BELLE — Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman on Tuesday afternoon refuted the following introduction and bullet points in Belle Mayor Daryl White, Jr.’s response to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office (AGO) regarding allegations of Sunshine Law violations.

In the sheriff’s December 2022 allegations to the AGO he said White was previously asked to step down among allegations of misappropriation of funds. White denies the allegation and says he stepped down because he “purchased property outside of the city limits.”

“I, along with the The Belle Banner, and past members of the board of aldermen have a different version of what happened than what the mayor stated in his letter to the Attorney General,” Heitman said on July 25. “It was in a public meeting that he was asked to resign because of criminal acts and he resigned during that public meeting for abusing the public’s trust.”

Heitman, who was marshal at the time of White’s resignation, said he and former board members discussed White’s actions in depth.

“There was a public discussion by the city council members and me about arresting the mayor. It was decided not to pursue criminal charges since the city was reimbursed.”

Heitman said former alderman Richard Huse confronted White about transactions made on the city’s credit card prior to that Feb. 14, 2007, board meeting.

“White reimbursed the funds prior to the meeting. Tony Gieck was the first person to bring it up during the meeting.”

White also alleged in his introduction that he was “never warned by anyone at Maries County of any wrong-doing.” He went on to say that “I have not one time since June of 2022 seen Sheriff Heitman attend a city council meeting.”

“As far as meetings, Mayor White continues to be untruthful because on Sept. 23, I publicly warned him about violating Sunshine Law,” Heitman said. “Furthermore, I have had meetings with city officials and have had representatives at a majority of the meetings.”

Heitman also disclaims White’s comments that the county’s services were provided at an “excessive cost to the city” and that the city was “losing money and not being properly protected.”

“Either Mayor White was lying when he said my office did a good job and he thanks us for our services at the Sept. 23, 2022, meeting, or he is lying now and changed his story, saying we didn’t adequately provide services,” Heitman said. “Additionally, I have warned Mayor White about violating the laws over the phone and at a public meeting.”

In White’s fourth bullet point to the AGO he says, “ Bringing back the police department was discussed in our publicly announced budget meeting. We thought it was a proper time to discuss, since we would have to establish a department budget.”

Heitman disagrees.

“If you are going to discuss making big changes to the community, it is required by law to be on an agenda. Moreover, it is common sense,” Heitman said.

Lastly, the sheriff countered White’s 11th bullet point claiming, “The newspaper has never been uninvited to a meeting.”

“With him uninviting the paper, I am not sure why Mayor White continues to lie about occurrences that have five witnesses, including two aldermen, one of which is still serving,” Heitman said. “Everyone knows he uninvited the paper and was trying to hide what the city was doing from the public.”