A legal battle is brewing in St. Louis after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit Wednesday to remove St. Louis Sheriff Alfred Montgomery. The lawsuit follows allegations of financial mismanagement, workplace misconduct, abuse of authority, and failure to perform his duties.
Montgomery said in a Tuesday press conference he will not resign. Saying he “will not run from the office,” he denies any wrongdoing and said he welcomes any lawful investigation.
Bailey gave Montgomery a deadline of Wednesday at noon to resign or face removal.
“He’s declining to transport inmates for needed medical attention in violation of agreements that were made by the city and the sheriff decades ago,” Bailey told Missourinet. “His mismanagement of the office, his violations of state law, these amounts of public corruption, and we’re prepared to move forward with what’s called the writ of quo warranto that is a lawsuit to remove him from office. “We have sufficient factual and legal allegations to make to justify his removal from office.”
Bailey anticipates that judges within the St. Louis Circuit Court will recuse themselves because they work with the sheriff’s office through their courtrooms.
“The Missouri Supreme Court will ultimately assign a new judge to hear the case, and I anticipate that the sheriff will fight this for some amount of time,” said Bailey.
Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, represents parts of St. Louis and St. Louis County. She told Missourinet she believes that removing public officials should reside with the voters, and especially those voters of the city of St. Louis.
“I do not believe in individual or entities, including the Attorney general, should supersede the democratic will of the people who elected the sheriff,” said May. “This is not about supporting any individual elected officials. This is about all elected officials in office because if other elected officials start to challenge the credibility and integrity and how one elected official chooses to run his office, then we get into a lot of petty, political retribution type things.”
The Attorney General’s petition identifies six specific counts supporting Montgomery’s removal:
Count One: Nepotism
According to Bailey, Sheriff Montgomery hired his own brother to serve as a deputy sheriff—an outright violation of the Missouri Constitution’s ban on nepotism in public office.
Count Two: Illegal Arrest of Acting Jail Commissioner Tammy Ross
Bailey said Montgomery unlawfully ordered his deputies to arrest the acting jail commissioner, fully aware that neither he nor his deputies have the statutory authority to arrest private citizens.
Count Three: Illegal Arrest and Disarmament of Darryl Wilson
Bailey accuses Montgomery of illegally arresting a lawfully licensed private security guard and seizing the person’s firearm, despite the attorney general saying the arrest lacked any legal authority to make arrests to “deprive citizens of their protected constitutional rights.”
Count Four: Failure to Transport Inmates for Critical Medical and Mental Health Treatment
Since taking office, Bailey said Montgomery has failed to carry out his legal duty to transport inmates for essential medical and mental health care on at least 59 official known occasions. The first violation occurred less than 15 hours into his term, according to the lawsuit.
Count Five: Illegal and Fraudulent Use of the Office for Personal Gain
The lawsuit says Montgomery repeatedly exploited his office for personal benefit, including using on duty deputies to babysit his children and directing them to use government vehicles to pick his children up from school and bring them to the office.
Count Six: Financial Mismanagement of the Office
The lawsuit alleges that Montgomery has squandered tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on frivolous and inappropriate expenditures, such as golf carts, gold-plated badges, a new take-home Chevrolet Tahoe, and office robots. According to Bailey, Montgomery also unlawfully hired attorneys beyond those authorized in statute and misrepresented his office’s needs to the City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen and the public when requesting budget increases.
In 2023, Bailey filed a removal petition against then St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, accusing her of not doing her job, however, Gardner resigned, and the removal effort was dropped.
Copyright © 2025 Missourinet
