A lawsuit filed last year against Mercer County and its commissioners was dismissed on February 28th.
Online information for Division One of Mercer County Circuit Court indicates a notice of dismissal was filed electronically by an attorney representing Sheriff Jose Lopez. Docket information for the case says it was dismissed by the parties involved. The petition had been filed in the circuit court last July as Lopez was requesting the county and commissioners provide him with a salary increase that he believed he was legally owed.
When the petition was filed in the court, it claimed that statutory sections became law in August of 2022 related to modifying the computation of sheriff salaries in Missouri to be a percentage of the salary for a county’s associate circuit judge. It noted Mercer County is considered a “class three” county with an assessed valuation of under 100 million dollars and that the sheriff shall receive an annual salary that’s 45 percent of what the associate judge receives. Missouri associate judge salaries are $150,000. The petition claimed the Mercer County sheriff is entitled to an annual salary of $67,500 as of January 1, 2022. The petition noted Lopez has a salary of $63,600. He was elected sheriff of Mercer County in November 2020.
