SAN ANTONIO – From the badge to rock bottom, a former Bexar County Constable — exonerated after facing Criminal charges– is telling her story for the first time.
Our Destany Fuller sat down exclusively with Michelle Barrientes Vela. She said she’s glad the fight is over, adding she and her family have lived a nightmare since 2019.
“It’s important that people know the truth,” she said. “That they get to hear from me. You know — what I actually went through?”
Barrientes Vela shared law enforcement was her childhood dream. When she was elected as Precinct 2 constable back in 2016, that dream came true.
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“I finally made it happen,” she said. “So here I was, the elected constable, and it was a rough ride.. Here I was in this position, and I wasn’t being respected.”
Trouble continued in 2019 when Vela was accused of trying to squeeze money out of a family to provide security at Rodriguez park on easter Sunday.
“We discussed the payment arrangements of security and what he needed to pay,” she said. “It upset him.. I explained the rules to him. He finally agreed he was going to pay for security, and I went about my rounds.”
Shortly after, DPS troopers raided the Precinct 2 office using a search warrant.
“It was uncalled for,” Barrientes Vela said. “What happened that day — I believe that it was just a publicity stunt. I believe it was an attention getter.”
Even then, she said she felt stuck in a system already working against her.
“We’re fighting against a good ol’ boys system — we’re fighting against corruption,” she said in a 2019 press conference on the day of the raid.
She was indicted in May of 2021, and charged with tampering with evidence, aggravated perjury and official oppression. She was found guilty of evidence tampering in September of 2022 and has maintained her innocence this entire time.
“I want to ask for the record: did you do any of the things that you were accused of?,” Destany Fuller asked.
“No, I did not… that’s why I stood strong — I mean from day one,” Barrientes Vela said.
She ignored a plea deal which required her to give up her law enforcement career in exchange for a misdemeanor conviction and short probation.
In 2022 a jury handed down a guilty verdict — complete with a 90-day sentence and 5 years of probation.
A decision she planned to appeal before ever hearing the verdict. On October 3, the state reversed the conviction — bringing a win she spent years waiting for.
“We were here at home,” Vela explained. “I look at my phone and I read it, and I’m like ‘wait a minute, what?’.. these emotions just, like, just came over me. I was really just like, ‘wow’.”
Just two weeks ago that victory got sweeter. The 2022 conviction was expunged from her record, though she said she hasn’t heard from any of the Bexar county officials who she believes targeted her.
She said things need to change.
“Everybody out there, even the elected officials, they have to know… I want them to know, the ones that were possibly involved, that what they did was wrong,” she said.
Adding her plans to be a servant to others in her community as she and her family find their new “normal”.
“Whether I’m in uniform down the road, whether I’m not, I know who I am,” Barrientes Vela said.
Her first step on that journey is giving elected office another try. She shared her plans to run for state Representative for District 125.