Disputed park records take center stage in Barrientes Vela public corruption trial

SAN ANTONIO – A Texas Ranger testified Tuesday that park safety records handed over by Michelle Barrientes Vela in the summer time of 2019 didn’t match records he had already obtained from a county whistleblower.

The testimony of Ranger Bradley Freeman throughout day six of the ex-constable’s public corruption trial supplied the crux of the state’s case in opposition to Barrientes Vela, whose scandal-plagued 33 months in office included allegations of theft, official oppression and making a hostile work atmosphere.

Barrientes Vela, nonetheless, is just at present on trial on two felony costs of tampering with a authorities report.

Her protection attorneys all through the trial have repeatedly objected to any witnesses testifying about and even alluding to different “bad acts” by their shopper.

Barrientes Vela faces as much as 10 years in jail if convicted.

The prosecution on Tuesday was additionally capable of get admitted into proof a tv interview of Barrientes Vela recorded by WOAI TV in June 2019.

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Prosecutors argued outdoors the presence of the jury Tuesday morning that Barrientes Vela gave contradictory statements concerning the Easter 2019 Rodriguez Park incident in the course of the taped interview.

Freeman testified that records produced by Barrientes Vela after a number of grand jury subpoenas had been issued didn’t match what had been turned over to him by a county whistleblower: former Precinct 2 clerk Susan Tristan.

Among the paperwork lacking from the records handed over by Barrientes Vela had been money logs from the West Side park.

“She told me that ‘mostly my chief deputy and myself work these things, you’re not going to get much,’” testified Freeman, referring again to a dialog he had with Barrientes Vela after he had requested for records from the park.

The money logs had been as a substitute seized throughout a September 2019 raid of Barrientes Vela’s county places of work.

Barrientes Vela and her then-captain Marc Garcia had been indicted months later by a Bexar County grand jury on a flurry of public corruption costs.

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People seated in the gallery behind the protection snickered as Freeman testified Thursday afternoon, inflicting prosecutor Dawn McCraw to request that the decide ask them to be quiet.

Judge Velia Meza stated her courtroom deputy would deal with the difficulty.

A deputy warned the gallery to maintain their feedback to themselves throughout a courtroom break moments later.

The decide beforehand acknowledged that she wished the guilt-innocence portion of the trial accomplished by Sept. 1.

Barrientes Vela, if convicted, shall be sentenced by Meza.