Former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby faces law license suspension ahead of mortgage fraud trial

Dec. 27—By Alex Mann — [email protected]

PUBLISHED:December 27, 2023 at 11:53 a.m.| UPDATED:December 27, 2023 at 3:02 p.m.

Maryland's bar counsel, which investigates wrongdoing by attorneys, has moved to suspend former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's law license.

Thomas M. DeGonia, the state's recently appointed bar counsel, cited Mosby's November perjury convictions in a petition asking the Supreme Court of Maryland to temporarily suspend her license.

In the petition, filed Friday, DeGonia and Assistant Bar Counsel Leonard H. Addison IV said the guilty findings amounted to a "serious crime" under the state's Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys and qualified Mosby for discipline from the state's high court.

It is considered professional misconduct for an attorney in Maryland to "commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the attorney's honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as an attorney in other respects," according to the rules. If the state Supreme Court finds a lawyer committed misconduct, its justices have a series of punishments at their disposal, leading up to disbarment.

DeGonia and Addison asked the court to consider further punishment once Mosby's case is completely resolved. DeGonia declined to comment.

Many legal experts expect Mosby, who was admitted to practice law in the state in 2006, to lose her law license permanently. Her lead attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Before the Supreme Court suspends Mosby's license, it will give her 15 days to explain in writing "why she should not be suspended immediately," according to court records.

In the meantime, Mosby's lawyers continue to battle federal prosecutors on what evidence is relevant for the jury's consideration at her upcoming mortgage fraud trial, which is scheduled to begin in earnest Jan. 18.

A federal jury in November found Mosby guilty of two counts of perjury, determining that she lied about suffering financial hardship during the coronavirus pandemic to take money from her retirement savings to buy Florida properties worth a combined $1 million: an eight-bedroom house near Orlando and a condo on the state's Gulf Coast.

Mosby also faces two counts of making false statements on loan applications for the vacation homes.

The maximum penalty for all of Mosby's charges is 30 years in prison. Defendants in federal court rarely get the harshest sentence, particularly when they have never been convicted of a crime, like Mosby.

Prosecutors accused her of failing to disclose an approximately $69,000 federal tax debt and claiming the house near Orlando as a second home when she'd already hired a company to run it as a rental — a maneuver that locked in a lower interest rate, according to her January 2022 indictment.

In defense of the allegations, Mosby plans to argue that she didn't knowingly lie in either case, court records show.

As far as the tax lien is concerned, she plans to put the blame on her ex-husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby. (A city Circuit Court judge finalized the power couple's divorce in November.)

Marilyn Mosby's attorneys want to introduce at the forthcoming trial out-of-court communications with a mortgage broker and commercial banker, which seem to suggest her lack of knowledge of the tax lien.

In one instance, a mortgage broker told investigators that the then-state's-attorney was "livid" when she found out about the federal tax lien "because it was news to her."

In a separate interview with investigators, a banker recalled Nick Mosby saying about the tax lien, "It's my obligation. I want to take care of it."

Typically, a witness can't testify in court about what someone else said, but Mosby's lawyers argued the communications in question fall under exceptions to the so-called hearsay rule.

Federal prosecutors fired back in a flurry of legal responses filed Friday, describing her lawyers' requests as a tactic intended to get evidence helpful to the defense in front of the jury without having Mosby testify.

They said many of the communications Mosby wants admitted occurred after the crimes they accused her of and are irrelevant as a result, and after The Baltimore Sun broke news of a federal tax investigation into the former spouses.

"The issue at trial is what the defendant thought when she filled out the forms in 2020 and early 2021, not what she may have thought months or even a year later," prosecutors wrote.

Prosecutors said the legal exception Mosby's attorneys cited in an attempt to have the communications admitted falls short because Mosby had reason to lie.

"At the time all these statements were made, the defendant and her associates had ample motive to fabricate due to the multiple then-ongoing publicly reported investigations by various bodies into the defendant," prosecutors wrote.

Maryland's bar counsel at the time, Lydia Lawless, sought to look into Marilyn Mosby's finances. Furthermore, Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming in 2020 launched an investigation into Mosby's travel while in office — at Mosby's request. Although Mosby did not misspend taxpayer dollars, Cumming's investigation found, she failed to get approval for her far-flung travels.

In their filings, prosecutors said the Mosby's tax debts dated to 2014, that they filed their taxes jointly and that the Internal Revenue Service sent letters to them individually notifying them of the lien.

Calling evidence of Mosby's knowledge of her tax debt "overwhelming," prosecutors said the defense can call Mosby to the witness stand to "testify that she did not know about the tax lien and debt. She may call Mr. Mosby to testify that he lied to her about having settled the debt by the time she filed her false applications. But she cannot avoid calling witnesses by admitting hearsay evidence."

U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby is expected to decide legal questions at a hearing Jan. 5.

Baltimore Sun reporter Lilly Price contributed to this article.

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