Marilyn Mosby spreads her wings while under home detention
Approved trips include a journey to Boston to challenge her uncle’s involvement in her grandmother’s estate and a New York City speaking engagement for a ministry that focuses on formerly incarcerated women
Above: The online flier promoting Marilyn Mosby’s appearance tomorrow at a small New York conference. (Instagram)
Marilyn Mosby’s travels under home detention are expanding beyond a barbecue party in Howard County.
Last week, The Brew reported on her 25-mile day trip away from Fells Point, where she was restricted last June to her waterfront apartment building, to a Clarksville residence where she was feted by friends and could enlist their support in her drive to win a presidential pardon.
Today Mosby is headed to New York for three days to speak tomorrow at a “mental health is mental wealth” summit sponsored by a small ministry that offers support to formerly incarcerated women.
Later this month, she will be in Boston for three days, challenging an uncle over the financial affairs of her late grandmother’s estate.
And at the end of September and spilling into October, Mosby will stay in Livermore, California, at a training session that’s required for what her lawyer, Public Defender James Wyda, says is a tentative job offer.
In all, U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby has green-lit 14 days of travel for Baltimore’s former state’s attorney, who she sentenced last May to one year of home detention after her perjury and mortgage fraud convictions.
Those convictions arose from an investigation into Mosby’s extensive domestic and international trips while Baltimore state’s attorney, and her establishment of a travel and consulting company, Mahogany Elite Enterprises, that figured in her two trials.
Marilyn Mosby laments her “house arrest” in a post promoting an op-ed she wrote about the mistreatment of accomplished Black women like Kamala Harris. (Instagram)
Many Exceptions
The fact that Mosby, a felon, can travel to both coasts while legally considered restricted to her Baltimore apartment is a testament to the many ways she can be sprung from what she calls house arrest.
Exceptions granted by the court include “for employment, education, religious services, medical treatment, substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, court-ordered obligations, child care or other activities approved by the probation officer.”
The Maryland U.S. Probation & Parole Office has been tight-lipped about the basis for allowing Mosby’s travel.
Senior Probation Officer Rachel Snyder pre-approved Mosby’s attendance at the Howard County party for reasons she would not discuss with the media. Because the August 24 event was held within the boundaries of the Maryland district court, Snyder had sole discretion.
Out-of-state travel requires a response from the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office and approval by sentencing judge Griggsby.
Both prosecutors and judge agreed to the California trip “for employment purposes” in a court order filed last Thursday.
On Friday, the same parties signed off on the New York and Boston trips “for employment and court-order purposes.”
These two approvals were sealed by the court and are currently outside public view. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has also declined to comment on the approvals.
The Brew article that led to a Baltimore Inspector General’s investigation that resulted in a federal probe and Mosby’s eventual conviction on mortgage fraud and perjury charges. She is currently appealing the convictions.
Mental Health
The Brew has reviewed the sealed court order.
It allows Mosby to travel to New York City to present on the mental health of imprisoned women at a one-day conference sponsored by A Beautiful Heart Ministries at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
The ministry was started by Clover A. Perez, who spent nearly eight years in prison for scamming immigrants out of $500,000 by claiming she could get them green cards and for tapping into a client’s credit card to buy luxury items and plane tickets.
“Clover Perez was a beacon of hope for her immigrant clients, but instead she exploited their vulnerability for her own personal gain,” said Preet Bharara, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, upon her sentencing in January 2012.
Since her release from prison in 2019, Perez reinvented herself as a champion of the rights of formerly incarcerated women, setting up the nonprofit ministry and promoting empowerment through a for-profit clothing line and “reshaping the narrative around incarceration” as a motivational speaker, podcaster and business consultant.
The conference’s online itinerary does not mention Mosby’s two trials or her three felony convictions.
Instead, it cites her accomplishments in police accountability and drug policy reform as Baltimore’s state’s attorney and further notes that she currently “advises entertainers, government entities, nonprofit organizations and corporations” as the founder and managing partner of Mahogany Elite Consulting LLC.
In his motion to the court, Wyda says the speaking fee offered by Beautiful Heart “is particularly critical because Ms. Mosby does not currently have any steady source of income necessary to pay her bills.”
Mosby Family Dispute
Wyda also successfully argued that Mosby should be allowed to go to Boston because “she has been ordered to appear” in Suffolk Probate and Family Court, which Wyda characterizes as “a recognized exception in the Court’s judgment to the home detention condition.”
The court case involves the estate of Mosby’s recently deceased grandmother.
In July, or a month after Marilyn Joyce Thompson’s death, Mosby petitioned the Suffolk court to appoint a “neutral party” to the estate.
In her petition to the Suffolk probate court, Mosby says she believes her uncle has “tampered with or altered” her grandmother’s will.
Her petition states that Mosby believes her uncle has “tampered with or altered” her grandmother’s will, and says that “despite numerous requests by his siblings,” the uncle “has failed to respond or provide any information regarding the decedent’s assets.”
Mosby is requesting that the court appoint an attorney she has recommended to administer the estate.
California Training Trip
Mosby’s final trip of the month will be eight days on the west coast to undergo training for a prospective job.
According to Wyda’s petition, “Before the offer is finalized, Ms. Mosby’s prospective employer is requiring her to travel to Livermore, California, for orientation, training and in-person meetings with leadership.
“During the visit, Ms. Mosby’s employer will determine whether to move forward with an official offer of employment and, if so, will finalize Ms. Mosby’s title, salary and performance metrics,” Wyda continued, saying both prosecutors and the probation office had approved the travel.
Mosby’s prospective job will not be sedentary.
Instead, it will require her “to travel to various locations within the District of Maryland on a routine basis,” Wyda said, during the nine months remaining of her home detention.