Sheriff threatens reporter after story about imprisoned son

Gawker gave me this beaut about a Texas sheriff who threatened to imprison a journo after they reported on his son's imprisonment.

"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 newspaper, when Maher called the sheriff about another story, Barrera said, "If you guys keep interfering with my business, I'm going to have you arrested."

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 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."

The rest of the story is horrific in that stereotypical-southern-US-Gothic kind of way where man + badge = way too much power.