Accused Sheriff Hutcheson only 'doing admin stuff' after license suspended

Mississippi County Sheriff Cory Hutcheson handled only administrative duties Friday after his peace-officer license was suspended Thursday night, police said.

All duties dealing with criminal matters were being handled by the department’s chief deputy Branden Caid, Mississippi County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Barry Morgan said Friday afternoon in a telephone interview.

“Cory Hutcheson,” Morgan said when asked who was serving as sheriff.

“He is still serving as sheriff in an administrative role,” he said. “Nothing criminal. He’s just doing admin stuff.”

Missouri Department of Public Safety director Drew Juden suspended Hutcheson’s license after the Missouri Attorney General’s Office charged the sheriff with 18 criminal offenses, DPS communications director Mike O’Connell said.

“Mississippi County Sheriff Cory Hutcheson does not have a valid license,” O’Connell said in an email Thursday night. “By state law the DPS director can suspend a peace officer license if a person is under felony charges.”

Half of Hutcheson’s charges are felonies and most date back to 2014, when he was a sheriff’s deputy.

He is alleged to have handcuffed an elderly woman with whom his sister-in-law had a dispute roughly two weeks ago, using such force the woman suffered a heart attack, according to charging documents filed in the case.

He also is alleged to have fraudulently used department technology in 2014 to track the locations of cellphones belonging to five Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers, then-Mississippi County Sheriff Keith Moore and Circuit Judge David Dolan, according to charging documents filed in the case.

Morgan told the Southeast Missourian on Thursday that Hutcheson denies the charges and that Hutcheson’s attorney has advised him not to comment further.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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