Lawyers representing St. Louis Sheriff Alfred Montgomery said Missouri should pay for transporting the sheriff between an Illinois jail and the city for a trial that could remove him from office.
It cost $6,852.54 for the U.S. marshals to drive and provide security for the sheriff during the five-day trial, according to a motion from Montgomery’s lawyers filed this week. The sheriff is asking the court to order the state to pay the bill — not the sheriff’s office.
The trial, which ended last week, centered on a removal suit brought by the Missouri attorney general.
The attorney general’s office gave six reasons it says the sheriff should be ousted, including accusations that he illegally detained the acting jail commissioner, illegally disarmed a sheriff’s deputy, mishandled finances and resources and failed to carry out sheriff's department duties such as transporting detainees from the jail for medical care.
Montgomery has been in federal custody at the Perry County, Illinois, jail, after a judge said the sheriff violated his bond in relation to another federal case in October.
A date for the federal trial has not been set.
The state removal trial was delayed by one day. Montgomery wasn’t present for what was supposed to be the opening session as he awaited a decision by a federal judge on whether to release him. Circuit Judge Steven R. Ohmer, who is presiding over the state removal trial, worried Montgomery wouldn’t have had a fair trial if he couldn’t easily speak with counsel in the courtroom.
The filing also said the state attorney general’s office objected to the sheriff’s office providing transportation because of “a real or perceived conflict of interest.”
“It is the position of Respondent that this cost should be immediately assessed to the State of Missouri as the costs were the result of Relator's objection, no matter the merits of the objection,” the filing reads.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway told reporters during a break in the trial last month that she was pleased that it was nearing its end.
“I'm glad we're finally at trial,” Hanaway said. “I'm glad we're getting close to this being at an end so the taxpayers can stop spending money on a sheriff who's sitting in a jail cell and now on his transport to and from the courthouse.”
