Defense attorneys for Baltimore City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton and developer Ronald H. Lipscomb have filed requests for the state prosecutor to disclose details about the evidence that led to last month's grand jury indictment against them on bribery charges, including information about conversations between them and her role in helping to secure tax breaks for his company.
The requests, called a "bill of particulars," are the first substantive legal documents filed by defense attorneys in the case, revealing some clues as to how they intend to fight charges stemming from a years-long investigation that also yielded an indictment against Mayor Sheila Dixon.
The attorneys' questions suggest that, at least in part, they hope to employ a strategy similar to the one Dixon's attorney Arnold Wiener outlined in a high-profile news conference last month, in which he attacked what he called loopholes in the city's ethics code.
Holton was indicted in early January on charges of bribery, perjury and misuse of office; prosecutors say she sent the $12,500 bill for a political poll to Lipscomb.
The developer is accused of paying for the poll in exchange for Holton's help securing tax breaks. Holton and Lipscomb both say there was no bribe.
Dixon was also ensnared in that probe and faces a 12-count indictment for allegedly accepting gifts from Lipscomb without reporting them, stealing gift cards meant for the poor and misusing her office. Dixon says she is innocent.
In documents filed last week, Holton's defense team, headed by Joshua Treem, asked State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh whether any of Lipscomb's companies are named on a list of companies doing business with the city in 2007, the year when the bribe is alleged to have been made.
City law requires council members to report any gifts from entities doing business with the city.
The ethics department keeps an searchable database of all companies that receive checks from the city to help officials file their annual ethics forms. There are multiple entries for Lipscomb's firm, Doracon, in that database, but it is unclear whether the city has any way of showing what that database contained in 2007.
Weiner has said the list doesn't meet legal muster because it was not certified by the city finance director and isn't designed to specifically reflect the definition of an entity doing business with the city set out in Baltimore's ethics law.
