Ex-prosecutor discusses career before firing by Mosby

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A former city prosecutor who claims she was fired for supporting the incumbent Baltimore City state’s attorney in 2014 when Marilyn J. Mosby campaigned against him told jurors Tuesday that she had a cordial relationship with Mosby when they were colleagues but that Mosby’s attitude changed during the campaign.

Keri L. Borzilleri filed suit last year alleging Mosby violated her state constitutional rights when Mosby fired her during the new state’s attorney’s first week in office in 2015. Borzilleri claims she was terminated solely as retaliation for her support of Gregg Bernstein’s campaign.

Stacey K. Grigsby, one of Borzilleri’s attorneys, told the jury in her opening remarks that Borzilleri was out of work for two months and had been less than eight months shy of vesting in her pension, which would have paid her $11,000 annually when she retired.

“As you can imagine, being fired … after nearly a decade was personally and professionally devastating for Ms. Borzilleri,” said Grigsby, of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in Washington.

Borzilleri testified that she joined the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office while taking part in a law school clinic in 2005 and was sworn in as an assistant state’s attorney in January 2006 after graduating and passing the bar exam.

She said she held various positions in the office under two administrations and received praise from supervisors. Borzilleri said she and Mosby had a polite and professional relationship, talked in the courthouse and saw each other outside of the office at events.

Though she said she voted for her first boss, Patricia Jessamy, in the 2010 election, Borzilleri testified that she supported Bernstein in 2014, placing a Bernstein sign outside of her home, hosting a campaign event and attending a fundraiser.

“I supported Mr. Bernstein because crime had come down, the murder rate had come down, things seemed to be moving in the right direction,” Borzilleri said. “I just felt like, in another four years, the city might be in a really good place.”

After Mosby defeated Bernstein in the 2014 Democratic primary election and then won in November, Borzilleri said she did not worry about her job because her support for Bernstein had been exclusively outside of the office and on her own time.

“I didn’t think there would be any reason to get rid of me,” Borzilleri said. “Ms. Mosby knew me. She knew my work ethic.”

Wendy Shiff, an assistant attorney general representing Mosby, said that her client was allowed to make decisions about who worked for her and that Mosby had concerns about Borzilleri’s interaction with victims and witnesses, Shiff said, pointing out that Mosby had campaigned on improving victim and witness services.

Shiff also pointed to Mosby’s choice of Michael Schatzow, a Bernstein supporter, for a leadership position in the office as proof that Mosby did not begrudge attorneys their support of the outgoing prosecutor.

“She wants the best people for the job and she wants people who will share her vision and her platform,” Shiff said.

Shiff said there was no evidence that Borzilleri’s support of Bernstein was the motivating factor in her termination.

“Just because the plaintiff says to you, ‘I must have been terminated for reasons of political support’ doesn’t make it so,” Shiff said in her opening statement.

Mosby and Borzilleri did not speak about her termination and Borzilleri was not given a reason at the time, according to Shiff.

Borzilleri testified that Mosby had treated her differently when they ran into each other on the campaign trail than she had when they worked together, glaring at Borzilleri at one event and ignoring her at another.

Grigsby said Borzilleri is allowed to “wear a different hat” outside of the office and to support the candidate of her choice. She likened the situation to an Orioles fan who works as a food vendor at Nationals Park.

“It doesn’t mean you can’t do your job,” Grigsby said.

The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.

Borzilleri’s lawsuit against Mosby began in federal court in 2015. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed her First Amendment claims and the dismissal was affirmed by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017. Borzilleri then filed suit on her state law claims in Baltimore City Circuit Court in 2018.

The case is Keri L. Borzilleri v. Marilyn J. Mosby et al., 24C18000010.