Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled Thursday the state made too many mistakes to revoke Osage County Sheriff Michael Dixon's peace officer's license - without holding new hearings.
Lawyers for both sides likely are trying to determine their options - including whether they can appeal Beetem's 28-page judgment to the state appeals court in Kansas City, take the case back to the Administrative Hearing Commission as Beetem ordered if the state wants to pursue its license revocation plan, or just drop it.
"We are reviewing the ruling," attorney general's spokeswoman Nanci Gonder told the News Tribune Friday afternoon. "We decline to comment further on related issues."
And Laura Garth, one of Dixon's attorneys, said Friday they needed to converse with Dixon before commenting on Beetem's ruling - but neither Garth nor Dixon provided a comment for this story by Saturday afternoon.
On July 1, 2014, Dixon pleaded guilty to one count of harassment in an appearance before St. Louis County Circuit Judge Richard C. Bresnahan, who had been assigned as a special judge in the case. The state Public Safety department launched its disciplinary effort 22 days later.
The plea to the misdemeanor charge, made in Clayton, was based on a plea agreement offered by Special Prosecutor John Beger, of Rolla, who then was the Phelps County prosecutor, and now is a circuit judge.
Based on a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation and probable cause statement, Beger originally had charged Dixon, of Belle, with taking a four-wheel vehicle on June 26, 2013 - even as the owner told him not to - and with four misdemeanor counts, including harassment, stalking and first-degree sexual misconduct or, in the alternative, third-degree assault.
As part of the plea agreement, Beger dropped the felony and three of the misdemeanor charges during the 2014 hearing.
Beetem's order and judgment last week noted the department's complaint, filed with the Administrative Hearing Commission as required by the state's Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) program, "was premised almost entirely on Dixon's entry of the Plea Agreement."
After accepting the plea agreement, Bresnahan placed Dixon on probation, with conditions that included:
• Submitting to drug and alcohol testing at any time.
• Having no contact with either of the victims in the case, whether directly or through a third party.
• Never mentioning either victim's name publicly, privately or online.
• Never denying or retracting his guilty plea in any public, private or online conversation.
• Taking sexual harassment counseling.
Dixon's lawyers said the sheriff was following his probation restrictions - with one exception.
Part of his appeal was based on challenging some of the plea agreement findings, which the state argued was a violation of the restriction against "denying or retracting his guilty plea in any public, private or online conversation."
Beetem's order, released early Thursday evening, noted that issue several times.
In a footnote, Beetem wrote: "Whether or not ... Dixon violated his plea agreement is not for this Court to determine.
"However, if either the (Public Safety) Department or the AHC wish to consider it as some form of estoppel ... the Court would then be bound to consider whether or not" there is any legal consequence if Dixon had been told no one would go after his peace officer's license if he pleaded guilty under the agreement.
Had Dixon pleaded guilty to a felony charge, there would be no issue as state law prohibits felons from serving as a sheriff.
But the POST law also allows the Public Safety director "to discipline any peace officer licensee who ... has committed any criminal offense."
And a misdemeanor still is a crime.
As part of the 2014 plea agreement, Dixon admitted to being involved in actions with a Belle city deputy identified in court records only as C.M. - including making "repeated phone calls to C.M., as well as repeated comments of a suggestive or sexual nature and touching or striking her genital area with a flashlight."
But, Beetem noted last week, "At the Disciplinary Hearing (last December), testimony was provided by (two sheriff's deputies) who were both present on the nights when the incidents alleged in the Plea Agreement occurred.
"(Those two officers), along with Dixon, all provided testimony casting doubt as to whether Dixon committed any criminal conduct. Dixon's opportunity to submit this testimony (to the AHC) should not be short-circuited by the deficient pleading filed by the Department."
In addition, Beetem ruled, the Public Safety department and the AHC made several procedural errors that violated the Missouri Administrative Procedures Act and, taken together, generally denied Dixon his right to a fair hearing.
Among those findings was the AHC's granting the cause determination for the license revocation as a "result of a motion for summary decision, which required the AHC to determine whether the Department's Motion was supported by admissible evidence."
Beetem also found the Administrative Hearing Commission relied on information in the Patrol's 2013 probable cause statement to support its finding the department had cause to revoke Dixon's license.
But, Beetem said "the Probable Cause Statement consists entirely of hearsay," and didn't provide the "competent, substantial evidence" required to support the cause finding.
Beetem's ruling last week generally endorsed arguments Dixon's attorneys made during both the July 1 oral arguments in Beetem's courtroom and 61/2 months earlier, before the Public Safety department's POST disciplinary hearing that resulted in the decision to revoke Dixon's license.
The 28-page ruling examines seven different legal issues Dixon's lawyers raised about the procedures.
Beetem also found the revocation decision may have been based on "undue influence and bias," as shown by the departments:
• "Speaking with C.M. and consider(ing) bringing a complaint against Dixon as early as February 2014" - more than three months before the guilty plea.
• Allowing reporters (who were not named in the ruling, but included the News Tribune and KRCG-TV) to cover the disciplinary hearing "and the testimony of a (Dixon) political opponent who was not even called by either party to testify."
• Releasing "a statement to the media about Dixon's (license) revocation before he even received the Final Opinion" of that revocation.
Beetem's ruling reversed the revocation and ordered the AHC "to rehear the case for a (new) cause determination."
If the commission makes that finding again, Beetem said, then the Public Safety department must conduct a new disciplinary hearing.
Beetem set no time deadlines for those steps to be accomplished.
Dixon first was elected as Osage County sheriff in November 2012 and took office Jan. 1, 2013.
That means he's up for re-election in the August 2016 primary and November 2016 general election.