An activist law professor with a penchant for filing high-profile lawsuits has called for Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby to be disbarred over her prosecution of six city police officers in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.
John F. Banzhaf III, a public interest law professor at George Washington University, said he intended to mail a full complaint against Mosby to the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission on Wednesday.
In the written complaint, obtained by The Baltimore Sun, Banzhaf calls Mosby a “runaway prosecutor” who has violated ethics rules governing the conduct of attorneys in Maryland at almost every turn in the case — from the moment she announced the charges against the officers in May 2015 to this week, when her office signaled it would continue pursuing cases against the officers who still face charges after the full acquittal of two other officers.
Mosby never had the evidence to charge the officers, Banzhaf argues, and should have re-evaluated her belief that she did following the acquittal of Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr.
The trial of a third officer, William Porter, ended in a mistrial when a jury could not reach a consensus on any of the charges against him.
Porter is one of four officers still facing charges. All have pleaded not guilty.