ST. LOUIS – The new St. Louis City Sheriff accuses former Sheriff Vernon Betts or his deputies of taking documents from the office.
“Today we’re spending our entire day figuring out what’s missing,” Sheriff Alfred Montgomery said.
Sheriff Montgomery described a hectic start to the new year as he takes office. He alleges papers and furniture are missing and was never given important credentials when he took office.
“Access codes we don’t have to evidence, so it’s prolonging the court’s process. There’s a possibility a mistrial could happen. Anything could happen,” Sheriff Montgomery said.
On New Year’s Eve, Montgomery filed for a temporary restraining order against the outgoing sheriff. In the days leading up to Montgomery’s oath of office, Betts or his deputies are accused of intimidating deputies, denying Montgomery access to the property room, and taking documents and file cabinets from the building.
“Files to deputies. We don’t know if there’s files to citizens. We don’t know. That’s a huge concern,” Montgomery said.
“He and his team coming up with a whole lot of hocus pocus,” Betts said.
Betts said Sheriff Montgomery can just simply look at the security tape if he thinks someone took something.
“There’s no way you can go in or out with anything like a cabinet. Now, of course, I had stuff in my personal file and just a whole lot of papers,” Betts said.
The request for the restraining order was heard on Thursday. Before that hearing took place, a judge ordered the property room to be closed and locked until Sheriff Montgomery took office. But in Thursday’s hearing, Montgomery’s attorney still had not filed a proper petition, saying they are still taking stock of everything that might be missing. When FOX 2 asked, Montgomery admitted their motion was premature.
“We had to think of something to do in an emergency stance and we did that to the best of our ability with the timing that we had,” Montgomery said.
He said the temporary restraining order was important to stop betts from hindering the transition. But Betts said Sheriff Montgomery did not need access to the property room prior to taking office.
“This isn’t the White House. We don’t have all those offices that you gotta have people. All Mr. Montgomery had to do was win the election, which he did, and then wait for Jan. 1,” Betts said.
The court motion was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice, as both attorneys agreed they would continue to work together on any missing documents. Sheriff Montgomery said he could refile if the issue is not resolved.