Adam,
Stephanie Mohr’s son, and her entire
family, hope the writ of mandamas will hasten
her release from prison, where
she has been since 2003.
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More than two years ago, former Prince George’s
County (Maryland) Officer Stephanie Mohr petitioned her trial court judge,
Deborah
Chasanow, to set aside her conviction and sentence of 10 years
imposed in December 2001. Because of the long delay in the
judge’s response, a writ of mandamus has been filed by Fred Bennett,
Officer Mohr’s attorney, to compel the judge to make a ruling within
60 days.
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 Judge Chasanow 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 her to grant a new sentencing hearing that should
reduce Officer Mohr’s sentence substantially. Justice
has been severely delayed in this case.
Hearings Held in the Raymond Bunn Case
Raymond
Bunn with family.
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Because of your generous support, LELDF has taken an active
role in assisting
with attorney fees and expert witnesses in the case of Raymond
Bunn, a seven-year veteran of the Atlanta Police Department.
Officer Bunn was indicted in December 2005 by a Fulton County
Grand Jury for murder and felony murder (capital offenses in
Georgia), aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and violation
of oath.
Hearings on Raymond Bunn’s motion to dismiss the charges based on
self-defense and the speedy trial act were held in February
and March of this year. Testimony was heard by several experts
including Urey Patrick, a former FBI agent and instructor at
the FBI Training Facility at Quantico, Virginia.
Patrick examined
all the evidence and concluded that Officer Bunn was following
regulations and well within his right as an officer to defend
him self from deadly force when he fired at the oncoming vehicle.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Atlanta Police
Department supported the self-defense motion.
The Bunn legal team also placed into evidence a computerized
simulation of the incident that clearly demonstrated he was
in imminent danger of being struck by the vehicle —
and that he was in deadly physical danger — and therefore was justified
in firing at the driver.
Other expert witnesses at the hearing precisely calibrated
the actions of Officer Bunn and his partner, Officer Mulkey;
the trajectories of the bullets fired; and the speed and
direction of the SUV.
The indictment arose from an incident that occurred on July
14, 2002, at a parking lot on Peachtree Road in Atlanta. Officer
Bunn fired two shots at a Chevy Tahoe that was trying to run
him down. The driver of the vehicle, Corey Ward, was hit once
in the head and died instantly. Officers Bunn and Mulkey both
believed that their lives were in danger as the Chevy Tahoe
bore down on them. Other passengers in the vehicle confirmed
that Ward knew that Bunn and Mulkey were police officers.
Regrettably, the family of the deceased has filed a multi-million
dollar civil lawsuitagainst Officers Bunn and Mulkey and the
Police Department of Atlanta. We expect a trial to be scheduled
in the next few months.
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