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Neighborhoodsby Fern Shen8:36 amSep 21, 20110

Accusing Mosby of “dirty tricks,” Conaway asks for investigation

Above: This Nick Mosby mailing was deceptive, defeated councilwoman Belinda Conaway says.

Baltimore City Councilwoman Belinda K. Conaway has asked the U.S. Attorney for Maryland and the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the man who unseated her in the Democratic primary, saying that two of Nick Mosby’s campaign mailings – one showing an IRS logo and another showing Conaway’s face near hands holding prison bars – are “illegal” and “way beyond dirty tricks.”

“It would lead the average person to think I’m being led off to jail and that I have problems with the IRS, when I do not,” Conaway said in a phone conversation with The Brew yesterday.

“It is very egregious to send something like that out,” Conaway said, discussing the letter she sent Monday to the office of U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, in the wake of her loss to Mosby in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary.

Nick Mosby's victory over Belinda Conaway was the only upset in last week's election. (Photo from Facebook)

Nick Mosby's victory over Belinda Conaway was the only upset in last week's election. (Photo from Facebook)

Mosby “may be chalking this up to sour grapes on my part, but this has nothing to do with fruit,” Conaway said. “This may constitute mail fraud.”

Mosby, who faces nominal opposition in the November general election, was asked to comment on Conaway’s charges through his campaign spokeswoman, Tanya Sanders, but he has not done so. Messages left at his Bolton St. home were not returned.

Marcy Murphy, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Attorney’s office, confirmed that the letter had been received, but declined to comment on it.

Firing Back at an Accuser Again

In Conaway’s complaints about Mosby there are echoes of the complaint she leveled earlier this year in the form of a lawsuit against Baltimore Examiner blogger Adam Meister for a column he wrote about her. Meister had accused Conaway of either living outside the Baltimore City district she represents or wrongly claiming the homestead tax credit on a home in Baltimore County where she didn’t live.

Conaway subsequently dropped her $21 million defamation and libel action against Meister. Her lawyer has said the papers she signed for the Randallstown house were a mistake.

Councilwoman Belinda Conaway is demanding an investigation of the mailings sent by the man who beat her. (Photo by Fern Shen)

Councilwoman Belinda Conaway is demanding an investigation of the mailings sent by the man who beat her. (Photo by Fern Shen)

But Conaway has not paid back the homestead tax credit at issue. She told The Brew yesterday that if officials tell the family to repay the money they will, but so far no one has and she believes that her husband, Milton Washington, is entitled to the credit because he lives in Randallstown part-time.

“We have not received anything from the state saying it had to be repaid,” she said.

In the current matter, Conaway said she is on firm ground. One of the mailings, which uses the IRS logo, says “Conaway told the IRS one story to get a tax break, while she told us another story about living in Baltimore.”

The Homestead Tax Credit program is offered by the state, not the federal government.

Conaway said the use of the IRS logo violates federal law “that  specifically prohibits the unauthorized use of federal logos, including the IRS logo, in private communication.”

The second mailing includes a picture of Conaway with her hands up and a picture of two hands on prison bars. “Belinda Conaway lied to get out of paying her fair share of taxes. Imagine what would happen if you cheated on your taxes,” that flier says.

“The combined message of these two mailers was to tell the voters that I had violated federal tax laws and that I was subject to enforcement action,” Conaway wrote in her letter to the U.S. Attorney. “A casual reader would think that I was on the verge of imprisonment for tax perjury.”

A photo of Mosby with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is on the back of both mailings.

Conaway complained that her children, who are 14 and 19, saw these mailings, which arrived in the family mailbox. (The samples she sent to The Brew were addressed to “The Conaway Home or Current Resident.”)

“I did not like the fact that my children saw them,” Conaway said. “My daughter’s best friend asked her if I was in trouble.”

“Mr. Mosby’s wife is a lawyer,” Conaway continued. “She should know that it is not permitted to use the IRS logo, especially for personal gain.”
(This is a reference to the fact that Mosby’s wife is Assistant State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and that city councilmembers make $58,000 per year.)

Asked if she thinks Mosby’s IRS flier could have cost her the election, she said “it could have.”

Conaway noted that Mayor Rawlings-Blake also is a lawyer and said, “You would think she would not want her photograph on a mailing like that.”

Mosby’s Use of Tax Credits

Last week Conaway also accused Mosby of mishandling his late mother’s estate to, himself, take advantage of the homestead property tax. She complained that the small estate Mosby opened after his mother’s death in 2010 did not include her Hillenwood Rd. home, which has, since her death, received the tax credits.

Yesterday Conaway raised the issue again and called Mosby “a hypocrite.”

Mosby told the Sun the estate was opened “for litigation purposes” and that a formal estate will be opened to dispose of the home. Maryland law permits an heir who moves into the inherited home to retain the homestead property tax credit.

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