Judge sets new trial date for former State’s Attorney Mosby

Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s federal perjury and mortgage fraud trial is set for Nov. 2, barring another postponement.

U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby ordered the trial date Monday after both prosecutors and Federal Public Defender James Wyda said that the two sides did not have mutual availability until the fall.

Mosby’s trial, most recently slated to begin March 27, has been postponed three times. Most recently, Mosby’s trial was delayed because her entire defense team asked to quit the case, citing Griggsby’s attempt to hold her ex-lead attorney, A. Scott Bolden, in criminal contempt of court.

A separate federal judge, Richard D. Bennett, admonished Bolden but found criminal contempt was not warranted.

Wyda was appointed to defend Mosby after Griggsby determined she was indigent, meaning she could not otherwise afford to hire a defense attorney.

Charged with two counts of perjury and two counts of mortgage fraud, the Democratic former prosecutor has maintained her innocence.

Federal prosecutors claim she lied about experiencing adverse financial conditions in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic in order to make two early withdrawals from her city-managed retirement account. She used the money she withdrew, about $80,000, to make down payments on two Florida vacation properties: an eight-bedroom rental near Disney World and a condo on the Gulf Coast.

Mosby has since sold the property near Disney World.

Prosecutors claim Mosby failed to disclose a federal tax lien against her and her husband on both mortgage applications.