Grand County Commissioner Facing Felonies: 'It Has Been Hell'

GRAND COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - A long time and well respected Grand County commissioner has been charged with felony charges, and on Tuesday he told his side of the story for the first time to CBS4.

Grand County Commissioner James Newberry was booked into jail last week. He's accused of embezzling money and misconduct. He calls it political retaliation.

Prosecutors think that Newberry double dipped by charging two separate state agencies for the same mileage reimbursement. The original allegations of misuse of funds came from local Republicans who made a public records request for all of Newberry's travel logs. That was then turned over to the district attorney.

"It has been hell. I don't sleep much, it's hard to do my job right now," Newberry told CBS4's Matt Kroschel.

Newberry isn't new to Grand County politics.

"Won five different elections, so this is my fifth term," he said. "I'm 18 1/2 years into this."

But facing felony charges is something Newberry says he was not prepared for or expecting.

"I made some mistakes on my record keeping, on my mileage reimbursements. I did some things that I thought were appropriate, not illegal, not against any policies that we had; and that is the root of what we are talking about here," Newberry said.

In a county of just 14,000 people, felony charges filed against one of their most respected residents has lots of people talking -- and Newberry was staying silent about the allegations he faces until now.

"I don't steal and I don't embezzle, and for the amount of money that we are talking about it is crazy to think that anybody would put their reputation, their life, their family, their name on the line."

Prosecutors allege that Newberry would leave the courthouse to attend meetings across the state. They say Newberry was billing two separate agencies for the same mileage for those meetings, and in some cases they say he was not actually attending the meetings he was billing them for.

District Attorney Bruce Brown provided CBS4 evidence of the crimes. Brown said Newberry could face jail time and fines along with being forced out of his commission seat if convicted on the felony charges.

A top ranking Democrat in Newberry's own party is calling for him to resign now. But that is not something Newberry says he will do.

"I'm not going to call it a witch hunt, there are a lot people who support me," he said.

The commissioner says he won't stop fighting. Newberry goes before a judge on Aug. 7 to face the charges against him.

LINK: Read The Complaint