Angela Alsobrooks is the State's Attorney in Prince Georges County, Maryland. While campaigning for the job of chief prosecutor she endured the humiliation of being given the "Pretty in Pinstripes" award by a local civics group. My question is whether she is useful as well as ornamental.
Earlier this year an employee, Jose Portillo, of a foreclosure mill, Shapiro & Burson, presented her with evidence of fraud and perjury committed by the law firm. Portillo's affidavit, filed in related civil litigation, alleges that more than a thousand documents, which were known to the law firm's principals to be forged, had been filed in P.G. County Circuit Court.
Making false entries in public records and perjury are both misdemeanors in Maryland. The former carries a maximum sentence of imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than $1,000 or both, and the maximum sentence for perjury is imprisonment for not more than ten years (no fine). The statute of limitations for making false entries in public records is one year, but there is no S/L for perjury.
At the time Mr Portillo initially brought his accusations against Shapiro & Burson to the Office of the State's Attorney, a spokesperson for Ms Alsobrooks said that the prosecutors office would be conducting a full investigation. That was more than four months ago. Since then . . . crickets.
A single law firm in just one county stands accused of (but not charged with) committing over a thousand criminal offenses. Multiply that by all the foreclosure mills in the whole country, assuming many will have had the same cavalier attitude toward perjury, and potentially there could be hundreds of thousands or millions of instances of illegal acts committed by members of the foreclosure bar. Why haven't the top local prosecutors in every county in the country begun filing criminal charges against the lawyers responsible, and against the servicers, trustees and banks that almost certainly suborned the perjury that was committed in their name and on their behalf?
It shouldn't be a question of politics, especially not in the case of Ms Alsobrooks who hails from the congressional district of the Minority Whip, Democratic Representative Steny Hoyer, in the solidly Democratic state of Maryland. It seems very unlikely that she would face a backlash from voters were she to go after the scalps of a few foreclosure fraudsters and their bankster enablers. On the contrary, voters would probably appreciate a prosecutor who takes seriously her oath of office.
But this just isn't a political question. It's a question of the integrity of the judicial process, and the integrity of the prosecutor.
I was unable to resist the temptation to do an image search on Google for Ms Alsobrooks, to see if she really is pretty in pinstripes. She does, indeed, seem to be very attractive. It is my hope that she will demonstrate that she is also an honest and diligent prosecutor.