One year to the day after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge, Osage County Sheriff Michael Dixon was back in court in Jefferson City on Wednesday in a battle to keep his Missouri law officer's certification.
And, at the end of an 85-minute hearing, the first-term sheriff still has that certificate for at least another 10 days or so.
Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem gave Dixon's and the state's lawyers 10 days to file suggested court orders and findings of fact for Beetem to consider in Dixon's fight to keep the state Public Safety department from revoking his license.
The department issued its revocation order in January, but Beetem stayed that order pending Dixon's appeal.
The sheriff's attorney, Laura Spencer Garth, told Beetem the department and the state's Administrative Hearing Commission had not followed the law in reaching the revocation decision.
"We believe that given the substantial, procedural, factual and legal issues in this case," she said, "that there is a more than sufficient basis for this court to overturn the (revocation) decision. ...
"We believe that Officer Dixon's equal protection rights have been violated."
In addition to the rights violation, Spencer Garth argued the department and the hearing commission both violated legal procedures they're supposed to follow. And, ultimately, she said, the decision wasn't supported by competent and substantial evidence.
Assistant Attorney General Daryl Hylton told the judge the main evidence was Dixon's guilty plea to a misdemeanor harassment charge that was accepted by St. Louis County Circuit Judge Richard C. Bresnahan last July 1.
Former Phelps County Prosecutor John Beger, elected as a circuit judge last November, was named as a special prosecutor in the case and originally charged Dixon with a felony - taking a motor vehicle without the owner's permission - and several misdemeanor counts of sexual misconduct, third-degree assault, stalking and harassment.
All the charges followed incidents over a couple of days in June 2013, less than six months after Dixon took office as the Osage County sheriff.
As part of the plea deal offered in June 2014 and accepted by Judge Bresnahan a year ago, Dixon admitted to being involved in actions with a Belle city deputy identified in court records only as C.M. - including making "repeated phone calls to C.M., as well as repeated comments of a suggestive or sexual nature and touching or striking her genital area with a flashlight."
Dixon agreed not to deny or challenge the findings of the agreement.
Also as part of the plea agreement, the felony charge was dropped. Had Dixon been convicted of that felony, he would have lost his job immediately under state law.
The Peace Officer Standards and Training (or POST) law allows the Public Safety director "to discipline any peace officer licensee who ... has committed any criminal offense."
Hylton told Beetem both the AHC and the department only needed Dixon's guilty plea and plea agreement to find for the license revocation.
"The only document to decide whether he, indeed, committed harassment was his guilty plea," Hylton said, "which counts as an admission and was not rebutted by any other evidence."
But, Spencer Garth disagreed, "We believe that the evidence showed that, to the extent that the conduct occurred at all, it was not to the severity that was portrayed (and) that Officer Dixon has taken subsequent remedial (and) rehabilitative measures. ...
"We feel that revocation is wholly inappropriate, and we also believe that suspension would be inappropriate, as well."
Spencer Garth asked Beetem either to overturn the revocation decision or hold a new trial in his court rather than the department hearing process.