In yet another effort to divert attention from Baltimore City?s grand jury investigating Mayor Sheila Dixon, a city judge has ordered all people to stay 100 feet away from the grand jury hearing room.
The order, posted on the second-floor door entrance to the grand jury, said sheriff?s deputies are willing to expel from Baltimore?s Mitchell Courthouse any people who gather near the jurors, as members of the news media have done for a week.
The deputies could take unspecified further action if people persist in sitting in the hallway, the order states.
Administrative Judge Marcella Holland did not return a phone call seeking comment.
This past week, a bench on which reporters sat was moved down the hall and turned against a wall.
State prosecutors are investigating Dixon?s relationship with Ronald Lipscomb, owner of Doracon Contracting Inc.
Dixon said she dated Lipscomb and exchanged gifts between late 2003 and early 2004.
At the same time, she did not recuse herself from votes that benefited his companies, prosecutors said.
Dixon began recusing herself from votes involving potential conflicts of interest much more frequently since 2004, the year after federal prosecutors began an investigation into alleged corruption at City Hall, according to records.
The federal investigation ended without charges, but a state investigation has since begun.
State prosecutors are planning to bring witnesses before the grand jury, whose proceedings are secret, throughout July, according to a source knowledgeable with the proceedings.
