Former Osage County Sheriff Michael Dixon now faces a misdemeanor charge, rather than a felony, for an incident last March at Hartsburg's Hitching Post bar.
His preliminary hearing - which had been scheduled for four hours this afternoon - has been cancelled, and a status hearing has been set for 9:30 a.m. Dec. 6.
Boone County Prosecutor Dan Knight filed a substitute information with the associate circuit court this week, charging Dixon with the class A misdemeanor of unlawful use of a weapon.
If convicted of that charge, Dixon, now 30, could be sentenced to up to a year in jail.
He had been charged last April with a Class D felony for unlawful use of a weapon - a crime that carries a possible prison sentence of up to four years.
Other than changing the reported crime from a felony to a misdemeanor, the new charge is substantially the same as the one filed April 6: That on March 5 in Hartsburg, Dixon "knowingly had on his person a firearm, and handled such firearm in a negligent manner in that defendant pointed the firearm at another person, during a time when the defendant was intoxicated."
Dixon pleaded not guilty to the original charge.
His attorneys asked for the postponement of today's preliminary hearing.
Judge Deborah Daniels granted a motion to continue for further negotiation. A previously scheduled hearing in August also was continued for additional negotiation.
On July 1, 2014, Dixon pleaded guilty in St. Louis County Circuit Court to a different misdemeanor charge - harassment of a former co-worker in 2013, when he was Belle's police chief - and conditions of his probation in that case included not consuming alcohol or being in a business that sold alcohol, unless he was on official sheriff's business.
Dixon admitted July 15 that his being in the Hartsburg bar last March violated his probation in the St. Louis County case, and he paid a $1,000 fine.
He still was Osage County sheriff last March, but resigned from that job on May 26.
This summer, Dixon surrendered his state peace officer's license and, in September, Public Safety Department spokesman Mike O'Connell said "surrendering a license is permanent. You can't ever get it back."