For the second time in 10 years, and for the second time in the history of the city, a Baltimore mayor has pleaded guilty to criminal behavior while in office.
Welcome to this Special Edition of Midday. Host Tom Hall spends the hour talking with reporters and legal experts about the guilty plea of former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh. Yesterday, she was charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, and tax evasion.
She appeared in federal court a couple of hours ago, and pleaded guilty to four of those charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and two counts of tax evasion.
Two of her close aides, Gary Brown and Roslyn Wedington, have also pleaded guilty to related charges.
Tom begins today's analysis of the Pugh indictment with WYPR’s Emily Sullivan, who was at the Federal Courthouse earlier this afternoon. We're joined next by Baltimore Sun reporter Luke Broadwater, who first broke the story of Pugh's Healthy Holly book scheme, and then by fellow Sun reporter Kevin Rector, who's also done extensive reporting on the scandal. We get additional reaction to the Pugh indictment from City Councilman Bill Henry and from two legal experts: defense attorney William Purpura and Robert Rohrbaugh, the former federal and state prosecutor whose investigation of Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon led to her resignation.
