Indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's first court hearing is scheduled for three weeks from today, but attorneys have already begun dissecting the case against her, with some outlining bountiful defense options that could prove effective in a largely supportive city.
Her own attorney has already come out swinging against the corruption charges she faces, arguing that the heart of the prosecution is based on a "monstrous legal mistake." But others who have prosecuted white-collar crime called the allegations against her "straightforward" and potentially easy to prove.
Dixon, 55, is scheduled for arraignment Feb. 3 in Baltimore Circuit Court; her attorneys have said they will enter a plea on her behalf so that she doesn't have to appear.
The first Baltimore mayor indicted while in office, Dixon, a Democrat, faces 12 counts of felony theft, perjury, fraud and misconduct in office. She is accused of failing to disclose lavish gifts from a prominent developer who is also an ex-boyfriend, and stealing gift cards that developers donated to her office to be distributed to needy families. Most of the alleged crimes occurred between 2004 and 2006, while she was City Council president.
Warren A. Brown, a defense attorney with about 30 years of experience in front of Baltimore juries, said city residents might view the accusations as "largely forgivable transgressions."
"What the prosecutors are saying is that there was a breach of public trust, but I don't think jurors are going to buy that," he said. "Jurors here tend to render verdicts that represent how they feel about someone, and that may at times be inconsistent with or contrary to Maryland law."
He said Dixon - a black woman in a majority-black city and Baltimore's first female mayor - has a reservoir of good will and is viewed by many as a "humble public servant." In her first two years as mayor, she has focused on ending homelessness, bringing down the city's stubborn homicide rate and cleaning up blighted neighborhoods.
But the facts of the case against her are strong, according to some legal experts.
David Gray, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, said the 31-page indictment prepared by State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh constructed a detailed timeline to substantiate the theft allegations regarding the gift cards, electronically tracing them to find out when and where they were used.
