Judge sets rules of engagement for ex-Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s perjury trial
Evidence in former Baltimore State’s attorney Marilyn Mosby’s upcoming perjury trial came into clearer focus Monday after a federal judge ruled on what prosecutors and the defense can tell the jury next week.
Mosby, facing two counts of perjury for allegedly lying on a form to get early access to a city-managed retirement account in order to purchase two Florida vacation homes, will not be allowed to refer to those funds as “her money” at trial, a tactic prosecutors thought could lead to the jury throwing the case out.
Monday’s hearing, the final one to take place in Baltimore, resolved a flurry of filings from both sides that sought to constrain the other. U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby placed limits on how prosecutors could describe the Florida homes. Words like “luxury” and descriptions about the number of bedrooms or whether they have a pool aren’t allowed; the purchase price and intended use are.
“To the extent they look lavish, it’s going to incur the perception that Ms. Mosby really didn’t need the funds,” Federal Public Defender James Wyda, Mosby’s attorney, said of his request to limit what the government can say about the homes.
Prosecutors also are barred from showing pictures of the homes, something they did not seem to have an interest in doing.
“We’re not going to run a Zillow session,” Assistant United States attorney Aaron Zelensky said, referencing the popular real estate app.
Griggsby said prosecutors could introduce some of Mosby’s previous representations about her personal travel business into evidence — including the claim that it wouldn’t be operational until after she left office. Under the CARES Act, Congress’s first COVID-19 pandemic relief bill, a person could only withdraw funds from certain retirement accounts if the coronavirus had caused them adverse financial consequences or if a business they owned had closed or saw a reduction in hours.
“I ask that you verify that I have not taken on a single client for these companies, nor have I taken in any money,” Mosby wrote in a July 2020 letter to the city’s inspector general as part of a probe into her side businesses.
Wyda signaled in court filings that Mosby’s travel business is her defense, and that she had not suffered financially otherwise during the pandemic. In fact, Mosby’s net income went up from 2019 to 2020, according to her bank statements prosecutors filed as evidence.
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The defense sought to prevent the government from showing jurors a summary chart of Mosby’s finances and to block the testimony of an FBI accountant who analyzed her income and expenses; Griggsby denied their request.
Mosby, under the shadow of her indictment, left office in January having lost her bid for a third consecutive term as Baltimore’s elected prosecutor; current State’s attorney Ivan Bates beat her in last year’s Democratic primary.
In addition to the perjury charges, Mosby faces allegations of mortgage fraud related to the purchase of the Florida homes, an eight-bedroom vacation rental in Orlando near Disney World and a two-bedroom condominium on the Gulf Coast. Prosecutors claim she misled lenders, but those charges are likely to be resolved in a separate trial after Mosby successfully had the case split earlier this year. A trial date for the mortgage fraud case has not been set.
What’s not clear is whether prosecutors can ask Mosby about her alleged mortgage fraud when she testifies in the perjury case. Attorneys for Mosby sought to block any such questions, arguing to Griggsby that asking them would prejudice the jury and infringe upon her Fifth Amendment rights. Griggsby declined to rule on that request and said a determination would be made after Mosby’s initial testimony. She is not expected to testify in the mortgage fraud trial.
Jury selection in the perjury matter is scheduled for Oct. 31 and the trial, which is expected to last about two weeks, will take place in Greenbelt after Mosby’s attorneys successfully argued to move the case from the downtown Baltimore courthouse on account of suspicions the jury pool was biased against her. Already postponed three times, it was revealed in court Monday that Mosby’s attorneys sought a fourth postponement, filing their request Friday under seal.
While the exact nature of the request is unknown, conversations about it in court suggest it had to do with a questionnaire sent to prospective jurors that listed the upcoming trial having four charges against Mosby instead of the two perjury counts. Griggsby, noting the amount of time her and attorneys have sunk into the case already, ruled against a continuance, telling the defense the court could find a sufficient number of jurors who did not receive the questionnaire.
“The court is mindful that we’ve been together now for the better part of almost two years. The court is mindful of the need to move this case to trial and resolution,” Griggsby said.
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