Baltimore Prosecutor Mosby Indicted, Subject to Disbarment Complaints

WASHINGTON - Jan. 13, 2022 - PRLog -- Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby may finally face justice as she has just been indicted by a federal grand jury.  But years earlier she was the subject of at least four formal complaints seeking her disbarment, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

But, charges Banzhaf, the Attorney Grievance Commission took no action on the complaints - which were supported by overwhelming evidence, including findings by a judge - leaving her free to continue to violate the rights of defendants, as she did regarding the prosecution of several police officers.

Prof Banzhaf, who filed three of the complaints, notes that other prosecutors backed down and refused to continue the criminal prosecutions of the police officers Mosby had charged once they also were threatened with disbarment proceedings, but Mosby remained in office and able to continue to engage in actions which a judge held violated the rights of several defendants.

Although, years ago, she faced at least four ethics complaints seeking her disbarment, and a judge found that she had violated the constitutional rights of the police officers she was trying, the Attorney Grievance Commission appears to have taken no action to rein her in.

This means that, despite all of the adverse findings by several judges, she remained free to continue to violate the rights of criminal defendants, and to engage in other unethical if not illegal prosecutorial abuse, says  Banzhaf, who had filed three of the four known complaints.

Prof. Banzhaf notes that the prosecutions of the remaining police officers in the Freddie Gray cases were discontinued shortly after he threatened to file similar disbarment complaints against the new prosecutors assigned to try the remaining cases.  The prosecutors then refused to proceed with the prosecutions.

The Commission's apparent inaction is particularly distressing for two reasons, says Banzhaf.

First, as a prosecutor, she is in a position to continue to do tremendous harm to defendants before her as she did to the police offices, something not true about most lawyers charged with wrongdoing.

Second, many of the charges are matters of record based upon judicial findings, so any excuse that even more investigation must occur before any meaningful action can be taken just isn't valid, he says.

So, although this new criminal indictment seems to have nothing to do with her many questionable if not illegal actions as a prosecutor, she may finally have to spend some time behind bars.

Indeed, it may eventually resemble what happened to Al Capone who went to prison not for the many violent crimes he committed, but for something completely unrelated - tax evasion - suggests the law professor.

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