MARIES COUNTY — The city of Vienna will be reimbursing the Maries County Sheriff’s Office more than $12,000 in attorney fees obtained during a Sunshine Law civil suit regarding records kept by Vienna Police Chief Shannon Thompson.

The city of Vienna filed a petition for a declaratory judgment on May 2 regarding an open records request made by Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman to obtain documents Vienna Police Chief Shannon Thompson mentioned in an interview with a media outlet in January. On Nov. 18, Judge Brenden Fox in Maries County ordered the motion for summary judgment. The City of Vienna’s attorney Nathan Nickolaus with Lauber Municipal Law said during last month’s court hearing that the city would be happy to pay Heitman’s attorney fees within reason as is outlined in State Statute regarding Sunshine Law declaratory judgments.

On Dec. 16, Heitman’s attorney David Barrett presented his attorney’s fees as roughly $13,978.40. Nickolaus argued that roughly $1,500 of those fees was reimbursable under the petition for a declaratory judgment. Parties left the court with the city of Vienna agreeing to pay $12,478.40 back to the Maries County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m disappointed in the methods in which Chief Shannon Thompson and the city’s attorney used to hand this simple matter,” Heitman said after court. “The taxpayers are out over $12,000 that the city was court-ordered to reimburse my office today in court. That doesn’t include the thousands of dollars the city was presumably billed by their own attorney.”

However, the proposed judgment between the city of Vienna and Heitman wasn’t the last of the discussions between the parties. Barrett, on behalf of Heitman, filed an “Application for order to show cause” on Dec. 15 against the city of Vienna, alleging that despite the order to release records on Nov. 18, several were withheld.

“Although the city of Vienna provided some records to Sheriff Heitman (and representatives of the media), it has not provided him Vienna Police Department reports numbered 23-101, 24-001, 24-002, and a “Synopsis” dated 11/20/23 alleging misconduct in the Sheriff’s Office’s response to an ALCU Sunshine Law request for Facebook “records.”

Barrett alleges the named documents were produced for him to inspect on June 12 and presumably at Thompson’s deposition on June 20.

“But by the time that Sheriff Heitman’s counsel reviewed the documents again on July 19, they had disappeared from the file,” Barrett wrote. “Counsel for the city of Vienna was informed of this discrepancy by July 24 (an email between parties was provided).”

Barrett alleges Nickolaus was remembered of the discrepancy after he released the other documents in November.

“On Nov. 26, counsel for the city of Vienna provided Sheriff Heitman’s counsel with a letter from Chief Thompson addressed to ABC 17 News, wherein Chief Thompson inaccurately describes the circumstances of this case, but states in the third paragraph, ‘ I not only collected written statements from the witness but also have video-recorded each interview and statement of these witnesses.’

“The documents provided to Sheriff Heitman (and the media) have neither written statements from the witnesses nor video recordings,” Barrett wrote.

Barrett requested on Heitman’s behalf that the court issue its show cause order commanding the city of Vienna to appear and explain why it should not be held in contempt and subject to an appropriate sanction for failing to produce Vienna Police Department reports numbered 23-101, 24-101, and 24-002, a “Synopsis” dated 11/20/23. According to Barrett, the noted documents alleged misconduct in the Sheriff’s Office response to the ACLU Sunshine Law request for Facebook “records,” the written statements from the witnesses, related video-recorded interviews, and statements of the witnesses identified by Thompson in his letter to the attorneys and news media. Barrett alleges all of the aforementioned documents were commanded to be released in the Nov. 18 “Order for motion on declaratory judgment.”

When questioned about the missing documents, Nickolaus, on the city’s behalf, promised to provide them. The judge took no action on the “Motion for No Cause Order,” as the city promised to provide the documents.

“There may be additional fees added later if they continue to fail to produce the documents,” Heitman said. “I will notify the Missouri Attorney General’s Office of their continuation to violate Sunshine Law.”

On Nov. 19, The Advocate wrote an email to Nickolaus requesting to know how much his firm has billed to the city of Vienna regarding the requested “motion for declaratory judgment. Nickolaus responded to the email but did not answer that question.