{"id":142791,"date":"2016-04-07T21:29:10","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T03:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=142791"},"modified":"2016-04-08T11:14:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T17:14:16","slug":"dismissal-of-felony-charges-against-jail-director-raises-questions-about-sheriffs-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/04\/dismissal-of-felony-charges-against-jail-director-raises-questions-about-sheriffs-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"Dismissal of felony charges against jail director raises questions about sheriff’s actions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The director of Do\u00f1a Ana County’s jail now faces only a misdemeanor charge and will return to work Monday after a grand jury declined to indict him<\/a> Thursday on the last felony charge he faced.<\/p>\n

\"Enrique

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Sheriff Enrique “Kiki” Vigil<\/p><\/div>\n

Chris Barela initially faced two second-degree felony charges — fraud over $20,000 or, in the alternative, embezzlement over $20,000 — in addition to a fourth-degree felony charge of\u00a0bringing contraband into the jail and\u00a0willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor. He faced up to 11.5 years behind bars if convicted on all charges.<\/p>\n

Now Barela\u00a0faces only the misdemeanor charge — and at most a year in jail — stemming from the hullabaloo Sheriff Enrique “Kiki” Vigil caused in December when he\u00a0filed\u00a0the charges<\/a>\u00a0against Barela,\u00a0had him\u00a0arrested<\/a>, and briefly took control of the jail in a dramatic and controversial incident caught on security camera video<\/a>. And even the misdemeanor\u00a0charge may not stand much longer.<\/p>\n

Do\u00f1a Ana County spokesman Jess Williams confirmed that Barela, who has been on paid leave since his December arrest, will return to work Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Barela is understandably buoyed by this good news,\u201d Barela’s attorney, Michael Stout, was quoted by the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> as saying. \u201cHe hopes to get back to the job of managing the Detention Center.\u00a0Chris\u2019 life has been put on hold for many months waiting for this unnecessary saga to finish, and this should signal the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A week ago, District Attorney Mark D’Antonio decided not to pursue the second-degree felony charges<\/a> against Barela. His spokesman said there was “not sufficient evidence to take to the grand jury or present at a preliminary hearing.” Thursday’s decision by a grand jury to also not pursue the contraband charge raises serious questions about Vigil’s actions.<\/p>\n

And the future of the misdemeanor charge is in question. It was based on\u00a0the allegations of financial mismanagement and contraband that also led to the now-dropped felony charges. “We will review the charge and decide how to proceed,” said Patrick Hayes, a spokesman for the DA.<\/p>\n

Will Vigil\u00a0pursue the investigation\u00a0further? Does he stand by the decision to charge Barela last year and take control of the jail? Vigil didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. NMPolitics.net will update this article if he responds.<\/p>\n

People were already raising questions after D’Antonio decided not to pursue the fraud and embezzlement charges a week ago.<\/p>\n

“This looks more and more like a witch hunt and I seriously doubt the charges raised rise to anything close to criminal activity,” Mark Benson of Las Cruces wrote during a Facebook discussion<\/a>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n

As NMPolitics.net reported in December<\/a>, the fraud and\u00a0embezzlement charges centered on allegations that Barela\u00a0spent money earmarked\u00a0for\u00a0the \u201chealth and morale\u201d of inmates on other jail-related expenses \u2014 such as\u00a0clothing, bedding, toiletries,\u00a0paying inmates to work,\u00a0and meals for jail employees.\u00a0In addition, Barela donated inmates\u2019 gym equipment to the Police Athletic League, where he was a boxing coach.<\/p>\n

Barela\u00a0was accused of misusing funds, not pocketing them,\u00a0and some questioned why the sheriff\u00a0believed the situation amounted to\u00a0more than an audit finding.<\/p>\n

The contraband charge related\u00a0to Barela carrying a semi-automatic rifle into a room where an inmate who had taken another inmate\u00a0hostage was being held.<\/p>\n

“I felt the facts of the case supported the contraband charge,” D’Antonio said Thursday in a prepared statement. “However, the grand jury decided there wasn’t enough evidence to take to trial and I respect their decision.”<\/p>\n

Vigil’s takeover and lockdown of the jail sparked a battle between county officials in December that ended the\u00a0day of Barela’s arrest with County Manager Julia Brown interrupting a news conference to hand Vigil\u00a0a restraining order<\/a>\u00a0requiring the sheriff to give up control of the jail.<\/p>\n

Vigil did just that later that day, and county administration has controlled the jail ever since.<\/p>\n

Some have speculated that\u00a0Vigil wants long-term control of the jail and its funding — which Vigil denied at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs sheriff I have an obligation to secure the detention facility,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is only temporary.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, Brown called the felony charges that have now been dismissed “spurious.”<\/p>\n

“We anticipated this outcome all along, and I\u2019m delighted to put Mr. Barela back on the job, where he belongs,” Brown\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Barela\u2019s attorney filed notice in March of the jail director\u2019s intent to sue the county<\/a>. In a tort claim he alleged\u00a0\u201cfalse arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, libel, slander and defamation of character perpetuated by Sheriff Vigil and others acting under his supervision.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article has been updated with Brown’s comments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The director of Do\u00f1a Ana County’s jail now faces only a misdemeanor charge and will return to work Monday after a grand jury declined to indict him Thursday on the last felony charge he faced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,115,203],"class_list":["post-142791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-law-enforcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}