Ivan Bates sworn in as Baltimore State’s Attorney with pledge to ‘rebuild’ office

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In his first address as Baltimore’s new state’s attorney, Ivan Bates stood before a crowd at the War Memorial Building and reversed a policy that was a keystone of his predecessor’s administration: the nonprosecution of low-level crimes like prostitution and drug possession.

“Effective this moment, I recall that policy,” Bates said, fulfilling a campaign promise and drawing a clear line between himself and outgoing state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby.

His address, and those of the speakers who introduced him, highlighted the contrasts — and tensions — between Bates and Mosby, who lost in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination this summer after a controversial eight years in office.

“Recently, we live in a community where we haven’t felt safe, protected and valued,” said retired Baltimore Circuit Judge Wanda Keyes Heard, who helped with the Bates campaign.

“We as a community decided we deserved better than what we were getting,” Heard said. “And we as a community traded the quarterback. We benched the point guard. We walked out to the mound and told the pitcher, ‘You’re done.’ We as a community elected a new, talented leader.”

Mosby was not among the dozens of local and state officials who were named as attendees at Bates’ swearing-in ceremony. Her husband, City Council President Nick Mosby, was in attendance.

Bates said he would work to reverse staffing shortages at the State’s Attorney’s Office and to get tougher on illegal gun possession. He repeated his campaign pledge to seek jail time for every case of illegal gun possession and said he would take gun traffickers to trial without offering plea deals.

“For far too long the State’s Attorney’s Office has tried to be all things to everybody, and quite frankly, it hasn’t worked,” Bates said. “The safety of Baltimore’s residents must and will come first.”

Bates will resume the prosecution of low-level crimes, which Mosby halted during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Johns Hopkins study commissioned by Mosby’s office found that the policy averted hundreds of arrests and that re-arrests for more serious crimes were rare after low-level charges were dropped.

But business owners and other opponents of the policy, including Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, blasted Mosby for declining to enforce the law.

RELATED: What an Ivan Bates victory means for the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office

Mosby rose to prominence early in her tenure when she prosecuted the police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray, who died after suffering injuries in police custody in 2015. The move, which did not result in any convictions, brought intense scrutiny that followed Mosby throughout her tenure.

Mosby now leaves office under federal indictment. She will face charges of mortgage fraud and perjury at her trial in March.

Bates, a former prosecutor and defense attorney, is perhaps best known for representing clients who were victimized by the Baltimore Police Department’s corrupt Gun Trace Task Force. Bates said his time as a defense lawyer helped him understand the need for equal justice as well as accountability.

Bates also announced his leadership team. He hired as his chief of staff Angela G. Galeano, a former city prosecutor who most recently served as chief of staff and associate counsel at Coppin State University.

Galeano worked as an assistant state’s attorney under Gregg Bernstein, who held the job of top prosecutor before Mosby won the post in a 2014 upset, and Patricia Jessamy, who preceded Bernstein. At Coppin State, Galeano led operations at the president’s office and the university’s communications office.

Catherine Flynn will be the State’s Attorney’s Office’s chief operating officer. Flynn has practiced as a criminal defense attorney in Baltimore since 1992 and graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Longtime city prosecutor Gregg Solomon-Lucas will become a deputy state’s attorney under Bates. Solomon-Lucas previously served as division chief of the Domestic Violence Division and deputy division chief for the Family Violence Unit. She most recently worked as the Drug Treatment Court prosecutor.

She has been a prosecutor in Baltimore City for more than 25 years and earned her law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Thomas M. Donnelly will also serve as a deputy state’s attorney. He has worked in private practice for the past 16 years and previously served as an assistant state’s attorney in Baltimore, where he was assigned to the juvenile, misdemeanor and general felony divisions.

He earned his law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law and began his legal career working for his former law professor, Byron Warnken, at Warnken’s firm.

Bates was briefly taken to a hospital Tuesday morning for dehydration but was released in time for the swearing-in ceremony. He has a series of inauguration events scheduled for the rest of the week.