Ray County sheriff removed, accused of letting inmates leave jail, bring back contraband

By Sarah Motter, Mark Poulose and Angie Ricono

Click here for updates on this story

    HENRIETTA, Missouri (KCTV) — A Missouri sheriff has been removed from his post following an investigation by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office found that he allowed detainees to leave jail and bring in illegal contraband.

Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers was ordered to be removed as sheriff by a judge on Thursday, March 7, after various members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Federal Bureau of Investigation were seen in tactical gear outside the Ray County Jail.

Court documents indicated that Childers allowed multiple inmates at the Ray County Jail to leave in willful violation of his duties. Social media posts stated he has used detainees to work at individuals’ homes or businesses.

“We want to break cycles and that’s what this program is about, but in the process, we can teach them to do things like auto-mechanics, trades, skills,” Childers said in a Facebook video. “So, that way they don’t feel like they have to steal or do drugs.”

In the posts, Childers said the inmates were part of a work-release program, however, inmates had not signed proper documents to be able to be part of any program. He wanted the inmates to be able to do valuable work for members of the community as a way to keep them away from illegal narcotics.

“What I want to do from them is show them you can replace the feelings and highs of drug use or other dangerous behaviors by helping people, building something, by starting a job and finishing it,” he said later in the same video.

Childers was also accused of having jail inmates work on his property or that of his friends and being paid for it.

In November 2023, Childers posted a video to Facebook and said he had shut the program down as complaints had been made to the Attorney General’s Office. A government attorney and the county attorney were brought in to discuss the program. They informed him that inmates were required to sign agreements to be part of such programs which bar them from drugs and require counseling.

After that discussion, he said two programs were created. One of them keeps inmates in jail and allows them to learn skills for trade jobs while in custody. The other allows inmates who committed crimes without victims to participate in work crews out in the community.

Childers also noted that the prosecutor told him state laws made the program illegal as they have to be in custody.

“Here’s the deal, when I take – in custody does not mean they have to be in a jail cell,” Childers said in the video. “In custody means, when I take them to the courthouse, the doctor, dentist – they’re still in my custody. They can’t freely leave and so when they’re out on the work program, they’re in my custody.”

The petition also said detainees were allowed to drive vehicles, make purchases at local stores, leave the state and generally move about the county without supervision. It also alleges Childers sent the inmate work crew to work for individuals who “have provided financial and other support of (Childers) efforts to be elected.”

These detainees were allowed to bring contraband into the jail including drugs, alcohol and cell phones. He has also allegedly allowed conjugal visits which is also illegal.

“Citizens of Ray County who are crime victims have been subject to needless fear and emotional distress upon seeing the perpetrators of their crimes out of jail and freely walking in public,” read the petition.

On Thursday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said he had filed a petition of quo warrant to remove Childers from Office and had secured an order to remove him while the trial remained pending.

“I will always work to protect Missourians,” AG Bailey said. “As Attorney General, it is my duty to hold accountable those who refuse to do their job as required by Missouri law. To that end, I am moving for the removal of the Ray County Sheriff.”

The petition noted that Childers “has knowingly or willfully failed and refused to perform official acts and duties which by law it is his duty to do or perform with respect to the execution or enforcement of criminal laws of the State, and he has engaged in willful acts of misconduct, malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance in office.”

The Ray County Sheriff’s Office was involved in an audit in October 2023 which found thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds may have been misused with the purchase of 15 televisions, dozens of hams, beer, cigarettes and more. Nearly $3,000 in missing funds and more than $5,500 in questionable purchases were made in 2020.

The incidents are not believed to be connected.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.