Mayor Sheila Dixon appeared defiant and confident at an afternoon news conference today, as her attorney verbally attacked State Prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh for his “personal obsession” with indicting the mayor.
“Sheila Dixon has been the state prosecutor’s singular personal obsession for the past four years,” attorney Arnold Weiner said hours after a Baltimore City grand jury indicted her on charges of failing to report gifts from a developer and misusing gift cards intended for needy families.
Dixon, 55, a Democrat in her first term as mayor, is charged with perjury, theft, fraudulent misappropriation, and misconduct in office — the result of an investigation that has spanned more than five years and been considered by at least eight grand juries.
“The mayor has been investigated longer than anybody that I’ve ever heard of, except perhaps the people being held in Guantanamo Bay,” Weiner said.
Dixon vowed to stay on in office and proclaimed her innocence.
“I am being unfairly accused,” she said. “Time will prove that I have done nothing wrong, and I am confident that I will be found innocent of these charges.”
The indictment alleges that while Dixon was City Council president, she did not disclose gifts in 2004 from a real estate developer she was dating, Ronald Lipscomb, including travel, lodging and a gift certificate used for fur coats.
The indictment also alleges that Dixon collected gift cards from Lipscomb — president of Doracon Contracting Inc. — and another developer intended for needy families, but instead used the cards to purchase a video game system, CDs, and DVDs for personal use or gave the cards to staff members.
But Weiner derided the indictment as “ludicrous” and said its worse charges amounted to nothing more than a $25 gift card given to a staff member whose home was in foreclosure to buy a Christmas present for the staffer’s child.
“The total public money allegedly misappropriated is $25,” Weiner said, sounding exasperated.
“The indictment that she faces is ludicrous,” Weiner said. “For all its puffery, and very cleverly phrased statements, the single most important thing about this indictment is what it does not charge. The offense that every prosecutor looks for is bribery.”
Ten of the counts in the indictment are misdemeanors; two are felonies. The most serious charge, felony theft, carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
