OLATHE, Kan. — The family of a woman killed by a driver who was fleeing from police had hoped the judge would give Roy Lee Maney a longer sentence, but on Wednesday, the judge sentenced Maney to 188 months, or 15 ½ years in prison for the death of Tiffany Mogenson, 30.
Maney was looking at a life sentence if convicted of first degree felony murder, with no chance for parole for 25 years, but in a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to the charges of second degree murder, which brought the lesser sentence.
In October 2013 Tiffany Leigh Mogenson died in a horrific traffic accident at 75th and Roe in Prairie Village. Evidence presented in the case showed Maney was driving recklessly along 75th Street, weaving in and out of traffic in an attempt to evade police, before colliding with Mogenson’s car.
In February 2015, Mogenson’s husband expressed his disagreement with the plea agreement, which Prosecutor Lannie Ornburn had called “an appropriate resolution to the case.”
“I was there and helped pull her body out of the mangled vehicle and I didn’t see him. And I was there when I rode with her to the morgue and identified her. I didn’t see him,” said Mogenson’s husband, Mike, as he told the judge during the sentencing hearing that Maney is gutless and a coward because he didn’t stop to help Tiffany after the crash, but instead ran away.
The judge was not bound by the plea deal, but accepted it and sentenced him to less time than the family had hoped. The family says the plea deal was reached without any input from them and without their consent.
“Closure I think is a punch line used by people who are uninvolved,” Mike Mogenson said.
Tiffany Mogenson operated a dance studio in Blue Springs, Mo., and also was a Chiefs cheerleader and former Mizzou Golden Girl. A scholarship fund has been set up to keep her love of dance alive.
“There’s just an emptiness and it’s never going to go away, and whether he goes to prison, it’s irrelevant it’s why I tried to, it’s about Tiff, it’s not about him,” said Mike.
Tiffany Mogenson’s aunt, mother and sister also spoke at the hearing.
“Tiffany’s life is not defined by those few seconds that day, it is defined by all of the good she did right up to that moment,” said Tiffany’s mother, Terri Platania.
“I was the one who had to look at my daughter and tell her, her best friend in the world, her aunt Tiffany was gone,” said her sister. “It was one of here worst moments of my life.”
