The saga of ex-Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh is coming to a close as the disgraced former official plans to plead guilty to perjury.
Fox News reported that Pugh “is expected to enter the guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge at a June 19 hearing in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, said State Prosecutor Charlton Howard.”
“As indicated in the order of the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court scheduling a plea hearing on June 19th, I anticipate Ms. Pugh will enter a guilty plea on that date,” Howard wrote. “Of course, Ms. Pugh may change her mind prior to, or during the course of, the June 19th hearing, as is the right of every criminal defendant.”
Pugh pleaded guilty last year to federal conspiracy and tax evasion charges over a scheme involving a children’s book she published herself called “Healthy Holly.” She was sentenced to three years in prison.
“The perjury charge relates to Pugh’s failure to disclose her business interest in Healthy Holly, LLC on her financial disclosure forms when she was a Maryland state senator,” Fox reported.
As The Daily Wire’s James Barrett previously reported, a sentencing memorandum filed in Pugh’s case accused her “of being a ‘scammer’ guilty of a multiple years of fraud, tax evasion, cover-ups and ‘brazen lies to the public’ in order to personally profit — and all in the name of ‘children’s health.’”
Pugh used her power as the mayor to sell her books through contracts with corporations looking to gain or maintain a government contract as well as city and state contractors.
“The chronology of events since 2011, comprising Pugh’s seven-year scheme to defraud, multiple years of tax evasion, election fraud, and attempted cover-ups, including brazen lies to the public, clearly establishes the deliberateness with which she pursued financial and political gain without a second thought about how it was harming the public’s trust,” the memorandum said.
The Baltimore Sun reported at the time that the memorandum “outlined her efforts to conceal her dealings, including lying to FBI agents who came to her house to seize her cellphone.”
When Pugh was sentenced to three years in prison for her schemes, she was also “ordered to pay $411,948 in restitution and to forfeit $669,688, including property in Baltimore and $17,800 from her Committee to Re-elect Catherine Pugh,” NBC News reported.
“Among the accusations is Pugh’s failure to disclose book deals worth hundreds of thousands to the Senate before becoming mayor, among them her $500,000 deal with the University of Maryland Medical System, for which she served on its volunteer board,” the Daily Wire previously reported.
At her sentencing earlier this year, Pugh released a 13-minute video where she apologized for her crimes, Fox News reported.
“I accept total responsibility. I pled guilty and I’m sorry. I don’t know any other words that could be strong. I am so sorry,” Pugh said.
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