In This Issue: Vol 7, No. 2 (Winter, 2007)

New Sentence or Trial Sought for Stephanie Mohr

Nearly two years ago, former Prince George’s County (Maryland) Officer Stephanie Mohr petitioned her trial court judge to set aside her conviction and sentence of 10 years imposed in December 2001.

In September 1995, Officer Mohr released her police dog, Valk, according to regulations, to stop Ricardo Mendez, a suspect in a robbery, from fleeing. Six years later, after one trial with a hung jury (11 to 1 for her acquittal), she was convicted at a second trial of one count of depriving Mendez of his rights under color of law.

Following an unsuccessful appeal, it was decided to petition the original trial judge for a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel and on the 2004 Supreme Court decision holding that the federal sentencing guidelines were unconstitutional.

A major problem in the trial was her lawyer’s failure to object to the prosecution’s use of untruthful testimony of a witness who called Officer Mohr a racist. In addition, her legal counsel failed to present character witnesses to testify to the truthfulness of her statements and further failed to object to the use of opinion evidence regarding use of force in her release of her police dog.

We hope the judge will order a new trial, but at a minimum we expect him to grant a new sentencing hearing that should reduce Officer Mohr’s sentence substantially. Justice has been severely delayed in this case.

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