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ST. LOUIS 鈥� Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed suit Wednesday to remove city Sheriff Alfred Montgomery from office, saying the sheriff had hired a family member, broken the law on multiple occasions and failed to do his job properly.

The suit alleges Montgomery hired a half-brother, Malik Taylor, as a deputy. It says that Montgomery broke the law when he had a city jail official and a former sheriff鈥檚 deputy detained earlier this year, and when he failed to transport prisoners from the city jail for medical treatment.

And it says Montgomery misused public resources when he had a deputy pick up his kids and spent tens of thousands of dollars on golf carts, badges and a new SUV.

鈥淢ontgomery has abused his authority and resources repeatedly for his own personal benefit,鈥� Bailey said at a news conference Wednesday announcing the suit. 鈥淭his is about restoring the rule of law.鈥�

Since taking office in January, Montgomery, 28, has run into a federal investigation, trouble with a budget deficit, and criticism from other elected officials. But Bailey鈥檚 suit is the most serious threat yet to his authority. Called a 鈥渜uo warranto鈥� petition, it challenges an elected official鈥檚 right to hold office, and has been used multiple times in years past to remove officials for crimes and misconduct.

Montgomery declined to comment on the suit when reached outside his office Wednesday afternoon. A spokesman, Jack Gieseke, pointedly disputed the nepotism allegation in a statement, saying Taylor is not related to Montgomery.

Two years ago, Bailey filed the same kind of suit against then-51黑料 Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner. She resigned three months later under

growing pressure from the suit and the Legislature.

Quo warranto cases can be fairly straightforward in instances where officials have committed crimes, moved out of their jurisdictions or done something to become ineligible to continue in the job. Nepotism 鈥� hiring a relative 鈥� has historically been considered one of the most straightforward rationales for removing an elected official. The Missouri constitution says an official who does 鈥渟hall thereby forfeit his office or employment.鈥�

鈥淭hat might be the whole case,鈥� said Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court justice.

Sharon Carpenter, the city鈥檚 former recorder of deeds, resigned in 2014 shortly after she was found to have hired a great-nephew.

51黑料 County Councilman Dennis Hancock recently escaped removal after hiring his stepdaughter as his aide. But in making the deal to drop the charge, county Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith said the case against Hancock had problems, including the possibility that prosecutors may have violated rules about gathering evidence in the case.

Wednesday鈥檚 suit levels six individual counts against Montgomery, most of which elaborate on incidents already publicized in news reports.

鈥⒙燨ne not previously covered is the nepotism claim, which says that on his first full day in office, Montgomery hired Taylor as a sheriff鈥檚 deputy despite the fact that they share the same father. It also says that Montgomery has directed people to hide the fact that he and Taylor are related. The petition does not say exactly how the attorney general鈥檚 office verified the relation, but birth records for Montgomery and a Malik Taylor were requested from the city recorder鈥檚 office in recent weeks.

鈥⒙燭he next claim concerns an episode in February, when Montgomery ordered the handcuffing and detention of the city鈥檚 deputy jail commissioner Montgomery said had impeded his access to a jail detainee he needed to talk to for an internal investigation. The petition says Montgomery had no right to do that, and therefore violated Ross鈥� civil rights by doing so. Neither Montgomery nor the handcuffing deputy were state-licensed peace officers. Unlike other sheriffs across the state, the 51黑料 sheriff is generally not permitted to enforce criminal laws.

鈥⒙燭he petition says Montgomery had already committed a similar violation when he had a former deputy, Darryl Wilson, detained and disarmed when he was working as a private security guard in January. Montgomery accused Wilson of impersonating a sheriff鈥檚 deputy, but Wilson wasn鈥檛, Bailey writes.

鈥⒙燘ailey also lists 59 times when the sheriff鈥檚 office failed to take jail inmates for medical treatment when required, a longtime duty of the sheriff. Montgomery has repeatedly argued that the trips are the responsibility of the city Corrections Division, which runs the jail. But Bailey said the law and precedent dating back decades prove otherwise, and make the failures a willful violation of the sheriff鈥檚 duty.

鈥⒙燭he petition further states that Montgomery has illegally used public resources in multiple ways. For one thing, it says, he鈥檚 had an on-duty deputy picking up his children from school in a sheriff鈥檚 office car 鈥� despite prohibitions on officials getting personal benefits from their offices.

鈥� Moreover, Bailey says, the tens of thousands of dollars spent on golf carts, badges and uniforms, a Chevrolet Tahoe and surveillance robots, among other things, were unnecessary and violated multiple statutes governing spending from special sheriff鈥檚 office funds.

The suit also features several asides.

For instance, early in his term, Montgomery installed a sign above his door with a new office motto: 鈥淗onesty. Integrity. Repsect.鈥�

The sign included the typo, Bailey鈥檚 suit says.

Montgomery took several videos on TikTok of himself while driving on the highway, which is illegal, the suit argues.

And, last Friday, Montgomery went skydiving 鈥� even as his office was refusing to transport jail inmates to the hospital.

In a screenshot contained in the suit, Montgomery gives a thumbs up to the camera while a parachute deploys in the background.

The suit asks a judge to force Montgomery to immediately surrender his department-issue badge, weapon and vehicle, and forbid him from exercising any authority as an elected official, pending further proceedings.

State law tasks a 鈥渃ounty commission鈥� with appointing a new sheriff when the office is vacant.

In 1978, when 51黑料 Sheriff Benjamin L. Goins was removed via quo warranto following his conviction on federal racketeering and tax evasion charges, the Board of Aldermen appointed a temporary replacement. A special election was held later to pick a permanent sheriff.

Katie Kull of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.