THE CASE OF STEPHANIE MOHR

Five years after this incident, the Washington Post ran a series of articles alleging police brutality in Prince George’s County. In the meantime, Mohr had become something of a star in the canine unit. She earned two awards for meritorious service and 25 letters of commendation. Her superiors lauded her assistance in bringing down burglary and homicide suspects. She helped provide personal security at President Clinton’s second inaugural gala.

However, as a result of the Post’s series, the FBI launched an investigation that soon focused on the canine unit. The investigation led to an indictment of Mohr on federal civil rights grounds for the 1995 incident. She was charged one day before the statute of limitations on her alleged offenses expired.

Mohr pleaded not guilty. The officer in charge of the scene pleaded guilty and testified on behalf of the government at Mohr’s trials. Her training officer pleaded not guilty and was acquitted.

At the first trial, Mohr was acquitted on a “conspiracy” charge and nearly acquitted on the civil rights count. Reportedly, only one juror held out for a conviction.

Normally that outcome would have ended the matter. However, the government elected to retry Mohr.

At the second trial, the government was allowed to put on evidence of other alleged misdeeds by Mohr. One witness, an African-American, testified that Mohr had threatened to release her dog on her “black ass.”

Thanks, presumably, to prejudicial testimony like this, the jury this time convicted Mohr.

Mohr received the maximum sentence of ten years. This, despite the fact that the dog bite required only ten stitches. A year in prison per stich, as it turned out.

Mohr served her sentence. After that, she went on to full-time employment as a county building inspector and has led a stable life.

“Mohr was never disciplined by the police department for any of the incidents, though she was fined $100 for making a false statement during an internal investigation into a training mishap in which another officer was mistakenly bitten by her dog.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/08/16/1-officer-guilty-1-acquitted-in-pr-georges-dog-attack/e119c2b8-287d-4784-acc3-7aa210c69658/

Police State

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Highly recommend regardless of what your opinion about police is.
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019
Verified Purchase
This title is a bit misleading but in a good way. I like reading about things and ideas that I might disagree with. I bought this book thinking it was going to be one of those “all cops are corrupt murderers” propaganda pieces and I wanted to hear some arguments for that kind of rhetoric because like I said, I like exploring ideas that I would normally disagree with.

This book isn’t necessarily only about police brutality but it seems to mainly focus on government corruption and corruption within the criminal justice system as a whole. You can take everything he says in this book and research it for yourself. You’ll find that not only is everything he says true but there isn’t a bit of exaggeration or spin to fit any kind of narrative. He tells it how it is and simply presents the facts.

It definitely opened my eyes and changed my opinion on a lot of things. He states multiple times through the book that not all cops are bad and that most are actually good people that just want to do what’s right. He makes it very clear that he is only talking about specific instances of abuse of power and blatant disregard for constitutional rights or even human life. There are no generalizations in this book, only facts and stories about specific individuals and situations.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.