BARTON COUNTY —Not guilty. Those were the words from the six-member jury Friday morning at the Barton County Courthouse. A three-day trial covering the misdemeanor charge against Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir ended in the not guilty verdict.

The jury took less than 15 minutes to make their decision.

Bellendir was relieved following the conclusion of this trial and thanked everyone while also telling voters, “I promise the electorate of Barton County you will get the whole story before this is done and it it not pretty.”

In November 2017, an investigation by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI. accused the sheriff of “ill-treating a man in handcuffs by speaking to him in a vulgar, insulting, rude or angry manner” while serving an arrest warrant on August 10, 2017 to Nathan Manley of Ellinwood.

The charge against Bellendir had also puts his certification as a Kansas law enforcement officer in jeopardy.