Keating Jury Recesses; No Verdict Yet

Jurors in the $1.2-billion civil trial of former Lincoln Savings & Loan owner Charles H. Keating Jr. and others went home for the week Wednesday without reaching a verdict.

Lawyers on both sides of the fraud and racketeering case had expected a quick decision. But the federal court jury in Tucson, which started deliberations on Monday, asked a few questions about Lincoln’s accounting on certain kinds of loans, then left the courthouse.

Small investors lost $288.8 million after Lincoln and its parent company, American Continental Corp., collapsed three years ago. The Irvine thrift is the nation’s biggest S&L; failure, costing taxpayers an estimated $2.6 billion.

The investors, most of them Southern California customers of Lincoln, filed a series of class-action lawsuits that were consolidated for trial.

They contend that Keating, his top aides and professional advisers duped them into believing that the company was financially healthy when, instead, the Keating group had been looting it, thus causing its eventual demise.

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Bilby has already ruled that Keating and his officers and directors were engaged in a conspiracy to defraud investors. The jury must evaluate damages and also determine if three defendants still remaining in the case share any blame.

Keating, who did not defend himself at trial, is serving a 10-year prison term for his conviction last fall on state securities fraud charges.