by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
January 14, 2024
Defense in Marilyn Mosby’s mortgage fraud trial are calling for prosecutors to allow her divorce settlement to be shown to the jury.
Prosecutors in Marilyn Mosby upcoming trial want to black the jury from being made aware of her divorce settlement to Nick Mosby, Batimore’s City Council President. Her lawyers want the information to be revealed. Mosby is the former City State’s Attorney and is currently facing trial for allegedly lying on mortgage applications for her vacation homes in Florida.
According to CBS News, Mosby was already charged with perjury in October 2022, for lying on Covid-19 financial relief applications established under the CARES Act. In regards to the mortgage fraud, Mosby is being tried for not disclosing a tax lien and renting one of the properties despite being given a lower interest rate for not doing so.
Mosby’s trial has faced several points of contention between the prosecutors and the defense, with the latter recently claiming that the divorce settlement is relevant to the trial as her husband revealed his culpability for the tax lien.
However, the prosecutors argue that the revelation is not permissible given it was signed after the fraud initially occurred years prior, and believe that the settlement’s inclusion in the trial is ultimately unnecessary. Mr. Mosby remains a potential witness in the trial.
In another complication, the defense is calling for a complex verdict form, wanting to have jurors “check whether they unanimously agree about specific false statements if they find her guilty,” which prosecutors claim will only confuse jurors. Mike Hellgren, an investigative reporter for CBS News Baltimore revealed the documents on then proposed verdict form.
Former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s defense is proposing a more complex verdict form than the prosecution. You can see their proposal and that of Mosby’s public defender below. ⬇️ The prosecutor says the defense form would confuse the jury. @wjz pic.twitter.com/iQexSYD77b
— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) January 12, 2024
The defense also wants potential jurors to designate whether they will consider the testimony of a person convicted of perjury.
Prior to her own conviction, Mosby was known for leading an investigation into the Baltimore police officers involved in the killing of Freddie Gray in 2015. However, her legal advocacy in light of the Black Lives Matter movement has since been overshadowed by her convictions, with her sentencing for the perjury to be held in the aftermath of the fraud case.
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