CAMDEN - Former Ouachita County Judge Mike Hesterly has been granted a continuance of his federal trial, according to documents from the U.S. District Court’s Western District.
The federal trial is now set for 9 a.m. July 8 at the federal courthouse in El Dorado.
In March, Hesterly and his attorneys, Jamie Pratt and Jack T. Lassiter, asked for a continuance in the former county judge’s fraud trial, which was scheduled to be held Monday.
On Friday, the court granted the county’s judge’s request, stating that “the court finds the ends of justice served by granting of the continuance outweighs the best interests of the public and defendant in a speedy trial.”
Hesterly and a co-defendant, Bearden contractor Harry Clemons Jr., were charged in January 2013 and accused of conspiring to award a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster-relief contract to Clemons in return for a contribution to Hesterly’s 2010 re-election campaign.
Hesterly has pleaded innocent. On March 18, Clemons changed his plea from innocent to guilty during a hearing in El Dorado presided over by District Judge Susan Hickey.
Hesterly asked for a continuance in March because of medical concerns related to recent back surgery. It was stated in a continuance motion that the county judge is still experiencing pain and other postoperative problems that have caused him to spend “most of the day in bed.”
Hesterly had been executing the duties of county judge from his mother’s home, but he resigned effective April 3.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 04/15/2014