FUELBERG APPEAL CONTINUES

  

An Austin appeals court is requesting more information before ruling on a case involving the former general manager of the Perdenales Electric Cooperative.

The 3rd Court of Appeals is deciding whether Bennie Fuelberg is entitled to a new trial.

In 2010, Fuelberg was sentenced to ten months in jail and five years of probation for mismanaging Pedernales.

Fuelberg’s lawyers are arguing that his trial judge, Dan Mills, should have been disqualified because he’s a Pedernales customer, and had a financial interest in the outcome of the case.

Another lower-court judge recently determined that Mills did not have to be disqualified.

Tuesday, the appeals court gave Fuelberg’s lawyers until Feb. 6 to file briefs challenging the lower-court ruling.

The same deadlines apply to Walter Demond, a lawyer for Pedernales who was found guilty of the same charges — theft, money laundering and fiduciary misapplication of property — and had raised similar questions on appeal.