Ex-Ray County sheriff indicted for using excessive force, falsifying reports: ‘Troubling’
Former Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers, whose tenure was dogged by a maelstrom of misconduct allegations that led to his resignation, appeared in federal court in Springfield on civil rights violation charges on Wednesday.
Childers, who served as sheriff from 2021 until 2024, faces five counts of depriving civil rights and one count of destroying, altering or falsifying records in a federal investigation, according to court documents.
Childers made his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush, where Childers waived a formal reading of the indictment and entered a plea of not guilty. Childers' next court appearance is set for 9:30 a.m. Dec. 9.
He was released on an unspecified bond after prosecutors did not move for detention, according to court documents.
Childers could not be immediately reached for comment.
Childers received a target letter in May 2024 formally notifying him that he was a target of a criminal investigation and was considered a likely defendant in a possible indictment, according to court documents. A federal grand jury indicted Childers last week, and the indictment was sealed until his arrest.
According to court documents, the grand jury accused Childers, while acting as sheriff, of using unreasonable and excessive force on several people who were not resisting an arrest or posing a threat, injuring them.
Childers allegedly grabbed one person by the throat while he was handcuffed; pushed, shoved and struck another person in a holding cell; grabbed, pushed and slapped another person during an arrest and pulled another person from a vehicle, pushed him to the ground, placed a knee on his back and ground his face into the ground while handcuffed, according to the indictment.
The grand jury also accused Childers of arresting a person without a warrant and probable cause, and falsifying an incident report regarding his use of force on a person in a cell.
Ray County Sheriff Gary Blackwell stated on Facebook that the news of the charges is “profoundly troubling and casts a shadow over the integrity of law enforcement.
“It discredits the many honorable officers who serve their communities with dedication, fairness, and respect for the rule of law,” Blackwell said in the statement. “The actions alleged in the indictment, if proven true, represent a serious breach of public trust and a betrayal of the oath every law enforcement officer takes.”
Blackwell referred further questions regarding the indictment to the United States Attorney’s Office.
Childers was arrested and booked into Greene County jail in Springfield at 4 p.m. Tuesday and released shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to VineLink, an online system that allows public to track people in custody.
The arrest marks another extraordinary revelation involving Ray County, a mostly rural county northeast of Kansas City that has faced a series of high-profile controversies in recent years. It’s the second time in less than a year that a former sheriff has faced criminal charges.
Childers’ time as sheriff previously drew the ire of then-Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican who last year deployed a rarely-used legal maneuver to try to remove Childers from office.
Bailey, who resigned this fall to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had used the court process, called quo warranto, against multiple local officials during his time in office, accusing them of various levels of corruption.
The Republican attorney general alleged that Childers illegally allowed prisoners to leave jail, perform work for friends and acquaintances and smuggle in drugs, alcohol and other contraband.
“Respondent has allowed these detainees to drive vehicles, make purchases at local stores, leave the State of Missouri, and generally move about Ray County without proper supervision,” Bailey’s petition for quo warranto said.
Childers also attracted media attention in 2022 when he directed his deputies to shoot two cows that had broken loose and wandered onto a highway.
The embattled sheriff ultimately resigned from office as part of a settlement with Bailey. In that settlement, Childers agreed to surrender his law enforcement certification and not seek elected office in the future.
But Childers wasn’t the first Ray County sheriff to attract negative attention.
Former Sheriff Garry Bush, who served from 2012 until 2020, was put under a spotlight in 2023 when Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick issued a blistering audit regarding Bush’s time as sheriff.
The review found that the sheriff’s office, under Bush, spent county money on beer, 15 TVs and 76 hams. The audit also uncovered missing money from concealed carry weapon permit fees and sex offender registry fees.
The problems found in the audit, which covered 2018 to 2020, illustrated issues uncovered in a 2023 investigation by The Star, which detailed how local governments often lack safeguards against fraud and mismanagement of taxpayer money.
Childers, who was sheriff when the audit’s findings were released, previously told The Star that Fitzpatrick’s review emphasized his belief that the county wasn’t operated well prior to his tenure.
“There was a lot of nepotism in this county, which always breeds for issues,” Childers said at the time.
And then this spring, Bush was charged with a misdemeanor for interfering with the arrest of another man at a steakhouse. Court records alleged Bush stepped in front of and pushed an officer who was attempting to arrest another man acting erratically with a gun at a restaurant.
Bush signed an agreement in August that purported to dismiss the charge as long as he admitted guilt and completed a diversion program, according to court records. The case against Bush still appears to be pending.
This story was originally published November 5, 2025 at 5:02 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story listed the incorrect city for the U.S. District Court where former Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers appeared on Wednesday. He appeared in federal court in Springfield.
