Print edition: 
Thomas Etheredge's trial on securities fraud charges is set for Jan. 19, but the status of the Wild West World founder's lead defense attorney is in doubt.
Etheredge's attorney, Steve Joseph, said Monday he's looking for an attorney to take over the lead role in the case as he battles health issues that require a lessened workload.
Original plans called for Chris McHugh, an attorney with Joseph and Hollander, to assume the lead counsel role with Joseph assisting.
However, McHugh announced Friday that he's leaving the Wichita firm.
"At this point, we're not sure what we're going to do," Joseph said.
One possibility is for Joseph's son, Chris, to join the Etheredge defense team.
Etheredge, meanwhile, is suffering from neurological problems that may have resulted from a stroke in jail, Joseph said.
The case, originally scheduled for trial in early fall, was delayed when Joseph became ill. He has since resumed some legal work.
Joseph, 63, a veteran Wichita trial attorney and former prosecutor, has represented Etheredge since the Kansas Securities Commissioner and the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened inquiries two years ago into the bankruptcy of Wild West World, the theme park founded by Etheredge.
Kansas Securities Commissioner Chris Biggs said Monday he expects the trial to last at least two weeks.
Etheredge is charged with nine counts of misleading private investors as he struggled to raise money from early 2005 through early 2007 to complete the theme park.
He is charged with withholding material facts about the park's solvency and his business background from the local investors, many of them members — along with Etheredge — of Summit Church.
Etheredge spent an estimated $24 million over three years on the theme park, which opened in May 2007.
He closed the park on July 9, 2007, blaming construction cost overruns and poor weather as the park filed for bankruptcy.
The nine investors lost between $50,000 and $300,000 each on investments largely made in late 2006 and early 2007.
Etheredge, who has been held in the Sedgwick County Jail on $1 million bond since his April arrest in Texas, faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted.
