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Law enforcement circles are celebrating the fraud conviction of former top Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby, who for a decade feuded with police in her city and had several other brushes with the law. The two-term Democrat former state attorney now faces up to 40 years in prison after being convicted on Tuesday of using a bogus COVID hardship claim to tap into her retirement funds to buy a luxury condo in Long Boat Key on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Mosby’s critics now say they ‘can’t wait’ to see her behind bars after her ‘failed leadership’ undercut the police department, exacerbating the city’s soaring crime rates. ‘The consequences of that failed leadership are going to last for generations,’ Medal of Valor recipient and police officer Dave Goitia told DailyMail.com. ‘The victims are the people of Baltimore that suffer violent crime because of a police department that is completely demoralized.’ Former police sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith added that she ‘can’t wait’ for Mosby’s sentencing, condemning the impact her tenure had on police relations in her city.
In particular, Mosby was criticized for her handling of the controversial death of Freddie Gray in 2015, whose death in police custody sparked riots and looting across the city until Mosby brought charges against six police officers who arrested him. After she failed to convict any of the cops amid claims the charges were unjust – and the DOJ declined to press charges after a federal investigation – some in law enforcement argued she caved to pressure from rioters and targeted the officers as ‘sacrificial lambs.’
Mosby also had her own brushes with the law, including a $45,000 tax lien on one of her fraudulent Florida properties despite reportedly earning almost $250,000 a year. Gray’s death in custody was mired in controversy after he was arrested for possessing a knife, which he legally held under Maryland law. In scenes replayed on screens across America, the 25-year-old was seen being hauled into the back of a police van, where he was left unsecured in handcuffs before suffering a fatal injury to his neck and spine. Gray died a week later.
His death led to widespread protests and looting seen as part of a larger backlash to other recent police killings such as that of Michael Brown. Lasting around two weeks, the protests saw 113 police officers injured, and 486 people arrested. The unrest seemingly calmed once Mosby charged the six officers involved, including the driver of the police van with murder. It later emerged that Mosby had close ties to Gray’s family attorney, who had donated $4,000 to her election campaign and held a role on her transition team. The relationship fueled questions over whether the criminal charges were an overstep.
Her handling of the charges was quickly questioned by former Baltimore Deputy Stater Attorney Page Croyder, who wrote in a scathing Op-ed for the Baltimore Sun that her investigation ‘ignored’ key elements that would have changed the narrative. ‘Any prosecutor interested in the truth and in justice would have used all the tools at her disposal to find them. Ms. Mosby ignored them,’ she wrote. ‘She has one of the most experienced homicide prosecutors in the state of Maryland as chief of her homicide unit but did not ask him to investigate. She had the police report all of one day before filing charges, her mind was already made up. ‘And she failed to make use of the grand jury to gather, probe and test the evidence before a group of average citizens.
!['If there was evidence immediately available that showed that a police officer had broken [Gray¿s] neck, there would have been an immediate arrest. This is not that situation. This is a situation that called for an investigation, and she did not use all of the tools available to her to do a completely thorough investigation.' In September 2015, the accused began separate bench trials - meaning they were tried by a judge instead of a jury - beginning with the quick mistrial of Officer William Porter. In subsequent trials, Officers Edward Nero, Brian Rice, and Ceasar Goodson were acquitted of manslaughter, and all remaining charges were dropped. Following her conviction for fraud this week, the controversial case returned to focus - with Front Page Magazine running a headline: 'Marilyn Mosby finally gets a conviction. Her own.' 'Finally, justice has been done.'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/08/19/81023637-13062705-_If_there_was_evidence_immediately_available_that_showed_that_a_-a-35_1707421089340.jpg)
‘If there was evidence immediately available that showed that a police officer had broken [Gray’s] neck, there would have been an immediate arrest. This is not that situation. This is a situation that called for an investigation, and she did not use all of the tools available to her to do a completely thorough investigation.’ In September 2015, the accused began separate bench trials – meaning they were tried by a judge instead of a jury – beginning with the quick mistrial of Officer William Porter. In subsequent trials, Officers Edward Nero, Brian Rice, and Ceasar Goodson were acquitted of manslaughter, and all remaining charges were dropped. Following her conviction for fraud this week, the controversial case returned to focus – with Front Page Magazine running a headline: ‘Marilyn Mosby finally gets a conviction. Her own.’ ‘Finally, justice has been done.’
Goitia, currently the president of the Glendale Police Department’s Fraternal Order of Police organization, said he knew the officers involved and they ‘never recovered.’ The US Department of Justice subsequently opened an investigation, a decision it took on account of the ‘serious erosion of public trust’ in the investigation. After two years, the DOJ declined to bring federal charges. Officer Goitia, who received a Medal of Valor in 2007 for risking his life for a fellow officer in a daylight shooting, told DailyMail.com that the bungled case had a ripple effect through not only how the public perceives cops, but also how officers became fearful over their everyday tasks. ‘What happened to (Freddie Gray) was obviously a tragedy,’ he said, arguing that not giving him a seatbelt may well have been a policy violation that resulted in a civil suit, but Mosby’s murder and manslaughter charges were excessive.
‘But to say these officers were depraved murderers was just wrong,’ he said. ‘This is a case study in how you destroy a city… I think (Mosby) knew the truth but intended to sacrifice those officers, but what a bad miscalculation.’ In 2019, Mosby notably clashed with law enforcement again as she launched an effort to expunge almost 800 criminal cases, citing 25 of the city’s police officers for being ‘discredited.’ Goitia added that after initially being skeptical over the officers involved in Gray’s death, he was convinced by the response of the judge Barry Williams who declared Nero, Rice and Goodson not guilty and dropped the subsequent charges. Before assuming the bench, Williams was a revered African American civil rights attorney who had a history of going after dirty cops. In his 30-page verdict, Williams ‘laughed the prosecutor out of court’, Goitia said, as the judge ‘basically said there was no evidence’ of any criminal wrongdoing.
‘Those officers were sacrificed because (Mosby) and city leaders felt like that was needed… to satisfy the mob.’ Goitia celebrated Mosby’s recent conviction as he felt her handling of the case hampered law enforcement efforts across the country. ‘The consequences of that failed leadership are going to last for generations,’ he said, adding some of his own officers were afraid of going to work in the aftermath of the Gray charges. ‘If you’ve got a police department that is ineffective, that is not empowered and supported by the public to uphold law and order, then you’ve got officers who are afraid to act.’ Read the full story:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13061437/marilyn-mosby-verdict-fraud-baltimore-cops-state-attorney.html?ito=msngallery
