Pugh Pleads Guilty to State Perjury Charge, Heads to Federal Prison Next Week
Former Baltimore mayor Catherine E. Pugh (D) on Friday pleaded guilty in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to a charge of perjury for her failure to disclose her business interest in Healthy Holly, LLC, on her financial disclosures when she served in the Maryland Senate.
Maryland State Prosecutor Charlton Howard said that while Pugh did disclose her business interests in other companies that she owned or operated on forms she submitted to the Maryland State Ethics Commission, she did not disclose her interest in Healthy Holly, LLC, or the earnings of at least $345,000 she pocketed in 2016 through sales of her “Healthy Holly” books.
Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Mark W. Crooks sentenced Pugh to six months’ in prison, to be served concurrent to her federal sentence, which is scheduled to begin on June 26.
Pugh, who resigned as mayor in May 2019, pleaded guilty last November to federal wire fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion charges for the “Healthy Holly” scheme. She has been sentenced to three years in federal prison and will report to a low-security women’s prison in Aliceville, Ala., next week.
“Ensuring that our elected officials are transparent about their business relationships is essential to maintaining the integrity of our government institutions,” Howard said in a statement. “Our office is committed to holding accountable those who evade the law and abuse positions of public trust in Maryland.”
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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