Baltimore state’s attorney reported $1.8M in outside income last year

Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates reported $1.8 million in outside income last year as matters from his time as a private defense attorney were resolved and he sold two properties.

The details came in Bates’ annual financial disclosure to the State Ethics Commission due at the end of April.

Bates, who was elected in 2022 and is running unopposed for reelection this year, reported that he received a $100,000 check from former law partner Tony Garcia in April 2025 for his “portion of the business.” Bates explained in an interview that, when he became state’s attorney, Garcia formed a new company and bought out Bates’ shares and assets, including clients from their former firm.

But Garcia said it took until last year for him to be able to pay Bates, because the bank wanted the new firm to demonstrate its finances.

“I had nothing to do with Tony’s cases” in the intervening period, Bates said.

Bates also received a $166,500 payment from malpractice attorney David Ellin, for a settlement from a case Bates brought to him prior to becoming state’s attorney. Court records show the case was against Sinai Hospital and settled late last year.

Bates also received $4,180 from Emanuel M. Levin & Associates for another old case.

The bulk of the reported income outside his public salary came from real estate transactions. Bates sold a rowhome in Reservoir Hill, which he had owned since 2004 and had been renting out, for $345,000 in February 2025.

In September, he sold a home in Laurel that he’d owned since 2011. That property sold for $1.18 million.

The records also show Bates is renting out what had been his primary residence in Locust Point.

Bates’ form doesn’t show that he acquired any property last year. He said he’s been renting a home in the Canton area while awaiting construction of a new home in South Baltimore.

Bates, who is not shy to note that he makes far less as state’s attorney than he made as a defense attorney, has seen additional good fortune this year. His state’s attorney salary, unchanged since 2011, is going up 2.5% as part of a cost-of-living increase for top officials approved by the Board of Estimates this year.

Bates will make $244,741, up from $238,772.

Bates told The Banner in March that he pitched Mayor Brandon Scott that the position should receive a much bigger increase, to more than $310.000. “A fair adjustment would be in the $290s,” he said.