Dear friends & colleagues,





I had time to say goodbye to exactly five people on Friday, so if you’ll allow me, I’d like to say goodbye to all of you now. This goodbye is about advocating for those who have been unjustly treated, which is the mandate of our office and the mandate of these circumstances.





As many of you know, I was fired on Friday. Maybe I was fired because part of my job was to help our office hold ourselves accountable, to identify — on the basis of actual data — strong performance and areas for improvement. I also worry that I was fired because I supported Gregg Bernstein on election day at the same polling station that Councilman Nick Mosby had worked. Mr. Mosby and I shared our differences about the candidates that day, but I did not think this would come back to haunt me.





But I will be okay. I am more saddened and more troubled by the firings of so many others, half of whom were line prosecutors. On her first day Ms. Mosby told the office she would focus on violent repeat offenders, as though we were not already doing that. Or as though this is not what the Mayor and Commissioner Batts and the U.S. Attorney for Maryland were not already doing. Fewer arrests for nonviolent crimes; more convictions for violent crimes against repeat offenders; less murders and less non-fatal shootings. Those are some of the numbers I monitored, and you cannot pretend you’re doing something new when we’ve already been hard at work at it for years. Unless, I guess, you fire the person who is keeping track.





Three days later, at what people in the office are calling “the coronation of the queen” — an over-the-top event so different from the gracious, understated investitures of her predecessors — she again claimed to the public she would focus on violent offenders. Yet, privately, the very next day Ms. Mosby fired a veteran prosecutor with nearly 20 years of service — in the middle of an armed robbery trial against a violent repeat offender. A supervisor who knew nothing about the case was ordered to step in and unsurprisingly the result was not guilty. Why she couldn’t wait until this week once the trial was over, especially since firings have continued this week, is a mystery.





Maybe even more vindictive is what happened earlier in the week. A prosecutor everyone loves accepted a position with a respected nonprofit and gave the office the expected courtesy of two weeks’ notice. That same day, she was sent to trial in an attempted murder case against a violent repeat offender. In the middle of trial, the prosecutor was told by her supervisor that all her remaining cases for the next two weeks would be reassigned. This included a priority case against another violent repeat offender that was set for later in the week, which the prosecutor was ready for and intended to try herself. Her supervisor went to the front office to ask the State’s Attorney to reconsider. The supervisor sat down and explained to Ms. Mosby and Mr. Mosby, the councilman, why the prosecutor should be permitted to smoothly transition her cases to others and not be forced out. But at the end of the discussion, Mr. and Ms. Mosby both told the supervisor their decision was final.





To summarize, the prosecutor had given two weeks’ notice on Monday and started an attempted murder trial that same day. She finished the trial on Wednesday and went home; that was her last day as she was told by others in the office that they had seen Ms. Mosby’s executive protection detail guarding the prosecutor’s door, ready to escort her out in case she came back from court that day. This is not how you treat people. This is not how you lead or inspire. And it certainly is not how you show your claimed commitment to focusing on violent repeat offenders.





Many in the office fear that her treatment of this prosecutor was Ms. Mosby making good on what they had seen at a minority bar association event during the primary campaign. At that event, this prosecutor was sitting with Gregg Bernstein when several other prosecutors (including friends and supporters of Ms. Mosby) saw Ms. Mosby make a throat-slitting-motion with her hand, indicating that this prosecutor was out.





I am saddened and angry at the actions she is taking against her own team. She is instilling a deep fear that she will fire anyone including people she’s never met, without notice and without reason. And it’s working. I know many of you are scared to speak out and feel like your hands are tied. Mine are not. So let me say what so many of you are feeling: in just over a week, she has already proven she is too early in her career to know how to lead, which must be through inspiration, not intimidation.





I hope the people around her appreciate the damage she is doing to what has been a wonderful office. Part of the delay in announcing her deputies was because her chief deputy only accepted the position in the middle of her first week in office. Ms. Mosby won the primary in June and the general election (where she was uncontested) in November, and yet her team is still interviewing front office candidates during her first week? I guess I can’t blame Tammy Brown (whom I know personally) or Mr. Schatzow (who was announced on Thursday morning) for Mr. Mosby’s and Ms. Mosby’s decision at the beginning of the week, but what about the firings on Black Friday? And the demotions and firings that have continued this week? How are you two letting this happen to prosecutors who have honored this city with their work? I understand at times of transition in both your careers that some jobs you have to take, like it or not. But do you really want to be a part of this?





Ms. Mosby has told people in the office that she is going to, by changing titles and moving people around, “rebrand” (Ms. Mosby’s word) the work you have been doing. Targeting people in the middle of serious trials as a personal vendetta and reorganizing a whole office when you barely know where the lights are, all so you can “rebrand” the hard work we’ve been doing — that may be good politics, but it is an irresponsible way to fight crime and a rotten way to treat your team. Ms. Mosby, these prosecutors are people too, with mortgages to pay, children in college, and pensions at stake.





A lot of people in the office remained hopeful that Ms. Mosby would not be as they feared. I was one of them. We loved and wanted to continue serving this city, fighting violent crime, and doing justice. After your divisive speech on Monday morning, your coronation on Thursday, and your vindictive actions ever since, they dread coming to work and are updating their resumes.





To all who remain, I know you love this city. I know you will continue to carry the torch and make a difference. But it will have to be, I fear, despite the new state’s attorney, not because of her.





So thank you for the work you do for our organization. My unique role as an analyst — an observer — has allowed me to get a very clear view of who runs this office, and it wasn’t Gregg and it isn’t Marilyn; it’s you. Over the past year, I have been constantly impressed by the work that each of you does. As a citizen and a colleague, I am moved by your dedication, intelligence, and grit. My deepest thanks and gratitude.





Best,

Cristie Cole

Operations Research Analyst

Office of the State's Attorney for Baltimore City