Hillsboro Mayor Resigns After Fight With Deputy Sheriff

HILLSBORO, MO — Dennis Bradley, the mayor of Hillsboro, Mo., a small town about an hour south of St. Louis, has resigned after a confrontation with a Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy earlier in February.

Officials said Bradley started a fight with the deputy in a gas station parking lot, part of a long-running feud between the two men. According to the deputy's account, the mayor dared the him to take off his badge and gun while poking him in the chest. The deputy eventually used pepper spray to subdue Bradley and arrest him.

Bradley blamed the feud on a traffic ticket the deputy wrote him several years ago, but didn't offer details about what caused the latest incident. The Post-Dispatch also reports the deputy once arrested the mayor's son for a DUI.

Bradley denies assaulting the deputy, though he has admitted that he did "resist arrest a little bit."

"Did I act inappropriately? Maybe so, just a little bit," he said. "But then again, this is a very personal issue, an attack on my family."

City officials called on Bradley to resign after his arrest, but he initially said he would not. "I told them, 'This is still America,'" Bradley said. "I'm innocent until I'm proven guilty. These are probably misdemeanor charges. Why would I resign?"

That changed when the city board made it clear it planned to impeach Bradley.

"It was with great regret that I tender my resignation as your mayor," Bradley wrote in a letter addressed to the citizens of Hillsboro.

"I have been asked by family and friends to fight these allegations brought by your aldermen. My initial reaction was to stand and fight," he explained. "I was assured that the inevitable vote by the aldermen to remove the 'so called thorn in their side' would be overturned by an impartial court of law. While this course of action might provide a sense of pride and righteousness, I cannot in good conscience spend an inordinate amount of money required in legal defense nor justify the tax payers footing the bill for legal fees because a council objects to the direction of their executive in chief."

Bradley blamed the "old guard," referring to the city Board of Aldermen, for standing in the way of progress for Hillsboro's citizens and plotting to remove him as mayor.

"While I may no longer be mayor my voice along with the voices of my fellow citizens will not be silenced," he wrote. "We will demand that the elected aldermen be responsive to the citizens and I encourage every person to vote in the next election and drain the swamp of those individuals who believe in business as usual."

The board accepted the mayor's resignation Monday night, with several members saying they will be glad to put the negative publicity behind them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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