Federal jury convicts former Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby on 2 counts of perjury

By Emma Tucker, CNN

(CNN) — Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s former top prosecutor who was thrust into the national spotlight after charging six police officers in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, was found guilty of two counts of perjury for making false statements on loan applications for two Florida vacation homes, the Justice Department said.

Mosby, 42, pleaded not guilty last year to two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements after authorities said she applied for the loans to withdraw money from her retirement accounts, tapping a CARES Act provision intended for those hurt financially during the Covid-19 pandemic, prosecutors said.

The former prosecutor is facing a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each of the two counts of perjury, the Justice Department said.

Mosby is also charged with two counts of making false mortgage applications for the vacation homes in another federal case which will be tried separately. A date for that trial has not yet been set, federal prosecutors said.

A federal grand jury indicted Mosby in January 2022 after authorities said she lied on the application by indicating she had “adverse financial consequences” due to the pandemic – even though she earned a gross salary of $247,955.58 that was “never reduced” in 2020, according to an indictment. She also failed to disclose she owed $45,000 in federal back taxes, it says.

She also allegedly said she would be the primary resident at one of the homes in order to secure a lower rate when she had already entered into an agreement with a rental management firm, the indictment says. She sold one of the homes for a $150,000 profit, The Baltimore Sun reported.

At the time, Mosby called the charges a “political ploy” and said she is “unequivocally innocent.”

CNN has contacted Mosby’s attorney for comment.

During closing arguments, Mosby’s lead attorney and federal public defender Jams Wyda said the case is “about a three-page form and what was in Marilyn Mosby’s mind when she filled it out,” CNN affiliate WBAL-TV reported. “The government spent time on things that don’t matter.”

Wyda said in court Mosby told the truth when she completed paperwork indicating the pandemic harmed her business, arguing she “established the business, put money into it and was working to make it profitable in 2020.”

“She qualified and she reasonably believed she qualified. She is innocent,” Wyda continued.

According to The Washington Post, Mosby said after the verdict outside the courthouse: “I’m blessed. I’m blessed. I have nothing else to say.”

Mosby prosecuted 6 officers in Gray case

Before becoming state’s attorney, Mosby graduated from Tuskegee University and Boston College Law School. During her studies at the latter, the Boston native worked in her hometown Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and in two US attorneys’ offices.

After graduation, she prosecuted felonies in the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office from 2006 to 2011 before entering the corporate realm as a civil litigator. She decided in the summer of 2013 to run for the Baltimore state’s attorney post.

She won and took office in January 2015.

On April 12, 2015, Freddie Gray encountered police officers in a high-crime area notorious for drug dealing. Gray, after making eye contact with police, ran. The officers arrested him on a weapons charge after finding a knife in his pocket, according to prosecutors.

Gray was put into the back of a police van without cameras, “handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained.” He was found unresponsive 40 minutes later upon arriving at the police station, prosecutors said. After slipping into a coma, Gray died one week later from a spinal cord injury. The medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide.

Less than two weeks after Gray was killed, Mosby charged six officers with misconduct along with assault, manslaughter or murder counts in the young man’s death.

While Gray’s death served as a rallying point for those decrying police brutality, none of the officers was convicted, despite the city paying Gray’s family $6.4 million. Three were tried and acquitted, prompting Mosby to drop charges against the remaining three because of the “dismal likelihood” they’d be convicted, describing the decision as “agonizing.”

Within weeks, five of the officers sued Mosby, alleging false arrest, defamation and other misdeeds. A federal appeals court ruled Mosby had immunity, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, WBAL reported.

Despite the failed prosecution, the case instigated a new push for stronger police accountability laws and set the precedent in Baltimore and in cities across the country for implementing police reform, CNN previously reported.

As a result of the case, officers are now mandated to seat belt those in custody, call a medic when it’s requested, and intervene when fellow officers cross the line, Mosby told CNN in 2021. Additionally, all police vans must be equipped with cameras.

In 2021, Mosby announced she would not prosecute drug possession and other low-level offenses, asserting there is “no public safety value.” For Black Americans, Mosby said, “These offenses can lead to a death sentence.”

CNN’s Raja Razek and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.

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