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BALTIMORE MAYOR SHEILA DIXON INDICTED: Official accused of stealing gift cards; failing to report luxury items.
*Following a nearly three-year state investigation, Mayor Sheila Dixon of Baltimore was indicted Friday and charged with committing perjury, theft, fraudulent misappropriation and misconduct in office. The
Democrat, and first woman to be elected mayor of Baltimore, was accused of stealing gift cards donated to the city for needy families and failing to report trips, fur coats and other luxuries paid for by a local developer who was her former boyfriend, reports the Associated Press.
The indictment covers a period from 2003, when she was City Council president, until shortly after she became the mayor of Baltimore in 2007.
She is charged with using at least $2,000 in donated gift cards for Target and Best Buy to buy a digital camcorder, a PlayStation 2, an Xbox 360 and other electronic devices for her personal use and failing to disclose her trips to New York, Chicago and other places with a prominent developer, Ronald H. Lipscomb.
City ethics laws require elected officials to disclose gifts from people doing business with the city. Lipscomb’s company, Doracon, a minority subcontractor, often works on developments that receive city tax breaks.
After state prosecutors raided the mayor’s home last summer, carting away boxes and other items, Dixon admitted having had a “personal relationship” with Mr. Lipscomb in 2003 and 2004 after both had separated from their spouses. The mayor said the relationship had not influenced her “decisions related to matters of city government.”
Lipscomb and a City Council member, Helen Holton, were indicted this week on bribery charges, but their indictment did not mention Dixon.
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