Dallas police report detailing altercation between state House candidate Barrientes Vela

DALLAS — Dallas police released a 10-page report late Thursday detailing an altercation outside a hotel earlier this month involving Michelle Barrientes Vela that led to the accused former constable being banned from Bexar County ahead of a corruption trial next month.

The report says an after-hours officer at the Omni Dallas hotel flagged down 48-year-old Barrientes Vela and a woman identified as Norma Villarreal on July 15 shortly before 10 p.m.

The couple told the officer that Pharaoh Clark, a San Antonio community advocate, confronted them in a “very aggressive and argumentative manner.”

Clark, along with Josie Garcia, the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 124, told the officer that Barrientes Velo and Villarreal pointed at Garcia and told her they would deal with her, the report said.

The officer noted that no offense had been committed and that no physical assault or disorder had occurred in his presence.

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Villarreal is the daughter-in-law of Barrientez Velo, multiple people familiar with the incident told KSAT Investigates.

The group was in Dallas to attend the Texas Democratic Convention.

After the officer issued a case number to all four people, hotel security asked them to leave the premises.

The incident prompted the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office to request a bond hearing in Barrientez Velo’s tampering case a few days later.

Late last week, a judge refused to set a bond that would have required the former Bexar County constable to be returned to custody, but imposed special conditions barring Barrientes Vela from leaving Bexar County or attending any political events ahead of her trial.

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Barrientez Vela must also report to pretrial services once a week, cannot consume alcohol and must undergo random breathalyzer tests under conditions set by Judge Velia Meza.

Clark and Garcia were called to testify last week during Barrientes Vela’s bail hearing, but Meza, who called the prosecution’s motion “premature,” ruled that neither would testify.

Clark said outside court that Barrientez Vela punched him in the chest during the struggle, describing the incident as an assault.

That claim, however, was not included in the Dallas police report.

Barrientez Vela, who faces both felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from her tumultuous 33-month tenure at the Bexar County Police Precinct 2, is scheduled to go on trial Aug. 22 on the tampering with evidence charge.

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This week, Barrientes Vela posted a series of videos on the video hosting service TikTok, claiming that she had been deprived of her civil rights and encouraging people to attend her trial.

Her attorney, Niko LaHood, released the following statement Thursday evening:

“The Dallas police report backs up our statement that Michelle Vela was present but did not participate in any crime or attack anyone. More importantly, the state candidate and her manager did not claim Vela committed the crime to police at the time, but opportunistically claimed in the media that she did so after the fact. We wish the district attorney’s office would have done a thorough investigation or at least read the report before they tried to arrest Mrs. Vela.”

One of Barrientez Velo’s other attorneys previously characterized the bail motion as an attempt by prosecutors to further taint the jury.

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Bexar County District Attorney’s spokesman Joe Gonzalez declined to comment Friday, citing the pending criminal case against Barrientes Velo.