A former Maryland K-9 police officer who served 10 years in prison for setting her police dog on a homeless man was among the 29 people who were given pardons or commutations by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Stephanie Mohr was 30 years old in 2001 when she was convicted of a felony civil-rights violation. On September 21, 1995, Mohr set her police dog on Ricardo Mendez as police officers investigated a burglary. The dog took out a chunk of his leg, The Washington Post reported.
It turned out Mendez was not a burglar - he had been sleeping on the roof of the business that officers were staking out that night.
"She served 10 years in prison for releasing her K-9 partner on a burglary suspect in 1995, resulting in a bite wound requiring ten stitches," the White House said in a statement about Mohr's pardon on Wednesday. "Officer Mohr was a highly commended member of the police force prior to her prosecution.
"Today's action recognizes that service and the lengthy term that Ms. Mohr served in prison."
—National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) December 24, 2020
Earlier this month, Mohr appeared on Newsmax, a pro-Trump conservative news outlet, to plead her case for a presidential pardon, saying she had been scapegoated.
Mohr said charges were pressed one day before they were set to expire under the statute of limitations. She also said she was targeted because a federal investigation into brutality in the Prince George's County Police Department failed to result in any other convictions.
She called her 10-year sentence "harsh." She also said she had a 2-year-old son when she was sentenced and was separated from him for most of his childhood.
"I got 10 years, basically one year for every stitch that the suspect received on his calf," she said.
Mohr was traveling with her parents and her partner on Wednesday when she heard she had gotten a pardon, USA Today reported.
"So many emotions flooding through me. It's been a long, long, long battle for this. I'm just so grateful," she told the outlet.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and the National Fraternal Order of Police, the biggest police union in the US, helped push for Mohr's pardon. The National Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Among the 28 other people to whom Trump issued pardons and commutations on Wednesday were Roger Stone, the longtime Republican strategist who was convicted of seven felonies last year; Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman who was sentenced last year to 7 1/2 years in prison for multiple crimes; and Charles Kushner, the father of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Charles Kushner was convicted of tax crimes, witness tampering, and illegal campaign contributions.
Trump also pardoned or commuted the sentence of 20 other people on Tuesday. They included two Trump campaign associates who were ensnared in the FBI's Russia investigation, four Blackwater guards who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians, and two Border Patrol agents who were accused of shooting an unarmed immigrant and covering it up.
