Milken Hearing Will Start Oct. 9 : Securities: The proceedings will focus on more crimes that the former trader for Drexel is alleged to have committed. Ivan Boesky may appear.

NEW YORK —  A federal judge on Tuesday set Oct. 9 as the date that hearings will begin on additional crimes that Michael Milken may have committed. Prosecutors said admitted inside trader Ivan F. Boesky will probably appear as a government witness.

The hearings will be the first time the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan publicly presents evidence against the former head of Drexel Burnham Lambert’s junk bond department, who was the subject of the biggest securities fraud investigation ever mounted. Sources said Milken, 44, probably will attend the hearings.

As reported, U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood decided to hold hearings to guide her in determining the sentence for Milken, who pleaded guilty to six felony counts in April and faces up to 28 years in prison. The judge said she may take into account evidence of additional crimes beyond the six to which he pleaded guilty.

Arthur L. Liman, Milken’s lead defense lawyer, had opposed holding the hearings but said in court Tuesday that they may help his client. “My client benefits from separating the myth of Michael Milken from the person,” Liman said. The defense will also have a chance to call witnesses.

Judge Wood made clear, however, that she will tightly limit the scope of the hearings in an effort to save court time and said she would try to keep the length of the hearings to two weeks. Prosecutors said they will focus on only four transactions, in which they claim that Milken violated the law. Assistant U.S. Atty. John Carroll said these transactions involved securities of Wickes Cos., Caesars World, MGM/UA and Storer Communications.

The government has long contended that the Beverly Hills-based junk bond department was essentially a criminal enterprise and that Milken had routinely broken the law. But Milken’s lawyers have argued that the six crimes were an aberration by an otherwise law-abiding and honorable man.

Boesky, who pleaded guilty to a single count of maintaining false records and who was sentenced to three years in prison, has cooperated with prosecutors. He was their principal source of information about Milken. Milken’s lawyers, however, have called Boesky a “pathological liar.” If Boesky appears, it would be Liman’s first chance to cross-examine him.

Prosecutors also listed 13 other witnesses they may call. They include Michael Davidoff, formerly Boesky’s chief trader; David Jachimczyk, formerly a trader under Davidoff; David Solomon, who was a mutual fund manager; Terren S. Peizer, a former Drexel bond trader; James Dahl, a former bond trader and salesman at Drexel; Cary J. Maultasch, a former employee in Drexel’s Beverly Hills office who later became a senior equity trader at Drexel’s New York headquarters; Peter Gardiner, a former trader on Milken’s trading desk; Charles Thurnher, an accountant who kept the books in the Beverly Hills office; Craig Cogut, a lawyer who worked for Milken in the Beverly Hills office; Prescott B. Crocker, vice president for fixed-income management at the Colonial Group of Mutual Funds, and Aubrey E. Hayes, a senior vice president and manager of the fixed-income department at GE Investments.