Dixon fined $1,000 for probation violation

Michael R. Dixon, left, stands with his attorney Grant Boyd at Dixon's arraignment on Monday, May 2, 2016, at the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia, Mo.
Michael R. Dixon, left, stands with his attorney Grant Boyd at Dixon's arraignment on Monday, May 2, 2016, at the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia, Mo.

CLAYTON, Mo. - Former Osage County Sheriff Michael Dixon paid a $1,000 fine Friday for violating his probation in a 3-year-old harassment case.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo found Dixon violated his 2014 probation by "going into a place that sold alcohol (and) with consumption of alcohol."

Being in that bar - the Hitchin' Post in Hartsburg - also is part of a felony case Boone County prosecutors filed against Dixon in April.

The Boone County charge is that, on March 5, Dixon was intoxicated and unlawfully pointed a weapon at another
person in the Hartsburg bar.

Dixon's next court appearance in that case is set for Aug. 11 in Columbia.

On Friday, Ribaudo accepted a request from Dixon's attorney for a fine rather than Special Prosecutor Brendon Fox's request that she sentence the former sheriff to 30 days in jail.

Fox, who is the Phelps County prosecutor, told reporters after the Friday afternoon hearing: "I think when you're dealing with somebody who's in a position of authority like (a sheriff) - somebody who has sought out and asked the county to put their trust in him - absolutely, I think he needs to be held to the highest standard.

"That's why I was arguing for jail time - because I think when somebody violates that level of trust in the county and the community, the sanctions should be severe."

However, Dixon's attorney, Travis Noble Jr., of Clayton, told reporters: "At the end of the day, the law's supposed to be equal among everybody, whether you're a police officer or a lawyer or you work as a brick-layer or you own a restaurant.

"Everybody should be treated the same."

Noble said he told Ribaudo that Dixon is "on videotape going into the bar (so) there wasn't a lot of argument with regard to that" probation violation claim.

"(But) the appropriate sentence for a misdemeanor harassment," Noble added, "we just don't put someone in jail on misdemeanor cases whose (probation) violation is going into a bar."

In 2013, then-Special Prosecutor John Beger, of Rolla, now a circuit judge, charged Dixon with a felony - taking a four-wheel vehicle on June 26, 2013, even as the owner told him not to - and with four misdemeanor counts, including first-degree sexual misconduct or in the alternative third-degree assault, harassment and stalking.

Now-retired St. Louis County Circuit Judge Richard Bresnahan also was assigned the case as a special judge, and the case ended up in Bresnahan's Clayton courtroom on a change of venue from Osage County.

Under an agreement, Dixon pleaded guilty on July 1, 2014, only to the harassment charge, and Bresnahan suspended the imposition of any sentence.

He ordered Dixon to serve two years of supervised probation, with the general conditions that apply to all probation orders in the state - including obeying all laws and reporting any incidents resulting in the probationer's arrest - and with special conditions, including submitting to drug and alcohol testing at any time and staying out of businesses that sell alcohol-by-the-drink unless he was there on official sheriff's business.

His probation was to end this past July 1, but after Boone County filed its felony charge in April, Ribaudo - who succeeded Bresnahan as circuit judge - named Fox as the new special prosecutor in the case, since Beger also had become a circuit judge in Rolla.

Fox then asked Ribaudo to revoke Dixon's probation, and she suspended it until she could hold a hearing on Fox's motion.

She also ordered Dixon to do remote breath testing, using a hand-held device to register breath tests several times a day.

Fox told reporters he could have asked the judge to sentence Dixon to up to a year in jail but noted, "In my experience, the crime for which he was on probation normally would have a sentence - in Phelps County - of somewhere around 10 days in the county jail."

In some cases around the state, judges accepting a probation violation plea will start a new probation period.

In Dixon's case, Ribaudo ordered the fine and closed the case, removing Dixon from any further probation conditions.

Noble said those extended probations often are "a way for a judge to keep control of a person for two more years," when there is a problem such as a need for continuing drug or alcohol treatment.

However, he said, Dixon didn't need that kind of supervision.

"There's clearly not an issue with regard to alcohol," he said, noting Dixon "has been on a remote breath analyzer for some time now, and there's never been a positive test."

In addition to the $1,000 fine - which was the maximum the judge could impose - Dixon was ordered to pay $214.16 for Fox's mileage costs, for two round-trips between Rolla and Clayton for court appearances.

And he has to pay the final bill for his portable breathalyzer.

Fox said he couldn't comment on how Friday's actions in St. Louis County might affect Dixon's felony case in Boone County.

Noble - who also is representing Dixon in the Boone County case - said, "I don't think it has any significance or impact or correlation in any way."

Dixon had not filed for re-election this year and resigned from being sheriff May 26.

He told reporters Friday he now is working as a sales representative, although he did not identify his current employer.

Correction: Brendon Fox is the Phelps County prosecutor and the special prosecutor in the Michael Dixon harassment case. Fox's first name was misspelled in the original version of this article.