Grand jury will not hear Chris Barela case

county jail director is still up in the air tonight. new at six … we saw chris barela today for the first time since he was arrested on fraud and embezzlement charges back in december… and we spoke to his attorney. he’s accused of misusing money meant for the inmates. abc-seven’s jamie warren was in court as barela showed up for a hearing in the case. she’s live from our new mexico mobile newsroom. jamie? we weren’t allowed inside the courtroom for barelas hearing today… but we’re told it was about the possibility of having a grand jury move forward with this case. pkg sot chris barela its disturbing that this sheriff has now decided to resurrect these things in order to simply drag my name through the dirt as it seems to be right now in an exclusive interview with abc-7 last year, jail director chris barela told us numerous agencies investigated the jails inmate welfare fund more than once but never found any wrong doing. he called the sheriffs investigation, a witch hunt sot barela dont go resurrecting things that have already been investigated and done have been put away and just to dirty my name so you can create public hatred towards me we were there as barela entered the courtroom for a motion hearing about grand jury proceedings. but the judge told us it was sequestered so we weren’t allowed to listen in. afterwards, barelas attorney was brief when defending his client sot michael stout, defense attorney my client has only followed the law and done everything hes supposed to do while barela had no comment, he made it clear last year what he thought the sheriff’s motive was. sot chris barela, 2015 he decided to roll me under a bus or fictitiously create this entire investigation to probably or possibly generate public disdain for me after the motion hearing, it was decided the case will not go to grand jury tomorrow, but it will be rescheduled for a later time. reporting from las cruces and our new mexico mobile newsroom … jamie warren, abc-seven. and we’ll just have to wait and see what if a grand jury decides if there’s enough evidence to follow through with the charges against chris barela. jamie, thank you. still no verdict for the man accused of stomping his