A woman who reached a $3 million settlement with Ramsey County last year after alleging that correctional officers used excessive force in the county jail was charged Monday with stealing from a St. Paul Target store and assaulting a police officer.

Police responded to Target at 1300 University Ave. about 10 a.m. Saturday on a report of a woman who hid items in a bag and swung it at a security guard.

Mira Monique Mozuch-Stafford (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Officers located a woman matching the suspect’s description walking on University Avenue with a pink bag. She was identified as Mira Monique Mozuch-Stafford, 31, of St. Paul.

While in the back of the squad car, Mozuch-Stafford screamed profanities and said that if the officer was on the street she would beat her up, charges say.

A Target employee identified the bag as the one Mozuch-Stafford used to steal the items and swing at the security guard, charges say. The value of merchandise she stole was just shy of $210.

While being transported to jail, Mozuch-Stafford repeatedly kicked the back of the driver’s seat, yelled profanities and spit at the officer through slits in the window partition of the squad car, according to the charges.

At jail, because of her “disorderly behavior,” Mozuch-Stafford was not immediately booked and had to be isolated, according to the criminal complaint charging her with felony fourth-degree assault of a peace officer and misdemeanor theft.

Mozuch-Stafford made a first court appearance on the charges Tuesday and remailed jailed in lieu of $35,000 bail. Her public defender did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Civil rights lawsuit

In late 2022, Miri Mozuch-Stafford filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Ramsey County and various sheriff’s office correctional officers, alleging they took her to the ground in the jail on Feb. 8, 2021, badly breaking her leg, and that she “languished in agony” for 17 hours before receiving hospital treatment. Her tibia was fractured and an artery was severed, the lawsuit said.

Miri Monique Mozuch-Stafford sued Ramsey County and employees over injuries she sustained at the jail on Feb. 8, 2021. (Photo filed with the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minnesota)

Mozuch-Stafford had more than $360,000 in medical expenses. She is a nursing assistant by training and experience, but “will be partially or totally unable to perform such work or similar work,” the lawsuit said.

The county denied the allegations about the takedown in its legal response to the lawsuit.

A judge approved the $3 million settlement, which included covering attorney fees and court costs, in June 2023 and, as a result, dismissed the lawsuit.

Other trouble

Mozuch-Stafford has three additional open criminal court cases.

Last month, she was charged with motor vehicle theft and fifth-degree assault for allegedly jumping into a man’s running car as he went into a St. Paul restaurant to grab his food order. After the man opened his driver’s side door, she punched him in the arm several times, the charges say. She was granted a conditional release to treatment pending further proceedings, according to court records.

She was charged with felony fifth-degree drug possession (methamphetamine) in Goodhue County in September and December. In early January, she was found to be incompetent to proceed with the cases and failed to appear at hearings later that month, court records show.

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