Osage County Prosecutor will dismiss 40 plus cases during Dixon tenure

UPDATE (9/21): Osage County Prosecuting Attorney Amanda Grellner said her office has counted at least 40 misdemeanor and criminal cases that will have to be thrown out because they involved mishandled evidence under former sheriff Michael Dixon.

Grellner said almost all of the cases are involving drug charges, specifically marijuana. She said they’re still going through cases, but believe she and her team are close to the end.

ORIGINAL: Osage County Prosecutor Amanda Grellner announced Wednesday she will be dismissing any cases where evidence was collected during Michael Dixon’s tenure as sheriff.

Grellner based her decision on her inability to verify the integrity of the evidence during that time, in addition to poor documentation and lack of security in the evidence room.

Interim Sheriff Carl Fowler asked the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control to investigate the procedures and handling of evidence under Dixon’s times as sheriff.

“I can’t tell you at what point things fell apart for a lack of a better word,” Grellner said.

Grellner said during the investigation, the Highway Patrol learned evidence bags were found open and empty, evidence was not labeled, multiple people had access to the evidence room and the room was unlocked for hours at a time.

“It’s frustrating and it’s disappointing,” she said. “It’s a lot of work that people put into these cases that now is going to be for not. It’s also a lot of people that may not be prosecuted when they should be prosecuted.”

The prosecuting attorney’s office is now going through every single misdemeanor and criminal case to see where evidence was handled by the sheriff’s department.

Grellner said right now she’s estimating about 30 cases will be dismissed, but said there’s many more cases to go through.

Dixon was resigned from his position as Osage County sheriff after being charged with the unlawful use of a weapon in Boone County in April.