State prosecutors have issued a new round of subpoenas in the ongoing City Hall corruption probe targeting Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon.
More than a dozen subpoenas went to the City Council, Board of Estimates, Baltimore Development Corp. and the departments of finance and housing and community development, City Solicitor George Nilson said Wednesday.
The subpoenas seek documents relating to four land deals involving Ronald Lipscomb, Dixon’s former boyfriend, who owns Doracon Contracting Inc.
His company has been involved in about a dozen major deals, including the $200 million Uplands project, the $97 million Spinnaker Bay project and the lucrative Silo Point and Frankfort Estates deals.
Nilson didn’t specify which of Lipscomb’s deals were targeted, but called them “the usual suspects.”
“We’ve been asked about them before,” Nilson said.
“We’re gathering the documents in response. In each of the projects, Mr. Lipscomb is either a contractor, subcontractor or partner.”
Dixon’s attorney Arnold Weiner said prosecutors have been probing these deals for years.
“If in fact, subpoenas have been issued for documents relating to various projects, it’s about time they did so,” Weiner said.
“The city’s records relating to these projects can only help demonstrate the mayor’s lack of culpability.”
Dixon said she dated Lipscomb and exchanged gifts between late 2003 and early 2004, when she was City Council president.
At the same time, she did not recuse herself from votes that benefited his companies, prosecutors said.
Lipscomb allegedly gave Dixon a $2,000 gift certificate to a furrier and paid for several out-of-town trips they took together.
Dixon’s other attorney, Dale Kelberman, has argued that Dixon did not need to recuse herself from those votes, because Lipscomb was a subcontractor on the projects, not a general contractor, and was therefore not required to report the gifts under the city ethics code.
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