ST. LOUIS听鈥 The city's sheriff is asking a judge to let him stay out of jail while he fights a six-count federal indictment accusing him of ordering the illegal handcuffing of a city jail official then firing or demoting people who he believed talked about it to investigators.
In a 10:30 a.m. hearing, lawyers for Sheriff Alfred Montgomery are expected to argue that he had perfectly good reasons to discipline his employees.
None of it, his lawyers wrote in new court filings, had anything to do with retaliation.
"The prosecution is attempting to convert routine employment decisions in an office that employs more than 150 people into felonies," his lawyers wrote.听
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Prosecutors, however, say the grand jury's decision to indict Montgomery on charges of retaliating against and tampering with witnesses provided enough evidence for him to be detained.
"The government is concerned that the defendant will continue to violate either his bond conditions, the law, or both," prosecutors wrote in a filing last week.
Montgomery, 28, has been on house arrest with a GPS monitor since Thursday when authorities unsealed an indictment accusing him of five felonies in addition to a previous misdemeanor civil rights charge stemming from the handcuffing of deputy jail chief Tammy Ross.
The indictment accuses Montgomery of demoting one employee and threatening to bar three others from working in the city courthouse because he believed they were cooperating with the handcuffing investigation.
It also outlines expletive-laden recorded phone calls in which Montgomery rails against people who he believed were cooperating with law enforcement.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have to take this (expletive),鈥 Montgomery said. 鈥淚鈥檓 the (expletive) sheriff. I say it鈥檚 either done or it ain鈥檛. I don鈥檛 have to tolerate this (expletive).鈥
Montgomery's lawyers don't address those calls in their filing. Instead, they accuse prosecutors of taking a "charge first, investigate later" approach to the case.
One of the employees who was told to leave the courthouse was terminated based on the recommendation of a hiring committee for shredding documents that were meant to be preserved, Montgomery's lawyers say.
Another employee was placed on leave for misconduct based on the hiring committee's recommendation and was later reinstated, records say.
And the demotion of a third employee 鈥 a lieutenant听鈥 to sergeant was for cause, Montgomery's attorneys said. That person was later promoted again to lieutenant, prosecutors say. Montgomery was captured on a recorded phone call talking about how he mistakenly demoted him because he believed the lieutenant was cooperating with federal investigators, records show.
Prosecutors also say the lieutenant was told by Montgomery to lie on his official report about the handcuffing, but the lieutenant denied that claim in an earlier deposition for a civil case.
Prosecutors are also expected to present evidence about the charges at the hearing Tuesday morning.
The case turned on Sheriff Alfred Montgomery's "burner phone."
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Post-Dispatch photographers capture hundreds of images each week; here's a glimpse at the week of Oct. 5, 2025. Video edited by Jenna Jones.
