HOUSTON -- Texas Southern University's former president may get a few days away from her trial, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

Priscilla Slade, 55, is on trial for one of two counts of misapplication of fiduciary property with a value over $200,000. If convicted, she could face up to life in prison.

Mike DeGeurin, Slade's attorney, asked the judge for a continuance because he said he needs more time to prepare for the trial, which began in August.

DeGeurin said his co-counsel is pregnant and will be on bed rest for the rest of the trial. Another attorney will step in, but DeGuerin said he needs more time to bring the new attorney up to speed.

Judge Brock Thomas was expected to rule on the request on Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutor Julian Ramirez said as soon as Slade became president in 1999, she began spending, including $48,864 for furniture and nearly $22,000 for flooring. In all she spent more than $143,000 on her home in the Houston suburb of Missouri City.

When she moved into a $1.2 million, 6,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style house she had custom built in 2005, Ramirez said, Slade spent more than $86,000 on furniture. She also spent more than $138,000 on landscaping and more than $61,800 on a high-tech security system, he said. Prosecutors said Slade also had TSU employees work on the construction and design of her new home.

All the expenditures Slade made were legitimate and done in the open, DeGeurin said.

DeGeurin said the improvements, including a new roof, carpeting and landscaping, were done because Slade often hosted TSU fundraising parties and she wanted to put the school's "best foot forward."

A member of the TSU Three, a group of students credited with helping to unravel Slade's alleged spending spree, testified on Tuesday.

Oliver Brown told the jury last week that he found financial documents in the trash.

Attorneys spent most of Tuesday morning voicing their objections. They asked to approach the judge twice and were denied both times.

At one point, DeGeurin asked for a mistrial and was denied.

Thomas ordered the jury out of the courtroom for a short time, when he told the attorneys to stop arguing. Thomas has said that he is worried that the arguing will delay the trial, which is expected to last about eight weeks.

When Slade was hired as TSU's 10th president, the school was under fire for poor accounting practices and falling enrollment, and it faced a possible merger with another state school.

The spending scandal cost Slade her job in April 2006. She and three other TSU workers were indicted. TSU's former chief financial officer, Quintin Wiggins, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May.