There’s more turmoil at the St. Louis Sheriff’s Office, as staff attorney Blake Lawrence says he was just suspended without pay for cooperating with authorities investigating the agency.
Lawrence came aboard the office when Sheriff Alfred Montgomery took its reins. Montgomery, of course, is currently in jail as criminal charges against him make their way through federal court. He is charged with witness tampering and retaliation, with prosecutors saying he sought to stop employees from testifying against him.
Get a fresh take on the day’s top news
Subscribe to the St. Louis Daily newsletter for a smart, succinct guide to local news from award-winning journalists Sarah Fenske and Ryan Krull.
But Lawrence’s allegations add a new element. The office is currently being run by interim Sheriff Yosef Yasharahla, with retired judge David Mason handling many of the office’s employment and legal matters.
Reached by SLM earlier today, Lawrence texted, “Judge Mason has suspended my employment for ‘…cooperating with authorities not vetted by the current departmental leadership.’” He intimated that he was continuing to do his job despite his pay being suspended.
If true, the suspension would be shocking even by Sheriff’s Office standards. Mason sat on the bench in St. Louis Circuit Court for decades and has been seen as a voice of reason in an office where reason frequently seems like a foreign concept. Montgomery is himself in jail due to allegations that he demoted and threatened to fire employees who cooperated in the state and federal investigations into his office.
However, Mason says that he didn’t suspend Lawrence for that reason.
“He’s not dismissed,” said Mason. “He’s just, he’s on administrative leave pending an employee review committee, but he’s going to have a chance to come in and state his side of things and so on.”
He said that Lawrence was suspended because of a complaint made by a news outlet against Lawrence for allegedly “intimidating” a reporter in trying to get them to withdraw a story. Mason wouldn’t elaborate which news outlet made the complaint or what the story was.
Lawrence says that, at the orders of Sheriff Montgomery, he asked the Post-Dispatch to take down articles about “badges and a Tahoe” that he believed to be false, but that there was never any intimidation.
In other sheriff news, former Sheriff’s Office employee Tashana Syas filed a lawsuit against Montgomery and the city on Monday, claiming that she was fired after cooperating with the state Attorney General’s effort to remove Montgomery. She sat for a deposition on August 26 and was fired September 11, according to KMOV.
Syas claims in her lawsuit that on the day of her dismissal, she was led into a room where was interrogated and “ambushed” by office leadership, including Mason.
“Ms. Syas’ interrogation was led by Attorney Mason, and intensified over the hour and a half session,” the suit says.
Later that day, according to the lawsuit, Mason sent her an email that read in part: “After listening to the testimony or relevant (unnamed) witnesses, hearing the report of Sheriff Montgomery, and giving you a full opportunity to be heard, we advised the Sheriff of our recommendation. The Sheriff has determined that it is in the best interest [of] the Sheriff’s Department that you be separated from service effect [sic] immediately.”
