ST. LOUIS — The city's sheriff is asking a judge to let him stay out of jail while he fights a six-count federal indictment accusing him of ordering the illegal handcuffing of a city jail official then firing or demoting people who he believed talked about it to investigators.

In a 10:30 a.m. hearing, lawyers for Sheriff Alfred Montgomery are expected to argue that he had perfectly good reasons to discipline his employees. None of it, his lawyers wrote in new court filings, had anything to do with retaliation.

"The prosecution is attempting to convert routine employment decisions in an office that employs more than 150 people into felonies," his lawyers wrote.

Prosecutors, however, say the grand jury's decision to indict Montgomery on charges of retaliating against and tampering with wi

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