Special Edition: Catherine Pugh Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges

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. 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 4 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 aids, 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 Court House earlier this afternoon. We're joined next by The 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 former federal prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh, the man who prosecuted former Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.