Judge bans embattled sheriff from office; coroner to serve as acting sheriff

A judge has issued a preliminary order banning Mississippi County Sheriff Cory Hutcheson from office.

The order bars Hutcheson, who faces criminal charges, from "engaging in any activity" as sheriff or entering the sheriff's office.

Mississippi County Coroner Terry Parker was named acting sheriff.

Parker said Wednesday the chief deputy will handle day-to-day operations.

Judge William Syler issued the order Tuesday night after Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley asked the court to remove Hutcheson as sheriff.

The Attorney General's Office filed charges of assault, robbery and forgery against the sheriff last month. Hutcheson continued to handle administrative duties at the sheriff's department after his law-enforcement license was suspended.

A Mississippi County jail inmate died Friday after an altercation which Hawley said involved Hutcheson.

In the order filed in Mississippi County Circuit Court, Syler wrote Hutcheson cannot conduct any sheriff's business unless authorized by the court.

Hawley said in a news release Wednesday the judge's order "will prevent Cory Hutcheson from interfering in our investigation into Friday's events and death at the Mississippi County jail."

The attorney general said the order also will prevent Hutcheson from "any further abuse of his office."

The judge's ruling orders Hutcheson to file an answer to the attorney general's petition within 10 days.

The ruling came on the same day two federal lawsuits were filed against the sheriff.

The first suit was filed by five members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The second was filed by East Prairie, Missouri, beauty shop owner Joyce Baltrusaitis and shop employee Bonnie Woods. Cape Girardeau lawyer Curtis Poore is representing all of the plaintiffs.

Both suits, which seek injunctive relief and monetary damages, mirror the allegations contained in the criminal charges.

Hutcheson, 33, was elected sheriff in November and took office in January. He worked most of the previous 11 years in the sheriff's department as a jail administrator and deputy.

Hutcheson was arrested last month on 18 criminal counts, including three linked to allegations he handcuffed the 77-year-old Woods so hard her wrist bled because she refused to give Hutcheson his sister-in-law's paycheck. The sister-in-law had been accused of taking property from the beauty shop, and the shop owner was holding the check until the property was returned, Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper T.S. Craig wrote in the probable-cause statement.

After removing the handcuffs and leaving with the check, Hutcheson sought assault and kidnapping charges against Woods, alleging Woods held his sister-in-law against her will when his sister-in-law tried to pick up her final paycheck. Witnesses said the sister-in-law neither was assaulted nor kidnapped, Craig wrote. Woods, meanwhile, was hospitalized for three days after her confrontation with Hutcheson. She had suffered a heart attack.

The other 15 counts -- seven each of forgery and tampering with computer data and one count of notary misconduct -- accuse Hutcheson of crimes in 2014, when he was a deputy.

The patrol said Hutcheson used a system that provides the location of cellphones in near-real time without legal approval. He also was accused of using the system to examine information about the man who was then sheriff, a judge and five Highway Patrol officers. Those patrol officers are plaintiffs in the civil suit.

Hutcheson, who has pleaded not guilty to the criminal counts, hasn't been charged in the inmate's death. His St. Louis-area attorney, Scott Rosenblum, told The Associated Press on Wednesday he will review the attorney general's filing, but he doesn't think Hutcheson has done anything that would warrant his permanent removal from office.

"He has always performed his job in a manner in which he should," Rosenblum said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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