We’ve been following the events in Baltimore coming out of the Freddie Gray case pretty closely and, as usual, the story seems to be swinging further and further away from the original incident and focusing on the city government. As you may recall, State Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby recently asked for a gag order preventing the release of the autopsy in the case, as well as barring any discussion in the media of relevant information. It didn’t take long for an answer to come down, and the court has declined her request. But the reason is probably not what you were first thinking. This wasn’t some comment on the strange nature of asking for the gag order itself… it was because of a technicality. Mosby filed the request with the wrong court. (From Legal Insurrection)
Once again, Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby seems to be having difficulty grasping fundamentals of the practice of law.
Indeed, she’s now reduced to making exactly the same errors she only recently accused opposing counsel of making.
In this most current instance, Mosby’s motion for a gag order on the Freddie Gray case has been rejected, reports the Baltimore Sun (h/t Conservative Treehouse).
The reason? She filed her motion in Circuit Court on May 14, but while the matter was still jurisdictionally in the lower District Court. The matter was not moved into Circuit Court until May 21, a week later.
Ironically, in Mosby’s motion opposing defense counsel’s efforts to have her recuse herself from the case the Prosecutor argued that it was improper of the defense to make that argument in District Court, where the matter then rested, knowing as they did that the case would end up in Circuit Court.
DOH!
Mosby’s other intention – to keep some information from the defense attorneys requesting it – doesn’t sit well with the legal beagles at LI either.
In addition, the State must share with the defense all incriminating and exculpatory evidence their investigation unearths, well before the trial itself through the discovery process. All of it.
This is just turning into amateur hour at this point. I was watching one legal analyst on CNN this afternoon who was asked if he thought the defense requests for a change of venue or a dismissal were likely, as well as the odds that Mosby would recuse herself. He didn’t feel that the prosecution could possibly just move for dismissal after this much water had run under the bridge, but he felt that a change of venue was “very likely” now. And Mosby may have no intention of recusing herself, but if she does as good of a job answering the recusal request as she did with the gag order, she may not have a choice in the matter.
We said from the very beginning that this could be a make or break case for an ambitious young prosecutor with big political ambitions. The smart money may be moving toward “break” this week. I can’t imagine the meetings that are going on behind the doors at her offices these days, but you can bet it’s not pretty.
