Current:Home > MarketsTrial opens for ex-top Baltimore prosecutor charged with perjury tied to property purchases -AssetLink
Trial opens for ex-top Baltimore prosecutor charged with perjury tied to property purchases
View
Date:2025-04-17 15:46:43
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A former top Baltimore prosecutor lied about her finances during the COVID-19 pandemic to improperly access retirement funds that she used to buy two homes in Florida, a federal prosecutor said Monday at the start of Marilyn Mosby’s perjury trial.
“This case is about a lawyer and a public servant who placed her own selfish interests above the truth,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Delaney told jurors during the trial’s opening statements.
A defense attorney countered that Mosby — who gained a national profile for prosecuting Baltimore police officers after Freddie Gray, a Black man, died in police custody — was legally entitled to withdraw the money and spend it however she wanted. Mosby told the truth when she certified on paperwork that the pandemic harmed a travel-related business that she formed, said the lawyer, Maggie Grace.
“This case is about a three-page form and what was in Marilyn Mosby’s mind when she completed that form,” said Grace, an assistant federal public defender.
Mosby, who served two terms as state’s attorney for Baltimore, was indicted on perjury charges before a Democratic primary challenger defeated her last year.
The 2022 indictment accuses her of withdrawing $90,000 in retirement funds from her city account while falsely claiming that she had suffered financial hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic. She used the withdrawals as down payments to buy a home in Kissimmee, Florida, and a condominium in Long Boat Key, Florida.
A. Scott Bolden, a lawyer who initially represented Mosby but later withdrew from the case, has described the charges as “bogus” and claimed the case is “rooted in personal, political and racial animus.”
In 2015, her first year in office, Mosby pursued criminal charges against six police officers in Freddie Gray’s death. Gray suffered a spinal injury after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him headfirst into a van. His death led to riots and protests in the city. None of the officers was convicted.
U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby agreed to move Mosby’s trial from Baltimore to Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
Mosby’s attorneys argued that she couldn’t get a fair trial in Baltimore, where they said she has been a “lightning rod” for nearly a decade, bombarded by negative press coverage and “dogged by persistent criticism of her prosecutorial priorities.”
Prosecutors said Mosby was complaining about press coverage that she had sought and encouraged.
Mosby is charged with two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements on a loan application.
Mosby made withdrawals of $40,000 and $50,000 from Baltimore city’s deferred compensation plan in 2020. Mosby received her full salary of approximately $250,000 that year.
Prosecutors say the money in the retirement account is held in trust and belongs to the city until a plan participant is eligible to make a withdrawal. They argue that Mosby wasn’t entitled under federal law to access the funds in 2020 because her business, Mahogany Elite Enterprises, did not suffer any “adverse financial consequences” from the pandemic.
“It had no clients. It made no revenue,” Delaney said.
Grace said prosecutors can’t prove that Mosby lied about her finances and knowingly made a false statement on the form for accessing her retirement funds.
“That is a high bar that the government cannot meet. And the government cannot meet it because Ms. Mosby’s is innocent,” she said.
veryGood! (6234)
Related
- US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
- California restaurant used fake priest to get workers to confess sins, feds say
- Trump Weakens Endangered Species Protections, Making It Harder to Consider Effects of Climate Change
- Mass shooting in St. Louis leaves 1 juvenile dead, 9 injured, police say
- San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo
- With 10 Appointees on the Ninth Circuit, Trump Seeks to Tame His Nemesis
- Mormon crickets plague parts of Nevada and Idaho: It just makes your skin crawl
- Biden Names Ocasio-Cortez, Kerry to Lead His Climate Task Force, Bridging Democrats’ Divide
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Biden administration says fentanyl-xylazine cocktail is a deadly national threat
Ranking
- Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
- Sarah Jessica Parker Shares Sweet Tribute to Matthew Broderick for Their 26th Anniversary
- 146 dogs found dead in home of Ohio dog shelter's founding operator
- Strep is bad right now — and an antibiotic shortage is making it worse
- Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September
- West Virginia's COVID vaccine lottery under scrutiny over cost of prizes, tax issues
- Johnson & Johnson proposes paying $8.9 billion to settle talcum powder lawsuits
- Mass shooting in St. Louis leaves 1 juvenile dead, 9 injured, police say
Recommendation
How to watch new prequel series 'Dexter: Original Sin': Premiere date, cast, streaming
Judges' dueling decisions put access to a key abortion drug in jeopardy nationwide
Documents in abortion pill lawsuit raise questions about ex-husband's claims
'You forget to eat': How Ozempic went from diabetes medicine to blockbuster diet drug
Taylor Swift makes surprise visit to Kansas City children’s hospital
What we know about the Indiana industrial fire that's forced residents to evacuate
Shark Week 2023 is here! Shop nautical merch from these brands to celebrate the occasion
Teens, trust and the ethics of ChatGPT: A bold wish list for WHO as it turns 75