Osage County Sheriff Michael Dixon isn't running for re-election, but he may be facing more legal troubles before he leaves office.
Maj. Tom Reddin, Boone County's chief deputy sheriff, confirmed Friday the Boone County sheriff's office is investigating a case involving the Osage County sheriff.
"We are investigating a situation that occurred in Boone County early in March," Reddin told the News Tribune Friday afternoon, "but we are not elaborating on any details of that investigation."
Reddin said it's an "active" investigation and, so far, no reports have been forwarded to other agencies, including the Boone County prosecutor.
He would not confirm any rumors or allegations that have sprung up about the case.
"We're chasing facts and not fiction," Reddin said, explaining his office has set no timeline for finishing the investigation or making reports. "We'll get it done in as prudent a manner as possible."
Dixon, now 30, first was elected Osage County's sheriff in 2012, after Carl Fowler didn't seek re-election.
Dixon did not file by last Tuesday's deadline to be a candidate in this year's Aug. 2 primary and Nov. 8 general elections, Osage County Clerk Patrick Steele said Friday.
Two Republicans, Mike Bonham and Robert Dodson, and two Democrats, Chris Albert and William Cody Blackford, filed to succeed him.
Dixon pleaded guilty in St. Louis County on July 1, 2014, to a misdemeanor harassment charge involving incidents in Belle in 2012 and 2013.
Osage County Prosecutor Amanda Grellner removed herself from that case and then-Phelps County Prosecutor John Beger was appointed as a special prosecutor.
Following a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation, Beger 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.
Under an agreement, Dixon pleaded guilty only to the harassment charge, and now-retired St. Louis County Judge Richard Bresnahan suspended the imposition of any sentence, then ordered Dixon to serve two years of supervised probation. Bresnahan had been named as a special judge in the case after the 20th Circuit judges removed themselves from it.
Thursday, Dixon's attorney - Travis L. Noble Jr., Clayton - filed a motion seeking "early termination" of the probation, saying the sheriff "has successfully complied with all special conditions of probation and had no other violations of his probation."
Judge Ellen Ribaudo, Bresnahan's successor, scheduled a 10:30 a.m. hearing on Noble's motion for April 14 in Clayton.
In addition to the general conditions that apply to all probation orders in the state - including obeying all laws and reporting any arrests - special conditions of Dixon's probation 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.
• Paying $430 to the Phelps County prosecutor's office for Beger's mileage.
Beger now is a circuit judge, so his successor in the Phelps County prosecutor's office, Brendon Fox, has been named special prosecutor for the Dixon criminal case.
State law prohibits felons from serving as a sheriff but, because Dixon pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, he didn't lose his job automatically.
But a misdemeanor still is a crime, and the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) law also allows the Public Safety director "to discipline any peace officer licensee who ... has committed any criminal offense."
Based on the misdemeanor guilty plea, the Public Safety department's POST program eventually revoked Dixon's required law officer's certificate at the end of 2014.
However, using a different legal team from Noble's office, Dixon challenged that state action and, last October, Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled officials had not followed the required procedures in seeking to discipline Dixon's peace officer's license, resulting in generally denying Dixon's right to a fair hearing.
Beetem ordered the Administrative Hearing Commission to hold a new hearing on the state's decision to revoke the license, "for a "cause' determination."
And, if the AHC determines in that new hearing there is cause to revoke the license, Beetem ruled, then the Public Safety Department must "conduct a new disciplinary hearing."
The department, represented by the attorney general's office, started that new hearing process in November and, on Dec. 9, 2015, the hearing commission set May 31 as the deadline for the state and Dixon to complete the "discovery" process.
Dixon then has until June 30 to respond to the state's motion for partial summary judgment in favor of Dixon losing his certificate.
The state's motion said Dixon should lose the certificate because he "pled guilty to the criminal offense of Harassment," and there is "no genuine issue that (Dixon) committed a criminal offense and is subject to discipline" under state law.
No hearing dates have been set in that new case.