Video reportedly shows Allegheny County controller grabbing officer

(Pittsburgh) — According to the Detroit News, a police video shows that Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner cursed at Detroit police officers and grabbed at one of them during an incident at a Detroit hotel last week. 

The police body cam footage reportedly shows Wagner grabbing officers multiple times, and then blocking the elevator entrance as Detroit police officers tried to lead her husband, Khari Mosley, out of the hotel. An officer asks Wagner, “Would you move out our way, please, ma’am?” The video shows Wagner reaching and grabbing the officer’s forearms after earlier warnings. He says, “Ma’am you put your hands on me; now you have to go to jail.” 

Wagner can reportedly be seen struggling with the officer and then falling to the ground, screaming, “I just want to know the reason you assaulted me. I want my attorney … let me tell you something: I’m the highest-ranking [expletive] female elected official … I’ve never been arrested.” 

The News reports that the video shows officers handcuffing Wagner, followed by Mosley asking why his wife is being detained. The officer replies: “She assaulted me. If you get an attorney, subpoena the video.” 

Wayne County prosecutors are currently reviewing a warrant request seeking assault charges against Wagner. 

The police video has not yet been publicly released, but the Detroit News obtained a copy of it. Wagner released her own video over the weekend.

Last week, Wagner and Mosley were visiting Detroit for a late holiday. After returning from a concert and dinner, Wagner went to bed, but Mosley went to the hotel bar. According the Detroit police chief, officers were called after Mosley became “belligerent.”

The News story reports that the body cam footage shows officers removed Mosley from the hotel bar. Mosley later tells officers that he was a hotel guest and the officers asked him for identification. They put him in a squad car and went up to Wagner’s room to verify the story. 

The video appears to show Wagner giggling after being asked if she knew Mosley. Wagner doesn’t answer after first, but giggles repeatedly and officers ask if she had been drinking. 

The video later shows officers going back to the squad car and letting Mosley out. He immediately raises his hands and says, “Hands up, don’t shoot, I’m not a threat.”  Mosley reportedly repeats this phrase multiple times before being escorted upstairs.

As the confrontation escalated up in the hotel hallway, Wagner told the officer: “I am the highest ranking elected official in my county.” The officer replied: “I’m not in your county.” 

Later, after Wagner grabbed the officer, he told her she was on camera. At one point, an officer pulls out his yellow taser gun, but then holsters it. On the video, Wagner reportedly says, “Please, tase me.”

Shortly later, she was arrested after allegedly assaulting one of the officers. Mosley was released by police and relocated to a nearby hotel.

In response to the Detroit News summary of police footage, Wagner and Mosley said in a statement that their rights were “grossly violated as guests of the Westin Hotel and visitors to the city of Detroit.” 

“We look forward to being fully vindicated on these matters,” the statement says. “Presently, we are taking time out to recover and spend time with our children.”