Jury selection in ex-Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s perjury trial extended after bomb scare
GREENBELT — A bomb scare at the federal courthouse further delayed the start of former Baltimore State’s attorney Marilyn Mosby’s perjury trial.
Jury selection for Mosby’s trial was scheduled to resume Wednesday morning, but all proceedings in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt were paused until noon after a bomb-sniffing dog got a whiff of something in the parking lot, according to court officials. Mosby had just arrived in court when the Department of Homeland Security shut down the building, blocking those inside from leaving and preventing others from entering the compound.
The scare was deemed to be “benign” and there was no danger to the courthouse, according to a court spokesperson. The ordeal was not related to Mosby’s case.
Opening arguments in Mosby’s case — when attorneys on both sides lay out to the jury how they see the case — were supposed to begin Thursday morning, but the parking lot incident delayed jury selection. The parties also broke early for Halloween on day one of jury selection, which had been expected to finish Wednesday.
The trial itself is now slated to start Monday.
[ Marilyn Mosby’s perjury trial in federal court comes at a turning point for polarizing former Baltimore prosecutor ]
Prospective jurors initially were asked 59 yes-no questions before being questioned further by U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby and attorneys for both sides. Identified only by juror number, they’re questioned in public and in private about any biases they may have, whether they know anybody involved in the case or knew previously about the charges against Mosby.
Some jurors admitted to reading about the case online once they had received their summons. One juror, a man, said he checked the court calendar after getting his summons for jury duty and saw Mosby’s name on the list. Figuring he might be on her case, he said he read her indictment.
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Other jurors said they have a general sense that the justice system is not fair. While most people who expressed that view in the public part of their questioning said it was their belief the system is not fair to people of color, one would-be juror said they believed the FBI and Department of Justice unfairly targeted Republicans.
“I just feel there are Republicans that are judged differently than Democrats,” she said. “It’s strictly political for me. It’s at the highest tier. I don’t have proof or anything, it’s just what I hear.”
Attorneys need to select 12 jurors and four alternates from a pool of 64. All the jurors will come from Southern Maryland, meaning none will be from Baltimore, where Mosby held office. Griggsby moved the trial from Baltimore after Mosby’s attorneys successfully argued they would be unable to sit an impartial jury there. Jury selection will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.
The delay means Mosby’s more than two-year battle with federal prosecutors and investigators will continue just a little longer. At issue in this trial is whether Mosby lied on two forms so she could make early withdrawals from her city-managed retirement account. Under the CARES Act, Congress’ first pandemic relief bill, people could make otherwise prohibited withdrawals from retirement accounts if they had suffered an adverse financial consequence or a business they owned had closed or saw a reduction in hours as a result of COVID-19.
Mosby’s salary didn’t decrease in 2020. She plans to argue at trial that her travel business, Mahogany Elite Travel, was unable to operate because of the pandemic, according to court filings. Prosecutors are likely to point to a series of statements Mosby made, through her office’s former spokesperson and personal attorneys, in which she said there were no plans to operate the business while she was in elected office.
Her second four-year term ended in January and there are no term limits on the office of state’s attorney.
The trial is likely to last into the second full week of November. Mosby also faces two mortgage fraud charges but those are set to be tried separately; a trial date has not been scheduled. Prosecutors say she used the money from her retirement accounts, about $100,000, to purchase two Florida homes and misled lenders about her finances on both mortgage applications.
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