ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 3, 1996 TAG: 9612030115
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
A federal judge has thrown out the racketeering and conspiracy convictions of former Lincoln Savings & Loan Association Chairman Charles Keating and ordered a new trial.
Judge Mariana Pfaelzer agreed with Keating's attorneys that the jurors were aware of his earlier state court conviction, the judge's clerk said.
Keating, 72, was released from a Tucson, Ariz., prison on $300,000 bail Oct. 3. A central figure in the 1980s savings and loan scandals, he was serving concurrent 10-year state prison and 12-year, seven month federal sentences.
Keating ran Lincoln Savings from 1984 until its collapse in 1989. He was convicted of 17 counts of securities fraud in California state court in December 1991. Two years later, he was convicted of 73 federal counts of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy.
The state conviction was overturned in April when a federal judge found that Judge Lance Ito had given improper instructions to the jury. State prosecutors are appealing.
-Bloomberg Business News
LENGTH: Short : 31 linesby CNB