GREENBELT, Maryland – A former top prosecutor for Baltimore City will be sentenced this week for lying about her personal finances so she could improperly access retirement funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s sentencing is expected to begin Thursday in federal court in Greenbelt, a Maryland suburb of the nation’s capital. Two juries separately convicted Mosby on charges of perjury and mortgage fraud following trials involving his personal finances.
Mosby, 44, gained national attention for charging six Baltimore police officers in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a black man fatally injured in police custody. Gray’s death sparked riots and protests in the city. After three officers were acquitted, Mosby’s office dropped charges against the other three officers.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Mosby withdrew $90,000 from the city of Baltimore’s deferred compensation plan. She used the money for down payments on vacation homes in Kissimmee and Long Boat Key, Florida.
Prosecutors argued that Mosby improperly accessed funds under provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act by falsely claiming that the pandemic had harmed his travel-focused side business.
Mosby’s lawyers argued that she had a legal right to withdraw the money and spend it however she wanted.
Federal prosecutors recommended a 20-month prison sentence for Mosby, who served two terms as Baltimore state’s attorney. She lost her re-election bid following her 2022 indictment.
“EM. Mosby was charged and convicted because she chose to repeatedly break the law, not because of her politics or policies,” prosecutors wrote.
Mosby’s lawyers asked the judge to spare her prison time. They said she is the only public official who has been prosecuted in Maryland for federal crimes “that implicate no victims, no financial loss and no use of public funds.”
“Prison is not justice for Marilyn Mosby,” her lawyers wrote.
Mosby requested a presidential pardon earlier this month. In a letter to President Joe Biden, the Congressional Black Caucus expressed support for his cause, the Baltimore Sun reported.
U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby agreed to move Mosby’s trials from Baltimore to Greenbelt, a Washington, D.C. suburb. Mosby’s lawyers argued that she could not get a fair trial in Baltimore after years of negative media coverage there.
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