Former Westar Energy executive Douglas Lake, who will be retried along with former Westar CEO David Wittig, lost a member of his defense when the U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson disqualified Nick Badgerow on conflict of interest grounds.  Badgerow represented Westar in 2003 in litigation that came up in the first criminal trial, which involves various fraud and conspiracy charges related to alleged looting of corporate assets by Wittig and Lake.  Although Badgerow claimed there was no conflict, and Lake waived any conflict arising from the prior representation (see earlier post here), the court agreed with the government and found that there was a sufficient potential conflict to require Badgerow’s removal. An article in the Business Journal of Kansas City (here) discusses the disqualification.