Stephanie Mohr to Newsmax TV: Pardon Me, President Trump

A Maryland canine officer who served 10 years for releasing her dog on an illegal immigrant, burglary suspect is seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump to undo the politically motivated, anti-police, "miscarriage of justice."

"President Trump has been a great supporter of law enforcement, probably the biggest supporter of presidents in modern history," former Prince George County police canine officer Stephanie Mohr told Newsmax TV's "John Bachman Now" on Monday. "I humbly ask him to consider my case and review my pardon.

"I believe that justice has yet to make its final finish on my case, and President Trump is able to do that."

Officer Mohr served the maximum 10-year sentence for a civil rights violation after her dog bit a fleeing burglary suspect, an illegal immigrant, causing 10 stitches in his calf on Sept. 21, 1995. She was then just a 24-year-old police rookie.

"I was a very young police officer, riding with my training officer," she told host John Bachman. "I had to utilize my dog to arrest two suspects that were breaking into a building in the middle of the night."

She followed departmental procedures in effect at the time, acted on the instructions of her training officer, and no complaints were issued about the "force that was used to make the arrest."

But, "Five years later, much to my surprise, one day before the statute of limitations was set to expire," she said, "my training officer and I were indicted by the Department of Justice by the Federal government."

Officer Mohr, who had a 2-year-old son at home, says she was scapegoated to satisfy The Washington Post after an FBI investigation into alleged brutality by the Prince George's County Police Department failed to result in any other convictions. Her first trial acquitted her of one charge and ended in a hung jury on the other, but a second trial brought a conviction and the 10-year sentence.

"In the second trial, which was nothing like the first – the first trial was all about the facts of the case – the second was basically a character assassination of myself," Mohr said, noting she was incarcerated for 10 formative years of her then-toddler son's life.

"Such a harsh sentence," she continued, noting that year's average sentence for the same charge was a mere 33 months. "I got 10 years, basically one year for every stitch that the suspect received on his calf."

President of the Legal Defense Fund Jason C. Johnson is helping lead the campaign for Mohr's retroactive pardon.

"The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, which has stood with her throughout her post-conviction appeals, is now asking President Trump to grant Stephanie Mohr a pardon," Johnson wrote in an op-ed for the The Washington Times. "We strongly believe President Trump should pardon Stephanie Mohr.

"Mr. President, by any measure, this good police officer has paid whatever debt she owed society. She underwent two highly publicized federal trials before losing her career, her freedom and 10 years of her son's childhood — all for a dog bite."

National Fraternal Order of Police President Patrick Yoes officially sent a letter requesting the pardon to President Trump in late November:

"Mr. President, you know better than most about injustice and unfairness. What happened to Officer Mohr was both. Since completing her sentence in 2011, she has rebuilt her life and reconnected with her son, who was only three when she went to prison.

"But her conviction and the unjust ordeal of her incarceration haunts her personal and professional life. As the National President of the Fraternal Order of Police and speaking with the voices of our more than 356,000 members, I am calling on you to use your power to mend this miscarriage of justice and to pardon Stephanie C. Mohr and erase her wrongful conviction."

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