---
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
created: 2026-09-23
location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
relations:
- end: 1985-04-25
  fn: 1
  type: prosecuted
  with: '[[R.C. Horsch]]'
summary: Philadelphia prosecutor quoted in April 1985 on the guilty pleas and four-year
  sentence of Raymond Charles Hoersch, the fugitive known in New Zealand as Dr Stanley
  Stokowski.
tags:
- Person
- Prosecutor
- Philadelphia
- RCHorsch
updated: 2026-09-23
---

Joanne Epps was the Philadelphia prosecutor quoted in April 1985 on the sentencing of Raymond Charles Hoersch, later [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/), who had lived in [New Zealand](/places/new-zealand/) from 1980 to 1984 as "Dr Stanley Stokowski." A Press Association report carried by *[The Press](/organizations/the-press/)* of Christchurch described her as "the Philadelphia assistant District Attorney."[^1]

### The Hoersch Sentence

According to the report, Epps said that Hoersch had pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing methamphetamine for supply and running a methamphetamine laboratory, offences committed in 1977, and that he had been sentenced to three years on the drug charges and a consecutive year and a day for jumping bail, with five years' probation to follow.[^1] The case was heard in federal court, before Judges [Joseph L. McGlynn Jr.](/people/joseph-l-mcglynn-jr/) and [Donald W. Van Artsdalen](/people/donald-w-van-artsdalen/) of the [United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania](/organizations/united-states-district-court-for-the-eastern-district-of-pennsylvania/).[^2]

### Identity

The Press Association's title for her is that of a county prosecutor in the [Philadelphia District Attorney's Office](/organizations/philadelphia-district-attorneys-office/), while the case was federal. JoAnne A. Epps (1951 to 2023), later dean of the Beasley School of Law at Temple University and the university's president, was an assistant United States attorney in Philadelphia before joining the Temple law faculty in 1985, according to the university's biography of her. No source located names her in connection with the Hoersch case.[^1][^3]

[^1]: "Ethanol 'scientist' jailed for drug offences," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 27, 1985 (Press Association). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850427.2.26
[^2]: Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," *Philadelphia Daily News,* April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/
[^3]: Temple University, Office of the President, "President JoAnne A. Epps" ("an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia and deputy city attorney in Los Angeles"). https://president.temple.edu/university-leadership/past-presidents/president-joanne-epps