BALTIMORE (AP) - The ex-mayor of Baltimore, a city where law enforcement has long fought corruption and violent crime, is set to appear in federal court on fraud and tax evasion charges involving sales of her self-published children's books.
Catherine Pugh is scheduled to surrender to U.S. Marshals on Thursday before the initial court appearance. The charges stem from her "Healthy Holly" children's books whose sales netted the former mayor of Maryland's largest city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The charges against the ex-mayor come as Baltimore recently hit 300 homicides for the fifth year in a row. Baltimore also is still grappling with a major police scandal. A task force created to get illegal guns off the streets spent years ripping off drug dealers and stealing money from citizens.
