Detroit trials set for Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner, husband
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Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner and her husband Khari Mosley told the Tribune-Review they are looking forward to their upcoming trials in Detroit courtrooms, claiming the allegations against them are false and retaliatory.
Both face criminal charges after a March 6 confrontation with police at a Detroit hotel.
Mosley’s trial is set to start Monday. Wagner’s is scheduled to begin Nov. 12. She has another pre-trial conference scheduled for Oct. 1.
“The falsifications here are glaring and appalling,” Wagner said on Tuesday. “Basically, we’ve been subjected to character assassination and misinformation.”
Mosley called it “four months of intimidation and retaliatory prosecution.”
“I look forward to my day in court,” Mosley said. “From the very beginning we have requested transparency. We want the public to know everything that happened that night from beginning to end.”
The couple haven’t raised their concerns about a false or retaliatory prosecution in court, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller said.
“We are unaware of what they are referencing,” Miller wrote in an email to the Trib after being told of the couple’s allegations.
At a pre-trial status conference Tuesday, a motion to quash the charges against Wagner was denied. She faces one felony count of resisting and obstructing the police and a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct for her role in the fracas.
Mosley is facing two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
The couple were in Detroit for a late Valentine’s Day celebration to see the rapper Nas perform with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. There have been varying accounts of what happened after the concert that night at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel.
Police say they detained Mosley after he caused a disturbance at the hotel bar, and they arrested Wagner after she assaulted a police officer.
Mosley says he was locked out of his room and was given the run-around by the front desk at the hotel, which ultimately led to the confrontation with police and a trip to the room, where Wagner was awakened by a group of officers who had her husband in custody.
Video, including a recording Wagner made with her phone, and police body camera footage has been played and parsed in and out of courtrooms in the months since. The couple contends there is a “coordinated effort” by police and hotel officials to smear their reputations and assassinate their characters, Mosley said. He called it a “clear case of incompetent misconduct.”
“Sometimes you’ve just got to take ownership of your mistakes. They screwed up,” Mosley said.
Wagner and Mosley said they intend to file civil lawsuits against the police and the hotel once the criminal cases are resolved. One of the attorneys for the couple, Kevin Mincey of Philadelphia, said he’s confident they will be exonerated.