Three women are suing Anne Arundel County and the police department for wrongfully hiring a police officer who they said groped one of them and asked the others to expose their breasts during traffic stops.
Officer Joseph Mosmiller, 23, of Pasadena, took a cell phone picture of himself groping a female driver, then 18, and asked the passenger to flash him Jan. 20, 2007, according to the lawsuit filed recently in Anne Arundel Circuit Court. The Examiner is withholding the names of the women, each of whom filed separate lawsuits.
A third woman said Mosmiller asked her to flash him Dec. 5, 2006, according to the lawsuit.
Mosmiller, a two-year department veteran, resigned after he was convicted of misconduct in the January incident, according to court records. The assault and sex offense charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement.
In July, Anne Arundel Circuit Judge William Mulford II sentenced him to three years in prison, suspending all but six days. He was then placed on 30 days of house arrest.
The lawsuits specifically name former Police Chief P. Thomas Shanahan as a defendant because he hired Mosmiller.
Current Police Chief James Teare Sr. is named because “it happened on his watch” and he should have fired Mosmiller, said John Hamilton Jr., the attorney for the victims.
“We have information that we believe is valid that Mosmiller never should have been hired ? that he had failed certain tests,” Hamilton said.
The women, each seeking about $3.5 million, claim negligent hiring, false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress, public humiliation, assault and civil rights violations, Hamilton said.
“This apparently happened four or five different times … but some of the other women did notwant to come forward,” Hamilton said.
Police spokesman Cpl. Mark Shawkey declined comment.
