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Former Ray County, Mo., Sheriff Scott Childers, along with his wife, filed a civil lawsuit against current Ray County Prosecutor Camille Johnston.
The Childerses are seeking $50,000 from Johnston.
The filing focuses on Johnston's alleged “false and defamatory” statements in a 2024 Ray County Commission meeting that were “intended to damage Scott Childers’ reputation in the community," according to the lawsuit.
The commission met on Feb.14, 2024.
According to the meeting minutes, Johnston was there to talk about her proposed 2024 budget. Johnston requested an additional prosecuting attorney and raises for three employees totaling $15,000.
Childers’ lawsuit says during the budget discussion, Johnston told commissioners that Childers “tried to run her off the road” with “a truckful of inmates from the Ray County Jail.”
“Plaintiffs believe the comments made by the Prosecuting Attorney were done to discourage the Ray County Commission from funding the Sheriff’s Department in the amount the Sheriff requested so that there would be additional funds for the Prosecuting Attorney’s office,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also states Johnston knew newspaper reporters and members of the public were at the meeting.
Childers believes, according to the lawsuit, Johnston made those statements during the time to file as a candidate in the county elections to “attack and possibly ruin or destroy Sheriff Childers’ reputation in the community so that the Prosecuting Attorney could help get someone else to run for sheriff that the Prosecutor would support in the next election.”
Childers states in the lawsuit that despite accusing him of trying to run her off the road with inmates in his car, Johnston never contacted law enforcement to ask for an investigation.
The lawsuit claims Childers and his wife, Kristen Childers, “suffered damages from such a vicious and demeaning allegation,” including emotional and financial loss.
“Plaintiff was removed from office as Sheriff of Ray County; and he lost his income and was not able to find work,” the lawsuit says, and the Childers family moved from Ray County to rebuild their lives.
Childers came under fire from former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in early 2024, when Childers was stripped of his duties as Sheriff and accused of illegally running an inmate work program.
Childers stepped down later that summer, though he claimed the AG's ouster was retaliation.
Prosecutor Johnston previously raised concerns with Childers' inmate work program in 2023, claiming he wasn't following state law that requires notification if inmates are released from jail.
Johnston said her office received calls from victims and their families after seeing inmates in public.
"If he's following the statute, I don't have a problem with it," Johnston told KSHB 41 in 2023. "I do if it puts people's lives in danger or if it's going to re-victimize victims."
Childers never admitted any wrongdoing, but said he revamped the program and relaunched it.
"Changes I made — they all wear uniforms marked Ray County sheriff or inmate work program. If they have a victim in this county, they don't come out and work," Childers told KSHB 41 in 2023.
In Nov. 2025, Childers was arrested after being indicted on five federal counts of mistreating inmates housed at the Ray County Jail.
The Childers lawsuit also includes an allegation that Johnston accused him of assaulting his inmates.
On top of Johnston accusing Childers of trying to run her off the road, the lawsuit says she also asked in the same meeting, "How did Sheriff Childers get a black eye; was it from 'beating up inmates?'"
Childers denies the black eye allegation and said the comments were "intentional and malicious because Defendant saw the Ray County Commission was not going to give Defendant the money she was seeking from the Commission."
The commission meeting minutes from Feb. 14, 2024, indicate that after two hours of discussion, commissioners voted 2-1 to approve Johnston's 2024 budget "with the exception that she pays the $15,000 out of her revolving accounts to cover the raises."
KSHB 41 reached out to Childers and his attorneys for comment, as well as Johnston's office, but have not heard back.
We also reached out to Johnston's attorney representing her in a separate defamation lawsuit.
KSHB 41 has been following issues connected to elected officials in Ray County for the last few years, including a sexual assault case involving Johnston's ex-boyfriend that took years to see the inside of a courtroom. Childers and a private investigator, working as a volunteer cold case investigator for the Sheriff's Office, voiced their concerns with the lag.
