DAC jail administrator arrested – ABC-7 at Noon

denise olivas. and i’m stephanie valle. breaking news out of dona ana county. the sheriff’s office has taken control of the dona ana county detention center after jail administrator chris barela was arrested earlier this morning. vigil gave the announcement during the county commission meeting a few hours ago. abc-7’s jamie warren is live from our new mexico mobile newsroom. jamie? commissioners were stunned as vigil announced barela’s arrest earlier this morning kiki stepped up to the podium earlier at the meeting telling commissioners a “critical incident” happened today. according to vigil, a white collar crime unit arrested barela at 6:30 this morning …saying charges stemmed from the possible misuse of inmate welfare funds. its still not known where barela will be taken. some commissioners were skeptical of vigil’s announcement. sheriff kiki vigil: i am empowered and invested as a conservator of peace for this county to take emergency precautions that in this instance to include taking over the immediate command of the county detention center as a matter of public safety and maintaing the security of the institution i have authorized both the acquisition and lock down of this facility benjamin rawson im not prepared to turn over the detention center to somebody who walks in and says that he’s in charge of everything that’s not generally the way things work here in america. the las cruces police department says the county jail has requested the assistance of police. in a statement says the county jail has requested the assistance of police. in a statement released this morning– lcpd says it will not get involved– for now. the statement reads– quote: we have declined assisting in this situation unless it becomes a public safety matter. we have also reached out to nmsp to let them know what is going on in case we need their assistance.”– en quote. coming up in our next half hour– a look at chris barela’s past. this isn’t his first arrest.