But last month, Hatton became the only FBI agent to die in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks _ a loss that cast doubt on whether the robbery case could go forward.

Defense attorney Heidi Poreda asked a federal magistrate to dismiss charges against her client, claiming his right to a speedy trial had been violated because the government missed a deadline, already extended once, to seek an indictment.

After scolding prosecutors for moving too slowly on the case, U.S. Magistrate Cheryl Pollack said she may decide on the request Wednesday.

The situation illustrated the Trade Center tragedy's impact on normally routine criminal cases. Authorities said cases have been delayed or thrown into disarray because FBI agents have been consumed with fighting terrorism or, in Hatton's case, victimized by it.

"Since Sept. 11, the world has changed," prosecutor Michael Beys said in arguing for more time. "The case agent is dead."

In federal court in Brooklyn, prosecutors have sought delays, sometimes of several weeks, in about a dozen cases in the past month. In Manhattan, a chief judge granted an automatic 30-day extension for speedy-trial deadlines in all cases.

Before the attack, Hatton had signed an affidavit accusing Andrew Watroba of taking part in a Queens robbery last year in which a teller was handed a note reading, "Give me cash now. ... I have a bomb." The bandit fled with $4,400 in a stolen car allegedly driven by Watroba, who has pleaded innocent.

Hatton, 45, estimated in the affidavit that he had investigated 800 bank robbery cases in his 15-year FBI career. Colleagues say he also was a bomb expert and evidence-recovery expert who helped gather evidence in the terrorist bombings of the Trade Center in 1993 and of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

A longtime volunteer firefighter, he was on his way to work in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11 when he learned of the suicide hijackings. The FBI believes he died trying to help people escape the burning towers.

The man FBI Director Robert Mueller eulogized as a "true American hero" had been expected to coordinate evidence and witnesses in the case against Watroba. Prosecutors want to recruit another agent to fill in when they ask a grand jury to indict Watroba.

Pollack noted that the government had already won one 30-day extension on the indictment deadline, which expired Tuesday. The magistrate criticized prosecutors for waiting until "the 11th hour" to ask her to waive the deadline again.

"Obviously, it's a tragedy the case agent is not with us," the magistrate said. "But I get the sense there was no diligence here."

Prosecutor Kelly Moore countered that the tragedy should outweigh legal technicalities. Watroba "is charged with a serious crime," she said. "We don't want to see him walk out the door."