Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Marilyn Mosby

Da Balmer Sun, Judge moves Marilyn Mosby case from Baltimore to Greenbelt, orders two trials for former state’s attorney

A federal judge has moved Marilyn Mosby’s case from Baltimore to Greenbelt, and ordered that the former city state’s attorney have separate trials for her perjury and mortgage fraud charges.

Rather than standing trial for all of her charges on Nov. 2, Mosby will be tried that day only for two counts of perjury, U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby ruled Friday. She did not yet schedule the second trial for Mosby’s mortgage fraud charges.

Griggsby found that Mosby’s lawyers met the low legal burden for moving the case within the state, citing evidence the defense presented about extensive pretrial publicity, some of which, the judge said, “cast the defendant in a negative light.”

U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby 

Griggsby’s ruling means that no Baltimore resident will serve on the jury that decides Mosby’s case.

The courthouse in Greenbelt, known as the Southern Division of the U.S. District Court for Maryland, pools jurors from Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s counties, while the courthouse in Baltimore, the Northern Division, summons jurors from the city and 18 other counties in the state.

Mosby’s lawyers hired an expert to survey potential jurors from both regions.

That expert, Dr. Bryan Edelman, found that slightly fewer survey respondents from the Southern Division had heard about the case or believed Mosby was guilty than people questioned from the Northern Division. Some 45% of those questioned in the Northern described Mrs. Mosby as “somewhat” or “very” corrupt, compared to 26% in the Southern.

So, it should be easy for Trump to get his cases moved out of DC, Fulton County, and Manhattan, where he is almost universally reviled, right?