Marilyn Mosby sentenced to home detention for perjury, mortgage fraud

Publish date: 2024-08-29

A federal judge sentenced Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s trailblazing and embattled former top prosecutor convicted of perjury and mortgage fraud, to 12 months of home detention followed by two years of supervised release Thursday — a punishment that comes after a lengthy, highly publicized criminal prosecution that spurred tensions over race, politics and justice.

Mosby, who has been campaigning for a presidential pardon and against prison time, wiped away tears while the sentence was delivered.

U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby said Mosby had been a valuable public servant in the City of Baltimore but had demonstrated a “pattern of dishonesty” in regard to her personal finances. Mosby’s lack of contrition, as well as her role as a mother of two young daughters, weighed heavily in her sentencing decision, Griggsby said.

“This court speaks, yes, in judgment,” she told Mosby, “but also with compassion.”

In November, the 44-year-old former state’s attorney was convicted by a federal jury of two counts of perjury after prosecutors said she lied to withdraw money from her retirement account under a program built to help those struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. Prosecutors said she used that money to purchase two vacation properties in Florida — an eight-bedroom home near Disney World and a beachside condo in Longboat Key.

This year, another jury convicted her of mortgage fraud for lying to a mortgage lender during the purchase of the condo. As part of her sentence, Mosby will be required to forfeit that property to the government and complete 100 hours of community service.

Mosby, who is appealing her convictions, did not speak during her sentencing. But after the hearing, she stood outside the courthouse and said that “this is not over.”

The rise and fall of Mosby — who helped lead a wave of young Black prosecutors willing to champion justice reform — has captivated and polarized the Baltimore for nearly a decade. She assumed office in 2015 and rose to fame soon after for her prosecution of city police officers in the case of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, a Black man who died after he was taken into police custody.

During her time in office, Mosby established a conviction integrity unit, declined to prosecute sex work and marijuana possession, and became a powerful voice in the nationwide movement for greater police accountability. She sparred with other officials, including those in the Trump administration, and drew public scrutiny over her travel and business expenses. After media reports on that topic, Mosby asked the city’s inspector general to investigate her in the hopes of being absolved of wrongdoing — a probe that ultimately uncovered tax issues and spurred the federal criminal investigation.

Griggsby said it was a sad and difficult day for Mosby, her family, her supporters and Baltimore.

“The court is also sad,” Griggsby said, “that I must sit in judgment of a public official who has served that city for many years.”

The judge said she chose home detention over prison time, because of the fallout Mosby had already suffered: the collapse of her career and marriage, losing her reelection campaign for state’s attorney, potentially losing her license to practice law.

“God was here today, and I know He’s with me,” Mosby said after the sentencing. “He touched the heart of this judge and has allowed me to go home to my babies.”

Mosby arrived at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Md., on Thursday morning to cheers of “Marilyn! Marilyn!” alongside an entourage of supporters. Her daughters, dressed in white to match their mother, walked beside her through a sea of media cameras. Her ex-husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby, arrived moments later.

Prosecutor Sean Delaney opened sentencing proceedings with a blistering condemnation of Mosby’s public campaign for a presidential pardon over the past month, criticizing her for being untruthful during national TV interviews and saying she has “lied to the American public about this court’s past rulings.”

“Marilyn Mosby portrays her career as one dedicated to the pursuit of truth,” Delaney said. “But the facts show that when it comes to her own life, Marilyn Mosby doesn’t care about the truth.”

While Mosby had said in media appearances that the government wanted to separate her from her children for 40 years, Delaney said, prosecutors asked that she be sentenced to no more than 20 months in prison. He said Mosby’s claims that her prosecution was political payback, that the court put a gag order on her and that she was criminalized for taking money from her own retirement account were all a “lie.”

“She was prosecuted for lying under oath,” Delaney said.

“These lies demonstrate that Marilyn Mosby is unremorseful, that she has no regard for the truth,” he said. Delaney said Mosby has undermined the criminal justice system by questioning the verdict of 24 jurors and claiming falsely that she did not get due process.

During her repeated public denials of wrongdoing, Mosby blamed the source of her prosecution on animus from federal officials within the administration of former president Donald Trump after she charged police officers involved in detaining Gray before he died.

Mosby’s public defenders did not make that argument before the judge, asking for a sentence of only probation.

“A prison sentence for Marilyn Mosby sends all the wrong messages,” public defender James Wyda said.

But Mosby’s supporters — those who testified in court and those who rallied on her behalf — did repeat concerns over prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.

They also emphasized her love for her young daughters. They praised her for pursuing justice for underrepresented communities, challenging systemic racism in the criminal legal system and taking on police misconduct. “We need Marilyn Mosby in our community,” said J. Wyndal Gordon, a Baltimore attorney. “We need her experience, her knowledge, her training. We need her love for her community.”

Those who testified included Mosby’s brother and sister; a mother of a gun violence victim and community organizer whom Mosby had supported; a former colleague who led the prosecution of the police officers in the Gray case; and fellow attorneys, including nationally recognized civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.

Crump, in requesting leniency, told Griggsby that other people who have been convicted of white-collar crimes similar to those against Mosby received a slap on the wrist and were fined with no prison time. This time, he said, is that “under the white collar is the neck of a Black woman who dared to challenge the status quo.”

Among the most commanding speakers was Eric Simmons Forest, who was exonerated after 24 years in prison as a result of a joint investigation into his case opened by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, the University of Baltimore’s Innocence Project Clinic and the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit.

Forest said he endured three appeals and went up for parole in 2007, when he was told to never come before the board again because he had demonstrated no remorse over the crimes for which he had been convicted.

The judge, he said, should consider this example when weighing Mosby’s own statements of innocence.

Michael Eugene Johnson, 68, was among the more than 30 people who rode from Baltimore to the courthouse Thursday. Johnson, a retired educator, said he chose to support Mosby at her sentencing because of her “advocacy approach” in Baltimore and because, in his view, her actions that led to the criminal convictions should have been considered “administrative negligence” instead.

“We’ve got to be able to separate the difference between things that we consider criminal versus what we consider mistakes,” Johnson said. “A woman with two growing teenage girls, and a life that has been literally reversed … what would the purpose of removing her out of society do for society?”

As part of her sentence, Mosby will have to forfeit her Longboat Key condo, which she has been using as a rental property, because she would not have been able to purchase the home but for the fraudulent funds she used to obtain her mortgage. The other vacation home, in Kissimmee, Fla., already sold for a profit of $150,000.

In a preliminary order, Griggsby ruled that the government will get 90 percent of the appreciated value of the vacation home once Mosby sells the property — and Mosby will keep 10 percent, because that is equivalent to the original down payment she made.

When Griggsby adjourned, the courtroom erupted in applause.

Again, Mosby’s supporters cheered as she emerged from the courtroom. She stood outside with her two daughters.

The girls thanked those who supported their mother, and one proudly proclaimed that she, too, wants to be a prosecutor one day.

Mosby quoted a Bible verse from Proverbs about trusting in God, then thanked everyone “for the fight.”

“I swear God sent angels into my life,” Mosby said, “to see me when I felt like I wasn’t being seen.”

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Marilyn Mosby sentenced to home detention for perjury, mortgage fraud