Judge upholds criminal conviction of former infamous Baltimore DA

One week after a jury convicted former Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby of fraud, the federal judge overseeing her case denied a defense motion for acquittal, meaning that Mosby's conviction will stand, at least for now.

The charges against the controversial prosecutor stem from false statements made by Mosby on a mortgage application on a Florida condo in order to lock in a lower interest rate. Separately, she was charged and convicted in November 2023 with two counts of perjury for lies she told to investigators who were looking into the transaction. In the most recent criminal case against her, Mosby faced two charges of mortgage fraud, and was convicted of one of those charges by the jury.

In their arguments and briefs, Mosby's defense attorneys argued that the prosecution had charged Mosby in an improper venue, claiming they failed to sufficiently prove that she was in Maryland at the time she wrote and sent the "gift letter" document that formed the basis of the fraud charges. U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby disagreed, upholding Mosby's conviction and ordering Mosby to surrender her passport.

During the hearing, the courtroom was packed with Mosby's supporters, who perhaps predictably claimed that Mosby was being persecuted because of her race and/or gender. "You're going to come after this one Black woman over a gift letter? Come on now, that is ridiculous," said one supporter to WJZ-TV. Another, who identified herself as Nia 2X of the National Action Network, said, "We know her soul. We know her spirit. She is our sister, our leader."

Mosby made national headlines in 2021 when she announced that her office would respond to a crime surge in Baltimore by refusing to prosecute prostitution, drug possession or other 'low level' crimes, on the theory that this approach would somehow lead to less crime. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this approach was not successful, as these so-called 'low level' crimes promptly began to run even more rampant in Baltimore, leading to a crisis as a number of Baltimore businesses refused to pay taxes until order was restored in certain parts of the city. The situation became so dire that in November 2021 Maryland governor Larry Hogan threatened to withhold funding for Mosby's office if they did not begin to actually prosecute crime in the city.

Mosby's tenure as prosecutor was so ineffective that she was ultimately defeated in the Democratic primary in 2022, thus ending her tenure as prosecutor.