Delay Granted to Hedgecock

SAN DIEGO — A Superior Court judge on Friday delayed until Feb. 28 a decision on the starting date of Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s second trial to give the mayor time to decide whether he wants to change attorneys for the retrial, which appears unlikely to start before this summer.

Attorney Michael Pancer, who represented Hedgecock in the seven-week case that ended Wednesday in a mistrial with the jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of conviction, told Judge Barbara T. Gamer on Friday that his commitments to other clients would make it impossible for him to retry the case until July.

Saying the retrial is “too important to wait . . . that long,” Assistant Dist. Atty. Richard D. Huffman said he prefers that Hedgecock’s retrial on felony conspiracy and perjury charges stemming from alleged campaign-law violations begin no later than April.

Huffman conceded that if Hedgecock were to select a different attorney, that lawyer would need several months to familiarize himself with the case.