For some years now, the state prosecutor's long-running investigation of City Hall shenanigans has played out like Chinese water torture, drip by excruciating drip. A subpoena here, a plea bargain there, even a raid on the mayor's home - but what did it all add up to?
We may not have the full answer yet, but yesterday at least brought the splash of actual indictments.
City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton and developer Ronald H. Lipscomb were indicted on charges related to an alleged bribery scheme. According to the state prosecutor's office, Lipscomb's company, Doracon, which at the time was seeking tax breaks for an Inner Harbor East project, paid for a $12,500 poll commissioned for Holton's 2007 re-election campaign. The indictment says Holton helped get the tax breaks approved but did not disclose the payment for the poll on city ethics forms.
While Lipscomb has long been a central figure in the investigation, Holton's involvement came as a surprise. Cherchez la femme, the saying goes, but in this case it was another femme that has been cherchait.
That, of course, is Mayor Sheila Dixon.
Dixon held a much more powerful role during the period that State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh has been investigating - she was City Council president during the time that Lipscomb received millions of dollars in city tax breaks, and also, briefly, was romantically involved with the developer.
But you'll find no mention of her in either the 11-page indictment against Holton or the eight-page indictment against Lipscomb. None of the juicy bits like those in a state prosecutor's affidavit that The Baltimore Sun obtained in June, of lavish trips taken and gifts exchanged by Dixon and Lipscomb even as she was considering tax breaks to benefit him.
Yesterday's indictments may have less sizzle - no Choos, no furs - but they're page-turners in their own way. The charges against Holton detail a series of telephone calls between the councilwoman and Lipscomb during the time that he was seeking tax breaks to develop two major parcels in Inner Harbor East that he had a partial interest in - the Four Seasons Hotel/Legg Mason Office Tower, currently under construction, and the Homewood Suites/Laureate Education project, which has been built.
