Former Westar Energy Inc. Chairman David Wittig is appealing a June 18 appellate court finding that two years in prison

Former Westar Energy Inc. Chairman David Wittig is appealing a June 18 appellate court finding that two years in prison was a suitable sentence for his bank fraud conviction. A filing on Monday called for an en banc review of the court's decision -- meaning as many as 21 judges on the appellate court bench should review the facts of the case. The appeal said that the district court gave Witting an unreasonable sentence under sentencing guidelines and that the 10th District Court of Appeals' June 18 decision "rubber-stamped the district court's miscalculated guidepost sentence under a guideline this court twice has held legally and factually inapplicable to Mr. Wittig." Wittig's original sentence for bank fraud was 51 months, an enhanced sentence that had been applied for intended losses and gross receipts exceeding $1 million on his alleged bank fraud conviction. That sentence later was reduced to six months, but U.S. Supreme Court decisions and their effect on federal sentencing guidelines bumped his sentence back up to 24 months. Wittig served more than a year in a Minnesota prison before being released on appeal of his two-year sentence. He was freed in February 2007 on appeal of the bank fraud conviction, which stemmed from an allegation that Topeka banker Clinton Odell Weidner increased Wittig's line of mansion-improvement credit at Capital City Bank by $1.5 million and that Wittig loaned the money back to Weidner to use on an Arizona property deal. Wittig also finds himself awaiting a third trial, along with former Westar Executive Vice President Douglas Lake, on government charges that the two looted the Topeka-based utility (NYSE: WR) for personal purposes. Both men have asked that the case be dismissed after the appeals court's January 2007 overturning of many of the pertinent convictions they were found guilty of in earlier trials.
The third trial is expected to begin in September.