Whitfield Montgomery is not the father — and the Missouri attorney general agrees.
The attorney general’s office is dropping its nepotism charge against St. Louis Sheriff Alfred Montgomery in response to a dismissal motion filed Wednesday that cited a 2016 family court order establishing the identity of Deputy Malik Taylor’s father.
In Wednesday's filing, the state reports that it initially had been told Montgomery and Taylor were brothers by a high-ranking sheriff's deputy and that Montgomery had told the deputy, who is not named in the filing, they “should not tell anyone else this information.”
The state said it was unaware of the court-ordered paternity judgment until it was produced earlier this week during depositions.
Paternity was established in 2016
On Wednesday, Montgomery’s legal team filed a motion to have the nepotism charge dismissed in the Missouri attorney general’s efforts to oust the young Democrat.
The motion hinged on a 2016 child support order and a paternity DNA test. The test, which the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office ordered, shows that Mack Donald Taylor is Deputy Taylor’s father.
Court records show Mack Donald Taylor was ordered to pay $99 a month in child support, along with medical costs, while Deputy Taylor was raised by a woman who shares his mother’s legal last name.
The state was ordered to amend the child’s birth certificate to name Mack Donald Taylor as the father and subsequently ordered him to cover the cost of a genetic test taken to determine his paternity. It is unclear why Taylor’s birth certificate produced in December 2024 didn’t list Mack Donald as his father.
That test was performed in 2016 by DNA Diagnostics Center, which said it confirmed Mack Donald Taylor’s paternity with 99.999% certainty.
Montgomery’s legal team wrote in the dismissal arguments that Taylor’s paternity has been resolved legally since 2016, and that the attorney general knew the nepotism was a “patently false accusation.”
The attorney general’s case
Montgomery has been accused of nepotism, kidnapping and misuse of public funds during his short tenure in office. The sheriff has denied all wrongdoing. Scrutiny of Montgomery and his office has since grown with the office’s mounting expenses that some watchdogs say are superfluous.
During a contentious status hearing in July, David Mason, an attorney for Montgomery, argued the nepotism allegations lack merit.
“I’m amazed that allegation is still part of their case,” Mason told the court. “All they may have is some person who heard Alfred refer to Malik as a brother, and they have nothing else.”
Montgomery’s father, Whitfield, sat in the front row of the courtroom during the hearing.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office passed out copies of birth certificates for Montgomery and Taylor at the hearing. Whitfield was listed as Alfred’s father, while Malik’s father was not named.
Judge Steven R. Ohmer denied a request by the attorney general’s office to remove Montgomery ahead of the trial but allowed the case to move forward.
In the latest court filing, Montgomery’s team argues the attorney general is attempting to overturn a “free and fair” election — despite what they describe as a “binding judicial determination,” two birth certificates and “full knowledge Sheriff Montgomery’s father was present at the first hearing in this case willing to testify under oath that he is not Malik Taylor’s father.”
Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who initiated the rare quo warranto petition in late June, was recently tapped by the Trump administration to serve as the co-deputy director of the FBI. Catherine Hanaway, who will succeed Bailey, said she would continue pursuing Montgomery's removal.
The attorney general’s office is still charging Montgomery with five other counts.
The allegations include kidnapping then-acting Jail Commissioner Tammy Ross, disarming a former sheriff’s deputy, failing to transport detainees to the hospital, having workers drive his children to school and misusing taxpayer finances and city resources.
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office did not immediately comment on the decision to drop the nepotism charge.
The next status hearing in the sheriff’s removal petition is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday in the Mel Carnahan Courthouse.
