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Baltimore’s Prosecutor Faces Big Test 4 Months Into Job

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In this Feb, 6, 2015 photo, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby speaks at a news conference, in Baltimore.  Baltimore’s chief prosecutor is 35 years old, has been on the job for less than four months, and is about to take on the biggest challenge of her career  weighing the evidence against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray and deciding whether they deserve to be criminally charged.  (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

In this Feb, 6, 2015 photo, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby speaks at a news conference, in Baltimore. Baltimore’s chief prosecutor is 35 years old, has been on the job for less than four months, and is about to take on the biggest challenge of her career weighing the evidence against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray and deciding whether they deserve to be criminally charged. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

Ben Nuckols and Amanda Lee Myers, ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore’s chief prosecutor, just 35 years old and on the job for less than four months, is facing the biggest challenge of her career: deciding whether evidence supports criminal charges against police officers in the death of Freddie Gray.

State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby ousted an established white opponent by promising to hold police accountable. She accused him of being too cozy with officers and too out of touch with the citizens of Baltimore. Mosby and her husband, a Baltimore city councilman, are black and live just blocks from the poverty-stricken community where riots broke out Monday following Gray’s funeral.

But even her supporters say Mosby’s close ties to the community won’t save her from criticism.

“She better be ready. It’s going to be baptism by fire,” said J. Wyndal Gordon, a longtime defense attorney in Baltimore who has litigated against officers in excessive-force cases. “How she will handle this will define her administration and the future of that office.”

Six officers have been suspended with pay while Mosby decides what to do. Police gave her their internal report Thursday, but her office is conducting its own investigation. She has not announced a timetable for her decision. The state medical examiner’s office said Friday that it had given her office the autopsy report and that it will not release it publicly while the case is under investigation.

Mosby grew up in Boston and met her husband, Councilman Nick Mosby, while they were students at Tuskegee University in Alabama. After clerking at U.S. Attorney’s offices in Boston and Washington, she joined the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office in 2005 and moved up the ranks before leaving to work for an insurance company. She defeated incumbent Gregg Bernstein, who outraised her three-to-one, in last June’s Democratic primary, and faced only write-in opposition in the general election.

Her official biography declares that “she is the youngest chief prosecutor of any major city in America.”

“I think it’s very unique that a chief prosecutor who — as young as she is, who lives in a community that has a high amount of violence — that’s very unique and she’s probably the only one in the entire country,” Nick Mosby said. “She’s from the inner city, she lives in the inner city, she knows the inner city.”

Mosby has three legal options: charge the officers, decline to charge them or seek a grand jury indictment.

Practically speaking, she is almost certain to seek an indictment, said Andrew Levy, a Baltimore defense attorney and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Law.

Charging the officers without going to a grand jury would require Mosby’s office to persuade a judge that there is probable cause that a crime was committed, a procedural step prosecutors often avoid in high-profile cases. Declining to charge the officers could be seen as a betrayal by the protesters who have flooded city streets since Gray’s death.

Mosby could present a grand jury with a menu of potential charges including assault, involuntary or voluntary manslaughter, or even murder. Juries in Baltimore criminal trials tend to be distrustful of police officers, an attitude that could work in Mosby’s favor if she decides the officers committed crimes.

“The conventional wisdom would be that a Baltimore city grand jury would not be reluctant to indict a police officer,” Levy said.

Some of her critics say her campaign pledges and political success could compromise justice in the Gray case.

Warren Brown, a veteran Baltimore defense attorney who supported Mosby’s opponent, said the prosecutor’s decision would be inextricably linked to her and her husband’s political aspirations. He said Mosby is being pressured to indict the officers on murder or voluntary manslaughter charges in Gray’s death, which he doesn’t think the evidence supports.

“She is a politician; her husband is a politician. This is a watershed event,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of collateral damage if she does not indict. For her and her husband, they would be drummed out of office. There’s no way they could survive in the city, let alone ask people to vote for them at a later date. She’s going to find a way.”

Brown and Ivan Bates, a former prosecutor and a current defense attorney in Baltimore, both expressed concerns about Mosby’s ties to the attorney representing Gray’s family, Billy Murphy.

Murphy was among Mosby’s biggest campaign contributors last year, donating the maximum individual amount allowed, $4,000, in June. He was also on Mosby’s transition team after the election, and Bates described him as a mentor to her.

“I think she has too much pressure to not indict, from the pressure of her husband’s constituents, of her mentor Billy Murphy, and of the pressure of making sure she wants to hold on to her job in four years,” Bates said. “She’s going to feel the need to indict.”

Mosby’s office did not respond to interview requests. In a statement Thursday, she said her office was still investigating and pleaded with the public for patience.

When she was elected in November, Mosby told The Daily Record newspaper she was excited for the opportunity “to change what has happened in the community.”

“I’m living out my dream to reform the criminal justice system,” said Mosby, whose parents and grandfather were all police officers.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake expressed confidence in Mosby on Thursday, while also welcoming a separate investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, now led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

“If, with the nation watching, three black women at three different levels can’t get justice and healing for this community, you tell me where we’re going to get it in our country,” the mayor said.

Mosby’s record in high-profile cases has been mixed thus far.

