Police Officers Face Reckless Manslaughter Charge
Florida Narcotics Chief Indicted
Stephanie Mohr Imprisoned!
Adam awaits the return of his mother, Stephanie Mohr, from prison.
As reported in our last two newsletters, Stephanie Mohr, formerly of the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Police Department canine unit, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for depriving an illegal alien of his civil rights when her police dog bit the suspect to stop him from fleeing. Her appeal was unsuccessful and she is now serving time in a federal prison camp in Alderson, West Virginia.
Her first trial in March 2001 resulted in an acquittal on the charge of conspiracy to violate civil rights and a hung jury (11-1 for acquittal) on the charge of deprivation of civil rights. If that one juror had voted with the rest of the jury, Officer Mohr would be free and with her four-year old son instead of languishing in a prison camp.
In the second trial, prosecutors played the race card, claiming that Stephanie was bigoted against Hispanics and blacks. Highly prejudicial evidence was introduced claiming that she was motivated by racial hatred and in the past had wanted to hurt minorities by having her dog bite them.
The second trial was a complete turnabout from the first. As her attorney reported to us, almost all the rulings went against her, in particular the hearsay accounts that she used racial slurs in previous arrests.
LELDF is pursuing a technical but crucial legal point that we hope will bring about a mistrial. Federal law prohibits police officers from serving on juries. In our view, this unjust law prevented Stephanie Mohr from being judged by a jury of her peers. We have instructed Mohr’s lawyer to file a motion to grant a new trial based on this constitutional defect. Watch our website for breaking developments in this case.
