St. Louis sheriff jailed over accusation he meddled in an investigation

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The sheriff in St. Louis was jailed Tuesday and faced mounting calls to resign just 10 months into the job over accusations that he ordered deputies to handcuff the jail chief and then meddled with an investigation.

Federal Judge John Bodenhausen ordered the bond revoked for 28-year-old Alfred Montgomery after the prosecution argued in court filings that there was a serious risk he would “attempt to threaten, injure or intimidate" witnesses or jurors.

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer issued a statement Tuesday calling for Montgomery to resign and describing the situation as “absurd.” Days earlier, the Missouri attorney general’s office tried and failed yet again to oust Montgomery.

But he has no plans to step down, said David Mason, a retired city judge who now works as an attorney for the sheriff’s department.

Montgomery has been at the center of controversy since he was sworn into office in January after narrowly beating out an incumbent in the Democratic primary. The Missouri attorney general first demanded his resignation in June, accusing him of refusing to transport detainees for medical care, misspending and nepotism.

But just as his legal team disproved the nepotism claim, he was indicted in August on a federal misdemeanor alleging that he deprived the acting commissioner of St. Louis City Justice Center of her rights by ordering her to be handcuffed.

Montgomery's office does not run the jail, although it does transport people being detained there, so the jail official denied the sheriff’s request to gain access to a detainee who had made sexual misconduct claims against one of his deputies.

Five additional felony charges, alleging witness retaliation and tampering, were added this month.

Montgomery's attorney Justin Gelfand said that any adverse employment action that was taken against employees stemmed from misconduct, and not based on information provided to law enforcement. He said he planned to appeal.

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This story has been corrected to show that Alfred Montgomery is the sheriff of the city of St. Louis, not St. Louis County, which has its own sheriff.