A rural Missouri sheriff and two deputies are jailed and facing charges accusing them of helping a man in a parental kidnapping plot.
Officers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Thursday arrested Iron County Sheriff Jeff Burkett, deputies Matthew Cozad and Chase Bresnahan, and the father of the child, Donald Gaston. All four face multiple charges and were jailed Friday in neighboring Washington County.
Iron County has about 9,500 residents and sits 100 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Burkett’s lawyer, Gabe Crocker, said the charges are politically motivated.
“This is small-town politics,” Crocker said. “This is the continuation of a long gestating effort to remove this sheriff from office.”
Charging documents say that in February, Gaston, 62, sought to take his daughter after an argument with the child’s mother. Among the accusations against Burkett: Prosecutors say he lied to a 911 dispatcher to report that the mother had kidnapped the girl, and falsely accused the woman of putting the child in danger. Ultimately, the girl remained with her mother.
The sheriff and deputies also are accused of tracking the woman’s whereabouts through her cell phone.
