MOSBY FOUND GUILTY OF ONE COUNT OF MORTGAGE FRAUD: A federal jury convicted former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby of one count of mortgage fraud, finding she gave a false statement on a loan application to buy one of her vacation homes in Florida, but ruling she was not guilty of a second count of mortgage fraud. Jean Marbella, Cassidy Jensen and Alex Mann/The Baltimore Sun.
- The jury deliberated for more than seven hours and determined that Mosby lied when she wrote a letter claiming that her husband at the time had agreed to gift her $5,000 at closing toward a condominium in Longboat Key, Florida, on the state’s southwest Gulf Coast. Dylan Segelbaum/The Baltimore Banner.
- Mosby sobbed as the verdicts were read. The former Baltimore state’s attorney who unsuccessfully prosecuted six of the city’s police officers in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray was convicted of perjury in a separate trial in November over her moves to withdraw $90,000 from retirement funds, which she used as down payments for the Florida homes. Salvador Rizzo/The Washington Post.
- Together with her felony conviction on two counts of perjury in November, Tuesday’s verdict by a federal jury in Greenbelt is a huge setback for the once high-flying 44-year-old. In addition to being found guilty of three felony counts, she faces efforts by the Maryland Bar Counsel to suspend her law license and the confiscation of her Longboat Key property. Fern Shen/Baltimore Brew.
MOORE SAYS HE’LL SIGN BILL TO STOP SOME SEX OFFENDERS FROM EARNING REDUCED SENTENCES: Democratic Gov. Wes Moore has said he supports the idea of legislation that would prohibit people serving sentences for first-degree rape or first-degree sexual offense from earning diminution credits to reduce their sentences and indicated he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk. Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
- Maryland lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday on a bill that would prevent some convicted sexual offenders from automatically earning time off their sentences for good behavior. Hallie Miller, Brenda Wintrode and Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
FIRMS NAMED TO BUILD NEW AMTRAK TUNNEL: Two engineering and construction firms have won up to $4.7 billion in federal infrastructure funding to build the Frederick Douglass Tunnel in Baltimore. Amtrak said Tuesday that Kiewit Corp. and J.F. Shea Construction Inc. have been awarded a joint contract to build the new rail tunnel for Amtrak and MARC commuter trains that will replace the 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel. Dillon Mullan/The Baltimore Sun.
HOUSE LEADERS DRAFT BILL FOR OFFSHORE WIND INDUSTRY: Stung by news that one of the two companies that was planning to install wind energy turbines off the coast of Ocean City is reassessing its projects, House leaders are drafting legislation designed to shore up the state’s offshore wind industry. Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
HOUSE PANEL REVIEWS BILLS TO PROTECT ELECTED, ELECTIONS OFFICIALS: The House Judiciary Committee reviewed proposals Tuesday focused on public safety and protecting elected and election officials. The bills, part of Gov. Wes Moore’s legislative agenda, come in response to increased threats and attacks, around the nation, on government officials as well as a shortage of law enforcement officers. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
STATE HIKES CONTRIBUTION TO AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE GRANT FUND: The state’s increased contribution – now $5 million up from $1 million – to the African American Heritage Preservation Grant Fund, which is to be spent on buildings, communities and sites that are integral to Maryland’s African American experience, will have a significant impact, H. Russell Frisby Jr., chair of the grant committee, said Monday. Joe Heim/The Washington Post.
DHS TO FULLY REIMBURSE STOLEN FOOD AID: The Maryland Department of Human Services will fully reimburse stolen food assistance, reversing course on a policy that limited how much, and how often, theft victims could be refunded. DHS announced the policy change Tuesday in an internal memo to department staff, effectively ending many of the restrictions on how stolen food assistance can be replaced. Brenna Smith/The Baltimore Banner.
MO CO SCHOOL BOARD APOLOGIZES FOR FAILURES IN MISCONDUCT PROBES: Montgomery County school board members apologized Tuesday for the district’s failures in handling of employee misconduct complaints and vowed to heal the school system. “We are deeply sorry for the pain that this has caused so many employees and the harm to this district,” board president Karla Silvestre said during a meeting. Nicole Asbury/The Washington Post.
THE HARD HISTORY OF CROWNSVILLE EXPLORED IN NEW BOOK: Crownsville Hospital’s painful past is at the center of Antonia Hylton’s new book, “Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum,” which takes up the hospital’s history to open a window on America’s views of race and the social order. For much of its 90 years, Crownsville was segregated, and the only mental institution in Maryland that treated Black people. That “treatment” often took the form of forced labor: Its first dozen patients arrived to an open field and were ordered to start clearing the nearby woods for the hospital’s construction. Sophia Nguyen/The Washington Post.
