ST. LOUIS – St. Louis judges and a special court committee are demanding answers from the city’s sheriff about a long-collected fee, to the point that Missouri’s Attorney General may get involved.
An astonishing discovery was brought to attention in a special meeting on the top floor of the civil courts building. St. Louis judges and committee members could find no evidence they’ve ever approved a court-related fee that’s been collected for more than 30 years.
“I was stunned,” Rick Burrows, private investigator and process server, said. “They went all the way to 1992 to the present. You’re talking 31 years of Court En Banc meeting minutes, and no fees were ever approved.”
The court wants answers about the $500 training fee the sheriff charges to take a process server training course. While they agreed on the value of a training class, they are looking into whether the amount of money is reasonable.
The committee is now drafting a letter to Sheriff Vernon Betts, asking him to explain the fees. When first asked about the fee last year, he said he would look into it.
“If somebody is questioning how we do things, I want to make sure we’re doing the right thing and doing it the right way,” Betts said in an interview with FOX 2 last August.
Betts said the fee is used for equipment and training for his deputies, but did not follow up any further.
Now, the result of this week’s court meeting is not only a demand for further answers, but also the committee ordered the sheriff’s office to stop charging the training fee until there is a resolution. The committee has also asked Missouri’s Attorney General to take a look into it.
There is silence from the sheriff this time around, even with repeated phone calls and texts to both Betts and his spokesperson.
Private Investigator Bill Clutter, who is not involved in the dispute and lives in Illinois, helped give context to the $500 training fee.
“Over the years, I’ve worked in many jurisdictions, mostly in Illinois, but our sheriff’s office here don’t try to impose fees on process servers, which is a competitor of the sheriff’s office,” Clutter said. “They have a civil process division and it sounds like it’s a conflict of interest.”
The St. Louis sheriff has a process server training class scheduled for Feb. 26, in which people who signed up have likely already paid this now-questioned fee.
The court committee’s demand letter is expected to go out next week–after a possible resolution will be discussed in a future meeting.
