ORANGE COUNTY

Court to Hear Keating Appeal: Lincoln Savings & Loan operator Charles H. Keating Jr. and his son will argue Tuesday before a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel that their federal racketeering, conspiracy and fraud convictions two years ago should be overturned. Defense lawyers contend that jurors were tainted with knowledge of impermissible evidence, that the trial court wrongly refused to grant immunity to several potential defense witnesses, that the convictions were not supported by the evidence and that the judge erred in meting out prison terms of 12 years and seven months for Keating and eight years and one month for his son, Charles H. Keating III. They are the only defendants serving time for the 1989 collapse of the Irvine thrift, the nation’s second-costliest S&L; failure.