Sunday, February 6, 2022

When the DA is a crook

Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore's top prosecutor, pleads not guilty to perjury charges

Mosby has claimed the charges are politically motivated

0:00 / 2:35
BeyondWords

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby pleaded not guilty Friday to charges she falsely claimed a coronavirus-related financial hardship in order to withdraw thousands of dollars from her city retirement fund in relation to vacation home purchases in Florida

Earlier last month a grand jury indicted her on two counts of perjury and making false statements on a loan application to purchase the vacation homes. She also allegedly failed to disclose past unpaid federal taxes on the mortgage applications, the indictment said. She pleaded not guilty to all four counts, FOX 45 of Baltimore reported. 

Mosby, 42, has refused to resign and has claimed the charges are politically motivated.

"This is a politically charged case," her defense attorney A. Scott Bolden said, adding that Mosby wants her trial to start within two months. "My client is in the middle of a re-election campaign. The government has decided to bring an indictment against her four or five months out."

Mosby allegedly claimed she had suffered financially because of the coronavirus on an application in order to take $90,000 from her retirement account and ultimately withdrew $81,000, according to FOX 45. In 2020, Mosby’s salary was about $247,000 and was never reduced because of the pandemic, according to the indictment. U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Mark Coulson, who presided over Friday's hearing, told Bolden he will have to take up his request for a trial date with U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby. A conference call between Griggby and the lawyers is scheduled for Feb. 23.

Mosby was elected as the state’s attorney in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. She first came to national prominence in 2015 as a prosecutor on the Freddie Gray case, a Black man who died in police custody. Mosby brought charges against six police officers but all six were ultimately acquitted or had charges against them dropped.

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