Affidavit: Teen threatens to blow up judge’s house

Taylor youth, held on drug charges, jailed for contempt.

At stake is a long-term 2009 wind power contract b etween wind develop- ment company E.ON and the LCRA, a nonprofit utility.

At the time of the deal, the LCRA locked in a purchase price of $64.75 per mega- watt-hour of power gener- ated by Papalote Creek. The utility has paid roughly $45 million a year for the power — but now wind power can be purchased on the open market for as little as a third of that price, prompting the LCRA to want to back out of the deal.

To that end, LCRA offi- cials have said they are willing to pay a $60 million pen- alty, which will save tens of millions of dollars in the long run. That savings, they say, will be passed on to the wholesale customers they serve. The river authority stopped taking power generated at Papalote Creek in October and recently began paying off the penalty, LCRA officials said Friday.

(Despite the “KeepAustin- Green” website’s name, the LCRA doesn’t actually provide electricity to Austin.)

In an interview in November with the Statesman, LCRA General Manager Phil Wilson couched the deci- sion in terms of dollars-andcents; environmental issues didn’t appear to be part of the calculus.

“We’re pro-renewable — if it fits what we need to do economically,” he said.

In 2015, about 48 percent of the LCRA’s energy output was generated from natural gas, about 47 per- cent from coal and about 5 percent from renewable sources, including wind and hydroelectric dams — but the lion’s share of that renew- able energy was from the Papalote wind farm.

“We want to deliver reliable power to our customers,” Wilson said in November. “As to the source of that, we’re agnostic.”

At least 1,750 letters have been sent to the LCRA board through the website since it launched about 10 days ago, according to Ted Royer, who is doing public relations work for E.ON.

“I’m writing to express my concern that LCRA is abandoning its commitment to clean energy by cutting 80% of its wind power and increasing our reliance on fossil fuels,” says the form letter. “This decision is wrong for Central Texas families and bad for our environment.”

“You made a commit- ment,” it concludes. “Tex- ans expect you to keep it.” The LCRA has ceased taking power from a Corpus Christi area wind farm. Austin San Antonio Papalote Creek Wind Farm Victoriar

A court-appointed arbi- trator said this summer that under the contract’s terms, the LCRA could break the deal for $60 million.

A 17-year-old is accused of threatening to blow up a Williamson County district judge’s house up after she sent him to jail for con- tempt of court, according to an arrest affidavit.

Eduardo Omar Cardenas, of Taylor, was charged with retaliation, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The judge he threatened was District Judge Stacey Mathews, the affidavit said.

An investigator who was monitoring Cardenas’ tele- phone calls from the Williamson County Jail heard him ordering people outside jail to sell drugs for him, the affi- davit said. It said the investigator also heard Cardenas call a woman Nov. 29 and discuss his 90-day sentence for the contempt of court charge against him.

During part of the con- versation, Cardenas said, “Just wait til I get out, I’m gonna blow that (expletive) house up,” according to the affidavit. It said it was obvious to the investigator that Cardenas was referring to Mathews, who had sentenced him to jail for contempt of court the day before, the affidavit said.

According to a separate affidavit, Mathews found Cardenas guilty of contempt of court after he refused to stand up in the courtroom when the judge asked him to do so during a juvenile court proceeding Nov. 28. The judge heard Cardenas say, “No, I’m good,” when she asked him to stand up, the affidavit said.

She asked Cardenas to stand up a second time and he also refused, according to the affidavit. It said a bailiff then asked Cardenas to stand up a third time and he refused. Cardenas eventually stood up and “began puffing out his chest in what appeared to the court to be a defiant action,” the affidavit said.

When the judge told him he was going to be held in contempt of court, Cardenas said, “I’ll just bond out” in a raised voice and shook his head in a disrespectful manner to the court, according to the affidavit.

Cardenas was being held in the Williamson County Jail on Friday with bail set at $160,000 for three other charges: two counts of deliv

of a controlled substance and one count of possession of marijuana. No bail had been set Friday in connection with the retaliation charge.