A second attempt to move the murder trials of two Maine State Prison inmates charged with killing a third prisoner failed Thursday in Bangor.

Justice Margaret Kravchuk rejected a motion for change of venue in Roger L. Smith’s case, but did agree to delay until September his trial, which had been scheduled to start June 24.

Smith, 22, and Ronald H. Tenggren, 29, are accused in the death of Larry L. Richardson, whose body was found hanging from the bars in his segregation-unit cell just after midnight March 6, 1990.

Each has been indicted on two counts of murder, one of which alleges they caused Richardson to commit suicide by the use of force or duress. They also are charged with one count of aggravated assault for allegedly causing him bodily injury for three days before he died.

The two men will be tried separately.

The motions before Kravchuk on Thursday in Penobscot County Superior Court were brought on behalf of Smith. His lawyer, Joseph Steinberger, argued that the trial should be moved out of Knox County because publicity, particularly in the weekly newspaper Maine Times, prejudiced the case.

Steinberger buttressed his argument by producing articles from tonly if a jury could not be obtained once selection began.

The judge did, however, grant Steinberger’s motion to postpone the start of the trial. Except for references to a delay by the state in making certain information available to Smith’s defense, the motivation for Steinberger’s request was not apparent from the courtroom proceedings and he would not elaborate after the hearing.

Participants in the hearing did, however, mention “Bucks Harbor,” an apparent reference to the Downeast Correctional Facility in that town, where sex offenders frequently are incarcerated.

The judge characterized the investigative delay as “nothing more than bureaucratic foot-dragging,” rather than an intentional slight.

“Reluctantly, Mr. Steinberger, I will grant your motion to continue,” she said.

The motions heard Thursday did not directly relate to Tenggren’s case, but his lawyer, Thomas Connolly, said his client had “no objection whatsoever” to the postponement. Although his client is to be tried separately, he asked that Tenggren’s trial not be held during the June time period left open by the postponement of the Smith trial.

“It is our preference, and more logical, that the Tenggren case follow (the Smith case),” said Connolly.

Transcripts of interviews with witnesses in the murder case indicated that Richardson, singled out for sex crimes against children, was forced to consume urine and feces on the night he died, and that his head was banged against the toilet until a tooth was knocked out. The tooth was mailed to the warden the day after Richardson’s death, inmates told police.

Smith, who was Richardon’s cellmate in the segregation unit, has charged that “government misconduct” at the prison was responsible for Richardson’s death. But Kravchuk has ruled earlier that there was nothing to suggest a violation of the rules of due process.