In January, the morning after she was sworn into office, she announced manslaughter charges against an Episcopal bishop in the hit-and-run death of a cyclist. The bishop, Heather Cook, had not even been arrested when Mosby told a packed news conference that Cook had been drunkenly text-messaging at the time of the crash.

Mosby failed, however, to obtain a third trial for a man accused in the slaying of a teenage honor student from North Carolina. Defense attorneys said the re-indictment violated Constitutional protections against double jeopardy, and a judge threw it out. Her office is pursuing an appeal.

Mosby was also criticized for firing several veteran prosecutors, some of them in the middle of trials. But she drew praise from lawyers for her leadership team.

Clergy protesting at her office Wednesday afternoon said they have faith in the prosecutor, but they are demanding swift justice and transparency.

“I support Marilyn Mosby. But now we have to step up and do what we ran on,” said the Rev. Delman Coates, a liberal activist who ran last year for Maryland lieutenant governor. “It’s about substance, not symbolism. It’s not about campaign slogans. It’s about delivering for the people.”

___

Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols.

Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Oakland Post: Week of February 5 – 11, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of February 5 – 11, 2025

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OP-ED: Like Physicians, U.S. Health Institutions Must ‘First, Do No Harm’

Coupled with their lack of government and healthcare-related experience, we are concerned these nominees will significantly undermine public health, increase the number of uninsured people, worsen health outcomes, and exacerbate health disparities. Physicians observe Hippocrates’ maxim to “First Do No Harm,”, and we urge Trump administration officials to do the same. It is critical that the leadership of HHS and its agencies make decisions based on facts, evidence, and science. Misinformation and disinformation must not guide policymaking decisions and undermine evidence-based public health strategies. Spreading these falsehoods also erodes trust in our public institutions.

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Albert L. Brooks MD. Courtesy photo.
Albert L. Brooks MD. Courtesy photo.

By Albert L. Brooks MD
Special to The Post

Presidential administrations significantly impact the health and wellbeing of our patients and communities.

Through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the agencies within it, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the National Institutes of Health, this new administration will decide how financial resources are allocated, dictate the focus of federal research, and determine how our public health care insurance systems are managed, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Vaccines for Children program, Medicare, and Medicaid.

The decisions made over the next four years will impact all Americans but will be felt more acutely by those most underserved and vulnerable.

As physicians, we are greatly concerned by the nominations announced by President Trump to critical healthcare related positions. Many of their previous statements and positions are rooted in misinformation.

Coupled with their lack of government and healthcare-related experience, we are concerned these nominees will significantly undermine public health, increase the number of uninsured people, worsen health outcomes, and exacerbate health disparities. Physicians observe Hippocrates’ maxim to “First Do No Harm,”, and we urge Trump administration officials to do the same.

It is critical that the leadership of HHS and its agencies make decisions based on facts, evidence, and science. Misinformation and disinformation must not guide policymaking decisions and undermine evidence-based public health strategies. Spreading these falsehoods also erodes trust in our public institutions.

Vaccines, in particular, have been a target of disinformation by some HHS nominees. In fact, research continues to confirm that vaccines are safe and effective. Vaccines go through multiple rounds of clinical trials prior to being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for administration to the public.

Vaccines protect against life-threateningdiseasessuch as measles, polio, tetanus, and meningococcal disease and, when used effectively, have beenshowntoeliminateorsubstantiallyreducediseaseprevalenceand/orseverity.

Because of vaccine mis- and disinformation, there has been a resurgence in vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough, endangering those who are too young or unable to be vaccinated.

Several nominees have spread disinformation alleging that fluoride in public drinking water is harmful. In fact, fluoride in drinking water at the recommended level of 0.7 parts per million, like we have in our EBMUD water, is safe and keeps teeth strong. Because of public health interventions dating back to the 1960s that have resulted in 72.3% of the U.S. population now having access to fluoridated water, there has been a reduction in cavities by about 25% in both children and adults.

We also encourage the next administration to invest in our public health infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical role of public health agencies in preventing and responding to health crises in our communities.

Health departments at the state and local levels rely on federal funding support and technical assistance to develop public health response plans, implement public health strategies, and work with on the ground organizations to serve hard to reach communities. Public health agencies are critical for protecting everyone in our communities, regardless of income-level, insurance status, or housing status.

Health officials should also work to protect the significant improvements in insurance coverage that have occurred since the passage of theACAin 2010.According to HHS, the numberofuninsuredAmericansfellfrom48millionin2010to25.6millionin2023.

California has led the way by investing in Medi-Cal and expanding eligibility for enrollment. In fact, it reached its lowest uninsured rate ever in 2022 at 6.2%. Voters affirmed this commitment to expanding and protecting access to care in November by passing Proposition 35, which significantly expanded funding for California’s Medi-Cal program. The administration should advance policies that strengthen the ACA, Medicaid, and Medicare and improve access to affordable health care.

Regardless of the president in power, physicians will always put the best interests of our patients and communities at the forefront. We will continue to be a resource to our patients, providing evidence-based and scientifically proven information and striving to better their lives and our community’s health. We urge the new Trump administration to do the same.

Albert L. Brooks MD is the immediate past president of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association, which represents 6,000 East Bay physicians.

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Oakland Post: Week of January 29 – February 4, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 29 – February 4, 2025

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