- This is a breaking news story
Baltimore’s corrupt former district attorney has avoided jail on mortgage fraud charges after the Biden-appointed judge overseeing the case said she needed to be home with her daughters.
Marilyn Mosby faced a possible 40-year prison sentence after lying on her mortgage application for a $428,000 home in Long Boat Key, Florida, including falsely claiming that she had received a $5,000 gift from her husband.
Prosecutors said she claimed to have received the $5,000 to secure a lower interest rate, when in fact she sent the money to her husband first so he could then send it back in a financial trick.
Mosby sought a presidential pardon after maintaining her innocence, but was sentenced to 12 months of house arrest and three years of supervised release.
“You have an absolute right to maintain your innocence and you should not be punished for doing so in any way,” federal Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby told Mosby in court.
Marilyn Mosby faced a prison sentence of up to forty years
Speaking outside court afterward, Mosby thanked her supporters, adding, “I swear God sent angels into my life to see me when I felt like I wasn’t being seen, and I’m so grateful to all of you.
“God touched this judge’s heart and allowed me to go home to my babies.”
Mosby, a progressive whose soft stance on crime was blamed for rising crime in murder-plagued Baltimore, was charged in January 2022 with perjury and mortgage fraud.
Prosecutors alleged she lied about COVID-19 financial hardship to access limited retirement funds to purchase two vacation homes in Florida, and then lied on her application to obtain a better rate.
She was found guilty on both perjury charges in November 2023 before she was convicted of one charge of mortgage fraud in February.
Mosby was criticized for her handling of the controversial 2015 death of Freddie Gray, whose death in police custody led to rioting and looting across the city until Mosby filed charges against six police officers who arrested him.
After failing to convict one of the police officers amid claims the charges were unjust — and the DOJ declining to press charges after a federal investigation — some in law enforcement claimed she caved to pressure from rioters and the labeled officers as ‘sacrificial lambs’.
Mosby also had her own run-ins with the law, including a $45,000 tax lien on one of her fraudulent properties in Florida, despite reportedly making nearly $250,000 a year.
Mosby lost reelection in 2022 after she was indicted by a federal grand jury, with her successor Ivan Bates taking a tougher stance on crime.
The federal criminal charges stemmed from allegations that Mosby claimed a pandemic-related hardship to make early withdrawals from her retirement account, then used those funds for down payments on the Florida properties.
During her trial, prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky alleged that she repeatedly lied on the mortgage applications, telling the court, “She was the top prosecutor in the city of Baltimore and oversaw hundreds of attorneys.
“You know what prosecutors know a lot about? Fraud. Mortgage fraud.”