Hours before she announced murder charges against six Baltimore police officers on Friday, Baltimore State’s plucky young state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby reportedly sent a text message to her mother.
“Heads up,” Mosby wrote. “National media is focusing on me.”
“You’ll be all right,” Linda Thompson, a retired Baltimore police officer, replied.
Gray, 25, died a week after his spine was severed in the back of a police paddy wagon on April 12.
Critics say that in her rush to throw the book at six officers to appease rioters bent on justice, Mosby made herself the story — and that’s just one of the knocks against her.
Other critics say Mosby, at age 35, is too young and too inexperienced to try murder cases against the six officers, whose charges range from 2nd degree murder to kidnapping.
They say Mosby has 4 months’ experience on the job as a state’s attorney and she’s never tried a major murder case before. And that her husband, who sits on the city council, presents a conflict of interest.
Prior to her election in November, Mosby worked as counsel at an insurance company for 3 years and she was an assistant state’s attorney for 5 years.
That’s not enough, her detractors say. It doesn’t help that Mosby’s face is all over the national news, newspapers and print magazines.
The married mother-of-two girls gave numerous sit-down interviews with CNN and other media outlets in the past week. And she allowed CNN’s cameras into her home and even into her church while she and her family worshipped.
It’s all a bit too much for the rank and file officers who are tasked with restoring peace following Baltimore’s 2-week uprising.
Police officers say they have lost confidence in Mosby — mainly due to her grandstanding speech promising justice to the youth of Baltimore.
During her investigation into Freddie Gray’s death, Mosby convened 30 law enforcement officers and technicians — all experts – to pore over the evidence.
One of those officers told a reporter the team had not turned in their findings to Mosby by the time she rushed before the cameras to announce her charges against the officers on Monday.
Many wondered why she didn’t convene a grand jury to hear the evidence.
Mosby grew up in a working-class Boston neighborhood. Her single mother was 17 when Mosby was born.
Her grandfather, a policeman for two decades, served as the father figure she never had.
Thompson described her daughter as a voracious reader who devoured the black history books she gave her.
Growing up, Mosby was strong-willed and rushed headlong into every new challenge.
When her application to Boston College Law School was initially rejected, Mosby wrote letters, emails and called daily until she was accepted.
“She would think she could tell me what to do at times,” Thompson said. “And she still does at times. I have to put her in check.”
