continental Corp. The bonds became virtually worthless when American Continental filed for bankruptcy protection and Lincoln was seized in April, 1989, at a taxpayer cost of $2.6 billion.