ROHRER'S CRIMINAL RECORD EXPUNGED

ROHRER'S CRIMINAL RECORD EXPUNGED WAS ACCUSED OF KILLING SON THROUGH CHILD ABUSE
Author: Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer

Mimi Rohrer no longer has a criminal record.

During a five-minute proceeding in Superior Court in Camden yesterday, Superior Court Judge A. Donald Bigley expunged her record, leaving her free to say she has not been arrested.

Rohrer, the estranged wife of Haddon Township Mayor William G. Rohrer, had been accused of killing her young son, Billie, through a pattern of child abuse in 1975. Her three-month trial on charges of second-degree murder ended Dec. 17 when a Superior Court jury in Camden could not agree on a verdict.

The jurors deliberated for seven hours before telling Judge David G. Eynon that they were hopelessly split on a verdict. Eynon declared a mistrial. A few months later, the state attorney general's office decided not to retry the case.

"The order is granted," Bigley said as Rohrer, 44, and her younger brother, Mark Mungello, sat at the counsel table. Rohrer, tanned and with a curly hairdo, did not look drawn as she had during the trial.

But her composure dissipated quickly when a newspaper photographer tried to take her picture immediately after the proceeding. She flung down her briefcase, tossed aside her purse, pulled off her suit jacket and threw it over her head as she dashed from the Hall of Justice.

Once outside, she stood and talked to her brother for nearly a half-hour with her jacket over her head.

Although Rohrer's criminal record has been expunged, her legal problems have not ended. Her husband has said he intends to file for divorce, and her attorney, Raymond M. Brown of Newark, N.J., has sued the estranged couple for nonpayment of legal fees.

In February 1975, the Rohrers adopted Billie and a girl, Laura, in El Salvador and brought them home. Laura, 11, lives with her mother in a spacious Colonial home overlooking Cooper River in Haddon Township.

Billie died May 28, 1975, of head bruises and bleeding. At the time, the medical examiner ruled that Billie's injuries were self-inflicted.

During the trial, pathologists testified about bruise marks found all over Billie's body, and a forensic dentist testifying for the prosecution said the boy had been bitten on his neck and buttock. Testimony about Billie's age when he died - 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 - varied.

Rohrer was indicted by a grand jury Dec. 3, 1982, more than two years after the statute of limitations for manslaughter charges had lapsed. Throughout the case, she insisted that she was not guilty. "They think I beat him," she said in December. ". . . Look, I'm not a child-beater."

The jury, which was split 10-2 in favor of acquittal, said in interviews later that the consensus was that Rohrer had abused Billie and perhaps caused his death - although without murderous malice or intent.

Rohrer missed two days of the trial in October when she went to Washington to complain to Democratic Party leaders that Brown was conspiring with her husband, a prominent Republican politician in South Jersey and the founder of First Peoples Bank, to keep his name out of the case. She tried to fire Brown, and he tried to quit. Eynon, however, ordered that Brown remain as Rohrer's attorney.

As a result of missing the two days of the trial without permission, Rohrer was jailed for several weeks. Brown and her Philadelphia attorney, Nino V. Tinari, ended up exchanging lawsuits - accusing each other of slander and unprofessionalism.

Brown's law firm, Brown, Brown & Furst of Newark, filed suit June 4 in Essex County against the Rohrers, saying the couple failed to pay $37,000 to his firm and an additional $128,766 in fees to defense investigators and expert witnesses - including a doctor who flew from El Salvador to testify about the effect of poverty on a child's development.

William Rohrer, 75, said that his legal bills for his wife's defense were $760,000 but that he balked at paying the last $166,000 because Brown's law firm had failed to provide an itemized accounting of the expenses.

William Rohrer, who has been living at a condominium close to his bank's Westmont office, said last month that he planned to divorce his wife because ''I can't put up with her the way she is. I'm sad that I have to leave Laura." He said his wife had turned Laura against him.

A divorce settlement would be sizable, William Rohrer said. "If I could get rid of her for ($760,000)," he said, "I would be happy."

Copyright (c) 1985 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Record Number: 8502130435