ST. LOUIS—Federal prosecutors say they oppose a bid by Jeffrey Boyd, one of three former St. Louis aldermen sentenced for his role in a bribery scandal that shook city government in 2022, to seek an early release from prison Feb. 1, six months ahead of schedule.

Boyd was sentenced to 36 months after entering guilty pleas to two bribery-related charges and two counts of insurance fraud in a case unrelated to the public corruption case, where he admitted to accepting $9,500 in cash from an informant in exchange for helping the informant get a commercial property through the city’s Land Reutilization Authority. Boyd also sponsored a board bill for tax abatement for the property.

In a Dec. 4 filing, Boyd’s legal team argued that under new Federal Sentencing Commission guidelines, he should be eligible for a sentence of between 24 and 30 months. Those rule changes don’t allow for a judge’s decision to take effect before Feb. 1, so Boyd’s attorney argued for a ruling of time served in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

“Mr. Boyd has done excellently while serving his sentence in BOP. Mr. Boyd has completed educational courses anatomy, piano, finance, economics, food handling, disease prevention, health and physiology. He is currently participating in a residential drug/alcohol treatment program in the BOP,” Boyd’s attorney said in the brief.

Last week, federal prosecutors responded in their own brief, arguing that while Boyd was eligible for consideration under the new guidelines, he had not met the burden of showing that he had not caused a “substantial financial hardship.” 

“The criminal conduct and abuse of trust perpetrated by this Defendant, a long serving Alderman in the City of St. Louis, struck at the heart and soul of each resident of the City. He sold his office for cash payments in providing substantial financial benefits to a local business owner, all to the detriment of the citizens he was elected to serve,” prosecutors wrote. 

Boyd was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and a $23,688 fine.

Former Aldermanic Board President Lewis Reed and former Alderman John Collins-Muhammad are scheduled for release on Nov. 7, 2025, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Court records show no sign that either man has made a similar request to the court.