ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is again asking a judge to suspend Sheriff Alfred Montgomery from office after federal prosecutors filed five new criminal charges accusing him of tampering with an investigation into the handcuffing of a St. Louis jail official.

The new charges, all felonies, marked a significant escalation of the criminal case against Montgomery, who has pleaded not guilty. Previously, he faced a single misdemeanor civil rights charge , which carries a penalty of up to one year in prison. Now he faces up to 61 years.

The new charges also complicate his defense against the attorney general's case, which seeks his removal over the handcuffing incident and claims he broke the law by refusing to properly transport city jail inmates and having an on-duty

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