BALTIMORE (WBFF) We counted nearly two-hundred-gifts Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has received since she’s taken office in January 2015.
They’re listed in financial disclosure forms filed with the Maryland State Ethics Commission.
Fox45 began to dig into those records after the Baltimore Brew reported on the free travel Mosby received over the past two years.
We found travel being among the few gifts Mosby could attach a price tag to.
A Tiffany bracelet, a Marucci bone rubbed baseball bat, two pearl necklaces and a tablet are just a few of the nearly 200 gifts Baltimore’s top prosecutor has received.
Gifts we began to question the State's Attorney about through emails - since she's declined to answer our questions face to face.
We found more times than not Mosby listed the value of those gifts as "unknown".
According to the Maryland State Ethics Commission||
...Filers are advised to provide the monetary value of disclosed gifts.
Patrick Ishmael is Director of government accountability for the Show-me Institute in St. Louis.
Ishmael says||
When the public puts trust in our elected officials, they expect to know basically anything that could influence their decision making.
In the last two years, Mosby has taken 23 trips and accepted roughly $30,000 worth of free travel.
While Mosby does place a dollar amount next to the trips she's received, it's a different story when it comes to the Tiffany bracelet, the pearl necklaces, the tablet, and baseball bat
These are items a simple google search would put a value to.
In a statement from the office we were told||
The State’s Attorney has nothing to hide and has been fully transparent in all of her disclosures...
A spokeswoman also says||
The majority of the gifts the State's Attorney has received and reported are donated to the BSCAO auction during our winter solstice celebration, where we raise money for victims of crime.
For two and a half weeks our request for a copy of the gifts the Baltimore City State’s Attorney auctioned off and how much they went for were ignored.
It was not until we mentioned the story airing Tuesday night the BCSAO even sent an email to confirm they received our public record’s request.
Kinji Scott used to work for Mosby.
Scott says||
I was actually in the office of victims services with the person who coordinated the solstice events.
Scott remembers collecting gifts to auction off.
Scott could not recall getting any gifts directly from Mosby but he did remember going around the City to pick up gifts for the auction.
Despite not knowing the value of many of those gifts, according to the City State’s Attorney’s Office, some were still auctioned off.