Controller Chelsa Wagner's husband seeks Detroit jury trial on disorderly conduct charge

Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner’s husband is set to stand trial next month in a misdemeanor case stemming from an altercation between the couple and police officers at a Detroit hotel.

Khari Mosley, 42, who pleaded not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace, requested through his attorneys a jury trial during a hearing Wednesday before Wayne County Judge Kenneth King in Detroit.

Mosley was not present for the hearing. He was represented by Detroit attorney Charles Longstreet, who is defending Mosley along with Philadelphia attorney Thomas Fitzpatrick. Mosley’s attorneys declined to comment on Wednesday.

Both Mosley and Wagner, who is seeking re-election, have disputed the way Detroit authorities and hotel officials have described an encounter in early March.

Detroit police arrested Wagner on March 6 at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. Wagner and Mosley were staying at the hotel while visiting the city on a belated Valentine’s Day getaway.

Police say they detained Mosley after he caused a disturbance at the hotel bar and front desk when hotel staff refused to give him an extra key to his room, where Wagner was sleeping with her phone set to “do not disturb” mode. Officials say left the couple at the room, but immediately returned when they heard loud kicking against the door and arrested Wagner after she allegedly assaulted a police officer.

In a statement, Wagner’s representatives said that the case “was outrageously overcharged, with charges entered the day after the (Detroit) solicitor received a letter from Wagner’s attorneys indicating she would be filing suit.”

Last month, a judge ordered Wagner, 41, of Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood, to stand trial on a felony charge of resisting and obstructing the police and a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. Prosecutors played police body camera video from the incident that provided visuals to go with the eyewitness testimony that also showed Wagner swearing and boasting about her position with Allegheny County.

The judge dismissed another charge of resisting and obstruction, which Wagner’s representatives hailed as a victory because it throws out “half of the case against Wagner.”

But the judge disagreed that the charges be dropped altogether, saying that the video evidence showed that police used restraint and “discretion, trying to de-escalate the situation rather than arrest them — and from the video I saw they probably could have,” according to Detroit News crime reporter George Hunter, who attended the hearing.

”Instead they took them up to the room and said, ‘Sleep it off,’ ” the judge said.

The judge said that the video showed Wagner “putting her hands on that officer,” and added that “an assault doesn’t have to be violent.”

Wagner’s next court date is set for June 19.

Under Pennsylvania law, if convicted, Wagner could be removed from office.