Baltimore city state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby is responding to reports about her family’s sordid history as Boston police officers.
The Daily Caller first reported on Monday that Mosby’s mother, Linda Thompson, was forced to retire from the Boston police force in 2008 after violating the department’s drug policy for the second time. That followed previous reports that Mosby’s father, Alan James, was fired from the department in 1991 following accusations that he and a partner robbed drug dealers. (RELATED: BAD BLOOD: Marilyn Mosby’s Mom Resigned Boston Police Force After Failing Drug Test)
Mosby has never publicized her family’s complicated past. Instead, she’s repeatedly said that she comes from “five generations” of cops. She’s used that line to rebut critics who say she’s been biased against the six Baltimore police officers she’s charged in the Freddie Gray case.
Mosby’s office did not issue comment prior to publication of the story. But on Wednesday, spokeswoman Rochelle Ritchie released a statement to reporters:
I love my entire family and I am very proud of their service. As a child, I personally observed their sacrifice and commitment to protecting my community. I learned at a very early age that everyone makes mistakes. I also learned about the importance of taking responsibility for the choices and mistakes that we make. Everyone deserves a second chance at redemption, a chance to become a better person. These are the values that I learned growing up, and these are the values I have brought to my work as a prosecutor when applying justice fairly and equally.
In addition to her mother and father’s woes, two of Mosby’s uncles have been fired from the Boston police. One uncle, Preston Thompson, was fired in 2001 after testing positive for cocaine.
While Mosby’s grandfather, Prescott Thompson, was by all accounts a reputable Boston cop, his career was not without its ups-and-downs. He sued the department for racial discrimination in the 1980s. Thompson had retired from the department in 1976 after losing his right eye in an accident five years before. When he tried to rejoin the force in 1986, he was told he could not do so because of his injury. Thompson claimed that he was unfairly denied the job because he is black.
Several retired Boston cops frustrated with Mosby’s public comments during the Gray case contacted TheDC last month to share details about Linda Thompson’s police career.
“Linda Thompson’s daughter is lecturing police officers about the right thing to do? You’ve got to be kidding me,” said one retired cop who asked not to be named.
TheDC obtained Thompson’s disciplinary records which show that she was suspended on nine separate occasions for a variety of offenses, including failure to show up to work, mishandling a firearm, and using profanity towards a superior.
Thompson’s last disciplinary report was filed in Dec. 2006 after she violated the department’s substance abuse policy. She agreed to enter a 45-day rehab program but later relapsed. TheDC was told that Thompson opted to resign rather than be fired under the department’s two-strikes policy.
Retirement allowed Thompson, now 52, to receive a $1,810.69 monthly pension.
In her statement, Mosby did not respond to one of the questions submitted by TheDC about what one of Thompson’s former colleagues said happened on the day of Oct. 3, 1995, at Boston’s 18th district police house in Hyde Park.
That was the day of the O.J. Simpson “not guilty” verdict. Thompson’s co-worker, who also asked not to be named, said that when the verdict was handed down, Thompson jumped up on a desk and began “doing a victory dance.”
The retired cop said that he’s not surprised how Mosby has handled the Freddie Gray case given what he says was Thompson’s ecstatic response to that controversial verdict.