Marilyn Mosby’s Day in Court Ends Badly

Long-time readers likely know that we’ve been covering the checkered history of former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and her now ex-husband and City Council President Nick Mosby for the better part of a decade. Marilyn Mosby first rose to the wrong sort of fame in the wake of the Freddie Gray riots when she decided to attempt to prosecute the police instead of the rioters. But the closer reporters (and eventually criminal investigators) looked into the affairs of the Charm City power couple, the more fishy things began to appear. They were doing awfully well for two people supposedly living on the salaries of public servants and a lot of their paperwork didn’t add up. Finally, in 2022, the walls began closing in and Mosby was indicted on multiple charges including fraud, tax evasion, and perjury. Those trials have been playing out ever since, with Mosby being found guilty on perjury charges in November and this week, one of the two counts of fraud against her. (CBS News)

Former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has been found guilty of one of her two mortgage fraud charges.

The jury decided on the split verdict after deliberating for about eight hours.

Mosby was on trial for mortgage fraud in relation to her two Florida vacation homes.

A sentencing date has not yet been set for Mosby. She is also facing sentencing after she was found guilty of two counts of perjury last November.

It’s surprising that Mosby was only found guilty of one of the two fraud counts. She and her husband (at the time) had been running a rather complicated scam that allowed them to purchase two luxury vacation homes in Florida despite their lack of any obvious sources of income that would allow that sort of lavish lifestyle. It turns out they had been shuffling money around to allow them to claim that they qualified for COVID relief programs to get better loan rates. They filed tax returns reflecting that information, fraudulently of course. They probably had some extra cash to flash because they somehow kept forgetting to pay their taxes. In some cases, they didn’t even pay their utility bills. 

Everywhere the Mosby’s went, trouble seemed to follow. The deeper investigators looked, the more suspicious activity bubbled to the surface. Both of the Mosbys wound up being investigated for campaign finance irregularities. Through it all, Marilyn Mosby insisted that she and Nick were pure as the driven snow. All of the allegations against them were driven by racism, sexism, jealousy, or anything else. But the public has finally had its day in court and at least some of the truth has been brought to light.

So what happens next? Sentencing has not been scheduled yet but it’s expected to take place next month for all of the convictions. She’s facing up to 30 years on the fraud charge for filing a false mortgage application. She additionally faces up to five years on each of the two perjury convictions. But it would be highly unusual for anyone who has worked in law enforcement and who has no prior convictions to receive anything close to the maximum. But three serious charges involving a betrayal of the public trust are an awful lot to swallow all at once. Would they really let her off with some sort of probation or public service in cases of this serious nature? It seems unlikely, but this is Baltimore we’re talking about. Three of their last five mayors wound up leaving office when they went to jail and one of them was a leading contender to take back the office after they were released. Pretty much anything can happen there and the sky is the limit for Democrats.