Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s federal perjury and mortgage fraud trial is now set to begin March 27, more than a year after she was originally indicted and after she will have left office.
U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby ordered the new trial date Thursday, a day after postponing Mosby’s trial for a second time. The two-term Democratic prosecutor was scheduled to start trial Monday.
The postponement came after the defense failed to disclose the details of its expert witness testimony by Griggsby’s mandated July 1 deadline. Mosby’s defense sent its last disclosure, at Griggsby’s direction, to prosecutors late Friday night — 10 days before the trial was supposed to begin.
Lead prosecutor Leo Wise said Thursday that final disclosure was still insufficient, and is asking Griggsby to order the defense to fully comply with the rules of evidence.
At issue is the testimony of Mosby’s hired forensic accountant, Jerome Schmitt, who will testify about Mosby’s personal businesses, her finances and the impact COVID-19 had on both the financial markets and Mosby’s personal travel and consulting businesses.
Normally, the defense in a criminal case does not have to disclose what a witness will say in trial, but expert witnesses are different because they offer opinions, so the prosecution is supposed to be given a chance to prepare.
The defense said Schmitt would testify about how stock prices of large travel and hospitality companies, like Disney, had suffered during the early days of the pandemic, and then extrapolate that analysis to apply to Mosby’s Mahogany Elite Enterprises LLC, a fledgling, supposedly inoperable travel company she formed in 2019.
Wise said Wednesday the defense “ambushed” prosecutors with their late disclosure about Schmitt’s testimony, calling the idea the government could proceed to trial without preparing “ridiculous.”
Prosecutors sought to either ban Schmitt’s testimony in its entirety, something Griggsby seemed disinclined to agree with, or to get a postponement and hire their own expert for rebuttal. Wise said the government would need time to recruit and procure its own expert but did not offer a timeline.
Griggsby ordered the government to hire its rebuttal expert and complete the disclosure by Dec. 1.
