Former Mason City Police Officer Maria Ohl in a photo from 2003.
Maria Lee Ohl will be back in the courtroom in Mason City, Iowa, next week, when the appeal process gets underway in her ongoing dispute with the city of Mason City and its Police Department. You may recall former officer Ohl was fired last year; Her dismissal was later upheld by the Civil Service Commission, and she was declared unfit for duty as a police officer.
This is the next step in the process that began with Ohl’s firing from her former employer in August, 2011. A federal lawsuit and jury trial connected with the case has been scheduled for June 24, 2013. Ohl has named the city of Mason City, City Administrator Brent Trout and Mason City Police Chief Michael Lashbrook as defendants. She is alleging two counts of sex discrimination, two counts of religious discrimination and three counts of retaliation stemming from her time as a police
officer.
Ohl served as a Mason City officer for ten years, starting in 2001. She spent part of her service with the department as a K-9 officer, when she and her canine companion trained in narcotics searching and tracking.
The upcoming appeals hearing on October 24 might be just another routine court proceeding were it not for Ohl’s spectacular claims of officer involvement in Jodi Huisentruit’s high profile disappearance case 17 years ago. Last year, Ohl publicly spoke out against two fellow police officers and a former DCI agent who investigated Huisentruit’s disappearance. Though the attorneys involved
will no doubt continue their attempt to focus only on the job aspect, we might expect to hear some new details concerning Ohl’s
suspicions to be revealed.
FindJodi.com’s Gary Peterson along with other website contributors will be on hand at the hearing next week filing several reports throughout the trial. Check back often.
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FindJodi will have complete coverage of the Maria #Ohl Trial on October 24th from the Cerro Gordo Co. Courthouse in Mason City, #Iowa.
— FindJodi, Inc. (@findjodi) October 17, 2012
