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GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A former top prosecutor for the city of
Baltimore was convicted on Thursday of charges that she lied about
the finances of a side business to improperly access retirement
funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the money to buy two
Florida homes.

A federal jury convicted former Baltimore state’s attorney Marilyn
Mosby of two counts of perjury after a trial that started Monday.

Mosby served two terms as state’s attorney for Baltimore. A federal
grand jury indicted her on perjury charges before a Democratic
primary challenger defeated her last year.

James Wyda, a lawyer for Mosby, declined to comment, citing a gag
order.

The maximum prison sentence for each count of perjury is five years,
said a statement from U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron’s office. “We
respect the jury’s verdict and remain steadfastly committed to our
mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, protect
the civil rights of all Americans, and safeguard public property,”
he said.

Mosby gained a national profile for prosecuting Baltimore police
officers after Freddie Gray, a Black man, died in police custody in
2015, which was Mosby’s first year in office. His death led to riots
and protests in the city. None of the officers were convicted.

Mosby declined to testify before her attorneys rested their case on
Wednesday. After the verdict, she said, “I’m blessed” as she left
the courthouse and entered a waiting car.

Mosby also faces separate charges of mortgage fraud. A trial date
for those charges hasn’t been set.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Mosby withdrew $90,000 from
Baltimore city’s deferred compensation plan. She received her full
salary, about $250,000 that year.

Mosby’s 2022 indictment accused her of improperly accessing
retirement funds by falsely claiming that the pandemic harmed a
travel-oriented business that she had formed. She used the
withdrawals as down payments to buy a home in Kissimmee, Florida,
and a condominium in Long Boat Key, Florida.

Prosecutors argued that Mosby wasn’t entitled to access the funds
under provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic
Security Act. They said her business, Mahogany Elite Enterprises,
had no clients or revenue and didn’t sustain any “adverse financial
consequences” from the pandemic.

“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 on Monday during the trial’s opening statements.

Mosby made separate withdrawals of $40,000 and $50,000 from the city
retirement plan. Prosecutors say the money in the account is held in
trust and belongs to the city until a plan participant is eligible
to make a withdrawal.

One of Mosby’s lawyers said she 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 devastated her business,
said federal public defender James Wyda.

During the trial’s closing arguments, Wyda said Mosby spent time and
money to start a business designed to help “women of color” in
business to travel to retreats.

“You know the world stopped when the pandemic hit” in 2020, Wyda
told jurors. “What company or business associated with the pandemic
didn’t stop when the global pandemic hit?”

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.”

During her tenure as state’s attorney, Mosby received national
recognition for her progressive policies and became a lightning rod
for criticism from those who thought she went too far. Among other
high-profile decisions, Mosby stopped prosecuting certain low-level
crimes, a practice her successor has reversed.

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 after years of negative media coverage. Prosecutors
opposed the venue change, saying Mosby had sought and encouraged
coverage of the case. ___ This story has been updated to remove an
incorrect quote from Marilyn Mosby. A previous version of this story
quoted her as saying “I don’t know what else to say,” when she
actually said “I have nothing else to say.”

https://apnews.com/article/marilyn-mosby-baltimore-prosecutor-
perjury-trial-9456e8e513baca55b364a3cc9f6cbdbf