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It’s always tricky when the boss’s kid has too much to drink and gets arrested. It’s even more complicated when the local media writes an article in the newspaper about the incident. But it gets really hairy when the chief of police threatens to arrest reporters for “interfering” in his business. When the Duval County Sheriff Santiago Barrera Jr. made that very threat recently, no one took it lightly. That’s mainly because Barrera Jr. has been doing things his own way in Texas for the last 20 years.
“I brought the sheriff’s department from nothing to what it is right now,” Barrera, 67, told reporters with the Associated Press.
A local reporter, Christopher Maher, wrote a front-page story about the arrest of the sheriff’s 42-year-old son, Miguel Barrera, on charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest.
According to the Echo-News Journal newspaper, when Maher interviewed the sheriff at the jail about another story, Barrera said, “If you guys keep interfering with my business, I’m going to have you arrested.” Disturbed by the threat, Nicole Perez, managing editor of the Echo-News Journal and the Freer Press, alerted the county attorney.
“I am bringing these remarks to your attention in the hope that they will remain as such, just remarks,” Perez wrote to Duval County Attorney Ricardo Carrillo.
“However, considering the volatile political atmosphere in Duval County, I have no doubt that Sheriff Barrera would carry out such a threat.” Santiago Barrera confirmed in interviews with the Associated Press that he had in fact made the remarks to the reporter.
He also acknowledged the newspaper’s story about his son’s arrest upset him.
“To me that was bad,” Barrera told the AP. “Of course, what can you do to them?
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