BALTIMORE – Former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s is facing perjury charges for reportedly making fraudulent mortgage applications. Her trial was delayed until November after her entire defense team quit last month, according to an order issued Monday.
The charges against the embattled former prosecutor allege that she falsely claimed a financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic to withdraw $90,000 from her retirement accounts, then used those funds to place down payments on two vacation properties in Florida. She pleaded not guilty last year, Fox News reported.
Although Mosby claimed a financial hardship, prosecutors say she was fully compensated by her annual salary of $247,955.58 in 2020, the same year she withdrew monies from her retirement accounts. Hence, prosecutors say she lied on mortgage applications by failing to reveal unpaid federal taxes.
A. Scott Bolden was Mosby’s former lead defense attorney. He quit last month after U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby threatened to hold him in contempt of court. He was scolded by the judge on several fronts, which included accusing prosecutors of harboring racial animus, using profanity in an interview outside the Baltimore courthouse, and disclosing confidential responses from jurors in court filings, according to Fox.
Bolden withdrew from the case, saying he needed to focus on his own defense instead of Mosby’s. The other lawyers at his firm working on the case faced a conflict because of that.
Mosby lost her bid for reelection last year in the Democratic primary once she was charged with perjury in federal court.
Mosby became widely known as she unsuccessfully tried to prosecute six Baltimore police officers after Freddie Grey died in the back of a police van in 2015. A judge acquitted the first three officers during trial, and charges were eventually dropped against the remaining three.
Moreover, Baltimore’s former top prosecutor created controversy when she directed her staff to discontinue filing cases involving quality-of-life crimes like drug possession and prostitution at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. She reasoned that it was necessary to reduce the chance of outbreaks in jail facilities.
With a new federal public defender in place in Mosby’s case, jury selection is scheduled to begin Oct. 31 with the trial set to get underway by Nov. 2. She previously requested a change in venue, but the judge denied it.
The perjury charge carries an exposure of up to five years in prison, while the false mortgage applications has a maximum 30-year term.
