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I-Team: Sheriff pledges to staff courtrooms after memos show judges threaten to hire private security officers

Emails show tension between judges and sheriff Vernon Betts has been building for months.

ST. LOUIS — Judges in the 22nd Judicial Circuit have been on the brink of hiring their own private bailiffs for months, but some progress was made during a meeting Thursday.

Hiring private bailiffs would, “alleviate our ongoing concerns regarding safety not only for the public coming into the courts, but also for those that work in the courts and courtrooms daily,” wrote Presiding Judge Elizabeth Hogan in a letter to St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts in December.

But Betts said he "hoped" to staff courtrooms with bailiffs at all times during a budget meeting with the judges Thursday.

Hogan told Betts, "We need need more than hope, we need a commitment that this will happen."

She then sent a memo to Betts just hours after the meeting Thursday stating the judges will remove their request for 38 private bailiffs from the budget request to the city now that Betts has committed to keeping the courtrooms staffed during business hours.

Tension between the judges and Betts began in July, when Betts sent a letter to Hogan stating, “We can no longer afford for deputies to idly sit in vacant courtrooms while other judges may need them. It is not my intent to permanently remove your deputy from your courtroom, or to change the way this office provides security coverage in your courtroom. However, given the imbalance of new deputies coming on board and veteran deputies leaving due to retirement, health issues or just simply better pay, we must make this adjustment in our staffing.”

In that memo, Betts told the judges he is authorized to have 170 deputies, but on “most days” only has 80 deputies available for work assignments, including process serving duties like eviction notices.

During Thursday’s meeting, Judge Calea Stovall Reid asked why she sees bailiffs out guarding MetroLink properties and on duty at other special events during the day when judges are told there is no one available to guard their courtrooms.

Betts explained that those deputies are working secondary shifts paid for by private contracts with those entities.

Judge David Mason told him those contracts should not come before keeping the courthouse safe.

Betts also told the judges starting salaries for deputies are only $34,000, and he wants to see that bumped to at least $50,000 to stay competitive with the St. Louis police department.

Mason reminded Betts that without guarding the courthouse, there would be no need for sheriff’s deputies in the first place.

“The courtrooms should be job number one,” Mason said.

Mason said there is a need to staff courtrooms with a bailiff even when the court is not in session because oftentimes judges and their staff members are still there and in need of protection as attorneys, witnesses and members of the public could come in the public building unannounced.

“I stand with our sheriff 100% on his goal of improving salaries, but he must stand with us 100% on making building security job number one,” Mason said.

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