Missouri's senior sheriff rides into sunset

BENTON, Mo. -- On Dec. 31, Ferrell will walk out of the sheriff's office for the last time. He isn't really retiring, he says, but leaving a job he's given his life to so he can do something else for a while and be with his family more.

In November, Scott County voters will choose between Democrat Rick Walter and Republican Wes Drury to succeed Ferrell.

"We'll miss him terribly," said Capt. Brenda Schiwitz. "I don't know if I can work for another sheriff. I'm kind of used to him."

Ferrell says in his 28 years as sheriff, he has never worn a gun, nor has he ever worn a uniform. His trademark cowboy hat "is about as uniform as I get," he said. "I don't want to be intimidating unless it's really necessary."

Yet there is perhaps a bit of Mayberry's Andy Taylor in Ferrell's approach to his work -- easygoing, but don't cross him. He may not want to appear intimidating, but he would not back down from a confrontation in the early 1980s with the county commission who didn't want to provide liability insurance for the jail. He closed the jail.

"I started moving prisoners, and the next morning they decided to do it," he recalled. "It made the national news."

While he may stand up to the county commission or anyone else, Ferrell also has an Andy Taylor-esque way of approaching his constituents at all levels.

He often takes his horse and dog to visit kindergartens and vacation Bible school classes. He gives the children junior deputy badges and talks to them about being good citizens and having good manners.

"They pet the dog and rub the horse," Schiwitz said.

A high school senior in one of Schiwitz's DARE classes told her he remembered Sheriff Ferrell coming to his kindergarten class with his dog and taking the time to talk to little children.

Helping people has been as much a part of the job as solving crimes, Ferrell said. Often people ask him for help because they don't know where else to go. His home phone number is listed.

"Any more, it's hard to call on the phone and find a real person at the other end you can tell your problems to and get a concerned person to want to help you," Ferrell said.

Ferrell has not been a sheriff to sit behind a desk and be an administrator, Schiwitz said. "He's a very hands-on sheriff."

He now relishes the notion of being a "senior sheriff" other sheriffs seek out for advice. For the past eight years, he has been the longest-serving sheriff in Missouri.

Ferrell said he got his start early on as a boy hanging around the Scott County jail and the sheriff's department in the 1950s when his father was a deputy for John Dennis, who was elected to the state senate. In 1971, he left a tire and salvage business and went to work as an investigator for the prosecuting attorney and sheriff's department. He was assessor for one term and was elected sheriff as a Democrat in 1976.

When the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force was established in January 1990, mostly in response to a growing methamphetamine problem, Ferrell was one of its founders.

"I saw the need," he said. "We had no undercover operatives. A small department like ours could not do it alone."

Kevin Glaser, head of the task force, came on as an undercover agent in those early years. He remembers Ferrell's influence in getting the task force, one of the first rural ones in the state, up and running.

"Since it was organized, other units have modeled their operation like this one," Glaser said. "That says a lot for these guys who put their time into making things work."

Ferrell has served on the advisory board to the Southeast Missouri Crime Lab since its inception and has served on the advisory board for the Law Enforcement Academy at Southeast Missouri State University. He is a former president of the Missouri Sheriffs' Association and was instrumental in establishing the John Dennis Scholarship that helps support high school seniors across the state who continue their education in law enforcement.

His decision not to seek re-election has had one effect.

"Every time I go to a meeting, they give me a plaque for being one of the founding members," Ferrell said.

Another public office

Another run at a public office is not out of the question, but not any time soon, Ferrell said. He says he doesn't know what office he would seek, but that others have encouraged him to stay in the public sector. After a lifetime of serving the public, he still likes to be involved.

"It's always a matter of timing, running for office," he said.

Ferrell said as sheriff he has worked to get laws passed to increase training and certification requirements for officers, although those requirements now make it difficult for small counties to hire and retain qualified officers. He worked toward restoring the crime reduction fund and had a hand in establishing laws regarding narcotics and domestic violence.

In 1978, he said, he was instrumental in creating the bumper stickers that read "Have you hugged your kid today?" The bumper stickers started as a local project but took off when people from other states saw them and began requesting them.

He brought DARE to Scott County, which lasted until just recently when funding for it dried up.

The advent of DNA in identifying criminal suspects has made a big change in crime solving during the past 28 years. It didn't come in time to solve the kidnapping and presumed murder of Cheryl Ann Scherer in 1979. Not being able to solve her disappearance is his major regret.

Two men executed for other crimes claimed to have kidnapped and murdered a girl around the same time as Scherer and from the same general area, but when Ferrell showed them her picture they said it wasn't her. As for whether or not he thinks they may have been guilty: "I won't think that until the family agrees."

A 1992 murder case was one he is most proud of. Joshua Kezer of Kankakee, Ill., got a 60-year sentence for the murder of Angela Mischelle Lawless, 19, of Benton. She was found dead in her car near the interstate. It was a tough case, Ferrell said.

"We got a conviction almost entirely on circumstantial evidence," he said. "I'm really proud of the effort that went into that case and brought it to a conclusion."

Ferrell acknowledged his differences with Scott County commissioners and others, usually over money and staffing. In 28 years his staff has grown from eight to 40, but it isn't enough, he said. He says the differences with the commission aren't political but more of a disagreement on how the job should be done.

"Sheriffs don't know Democrat or Republican and don't care," he said. "The issue is, you do the best you can for the constituents you have. It always seems easier for someone else to tell you how to run your job than it actually is."

Ferrell hasn't pleased everyone in the community, especially those who seek special favors.

"In 28 years he has made some enemies," Schiwitz acknowledged. "He can give advice but he can't make charges go away. Some people take that personally. He has made some people mad."

Ferrell says he won't miss the petty issues but will miss the people.

"This is my family," he said. "This job has been my life for 28 years."

Schiwitz said she and others in the department tried to talk him out of retiring.

"Actually I think he probably entertained thoughts of not running last time, but there was so much pressure from us to go one more time. I think he ran more for us."

But not again. While he sees his staff as his family, Ferrell, 64, also has a family he wants to spend more time with -- his wife, Sharon, and their four children and five grandchildren. He still enjoys competitive team roping every weekend. If his father and brother will let him, he'll help out in their excavating business in Sikeston.

His father is 85 and still goes to work every day. His mother is in a nursing home. He wants to take advantage of the time he has left with them.

"I saw things coming, family-wise," Ferrell said. "It's going to take a lot of time. To do this job and do it right you've got to devote your life to it. Part of that has something to do with my deciding to retire. It's long enough."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160