Maryland state prosecutors raided the home of Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday as part of an investigation into past spending practices at City Hall, the most aggressive move so far in the years-long probe.
After spending more than seven hours inside, state prosecutors and police emerged from Dixon's house - in Hunting Ridge, along the city's western border with Baltimore County - carrying boxes, folders and a blue cooler they had brought in with them.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the search and gave no indication of what they were looking for or what they removed from Dixon's home. Asked about the raid as she left her house yesterday morning, Dixon responded: "Ask them."
The mayor kept to her schedule, and several political allies defended her publicly, but the search - a strong indication that Dixon is at the center of the investigation - had a disquieting effect on City Hall.
Hours after they left the mayor's house, prosecutors served subpoenas on five city employees. "All I can say is that this has been a long investigation, and I have cooperated with the prosecutors," Dixon said last night as she left a scheduled event at the Baltimore Museum of Art. "I am really staying focused on running the city and doing the best we can to move forward."
State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh declined to comment.
Investigators have been examining spending irregularities at City Hall since a March 2006 series of articles in The Sun that detailed questions about the role of Dixon - then council president - in approving contracts that benefited her sister's employer. Prosecutors have served subpoenas on the city's development agency, Finance Department and Board of Estimates in the past year.
Two people with ties to Dixon - her former campaign chairman and the owner of a company that employed her sister - have pleaded guilty on tax charges as part of the probe.
But the decision to raid the mayor's private residence, which is not paid for by taxpayer money, represented a more aggressive stance in the investigation, which to date has largely relied on subpoenas to gather documents from city offices and employees.
The search warrant drew criticism from some, including City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke - considered by many to be an independent voice on the council - who likened the raid to a "home invasion" and said that the state prosecutor's office should "stop picking on the mayor. ... Leave her alone."
