Rex Gutierrez

08:44 AM PDT on Thursday, July 8, 2010

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

Former San Bernardino County assessor’s official Rex Gutierrez will be retried starting Aug. 30 on corruption charges.

Superior Court Judge Duke Rouse scheduled the new trial at a brief hearing Wednesday. A pre-trial conference will be held Aug 6.

It was Gutierrez’s first court appearance since his first trial ended in a mistrial last week when a jury deadlocked on three felony charges.

Gutierrez, 50, is charged with two counts of grand theft and one count of filing a false claim.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Gutierrez was the first of five former county assessor officials to go to trial on charges stemming from a district attorney investigation that started in August 2007 over allegations of improper political activity under former Assessor Bill Postmus.

A Rancho Cucamonga councilman, Gutierrez is accused of defrauding county taxpayers for 22 months by turning in time cards for a full day’s work for the county though he often was reported to be dealing with City Council business instead.

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