Jury selected in perjury trial of former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby
BALTIMORE -- A jury has been selected in the perjury trial of former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby after a three-day process.
Opening arguments are expected to start on Monday in a federal courtroom in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The jury has 12 men and women, plus four alternates, who will decide her fate. They were read their instructions following selection on Thursday.
The selection follows three days of questioning more than 100 potential jurors, delayed following a bomb scare on Wednesday.
The government accuses Mosby of lying about having a COVID-related hardship to get a penalty-free withdrawal from her retirement account under a law Congress passed to give relief to those suffering.
She used the money to help buy two homes in Florida.
One potential juror, who was ultimately dismissed, told the court, "We have family members who are in financial hardship. To hear someone in a political position who's making a quarter million dollars a year and using it to buy vacation homes, it's disturbing."
Another potential juror says his daughter has seizures and he had to leave work to take care of her because he couldn't find help during the pandemic and took money out of his retirement account through the CARES Act, just like Mosby. He felt he could impartially sit on Mosby's jury.
Mosby has declined comment during court proceedings this week.
The stakes are high, and she could face time behind bars if convicted.
The judge on Thursday approved a new protective order shielding some sensitive evidence.
Both sides will lay out their arguments during opening statements on Monday, and Mosby is expected to take the witness stand in her own defense.
Mosby says she did suffer a COVID-related loss for a travel business she was starting that could not operate during the pandemic.
But prosecutors plan to introduce statements that she was not planning to operate that business until after she left office and had not taken on a single client.
