Mosby Upsets City State's Attorney Bernstein, Wins Democratic Primary
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Major upset. City State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein loses his bid for re-election to a former prosecutor, who, at one time, briefly worked for Bernstein.
Derek Valcourt reports.
Marilyn Mosby could be one election away from serving as the city's top prosecutor.
"Baltimore is our home and we should feel safe in our city," Mosby said.
She won the Democratic primary by promising transparency and a tougher crackdown on violent repeat offenders.
"If you're a criminal, you're found guilty, you've got to pay the price," said Glenn Ross, McElderry Park Community Association.
Community leaders like Ross believe tackling Baltimore crime means securing a lot more convictions.
"Well, the police officers are doing their job by arresting the criminals. But then when you get into that court system, I don't know exactly what happens, but we see the same people back on the street," said Ross.
Mosby tells WJZ securing more convictions will start with building more trust in the community, especially with victims and witnesses. She will develop criteria to identify and go after violent repeat offenders. She says the city needs diversion programs to help young low-level offenders and promises to advocate for truth in sentencing.
Mosby says she wants violent felons to serve at least 85 percent of their punishment, pointing to the case of Greg Thomas, now accused of shooting city police Sergeant Keith McNeill back in March.
"When you get convicted of second-degree murder in 2003, then you should be serving your time for that and not out on the streets and able to injure and shoot police officers in 2014," Mosby said.
While Mosby has no Republican challenger, attorney Russell Neverdon says he is still gathering the signatures he needs to get on the ballot as an Independent candidate.
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