Worse than finding out there's no Santa Claus: Finding out the developer who played Santa for Sheila Dixon deserves coal in his stocking for lying.
Patrick Turner was unmasked this week as the mysterious Developer B, who one Christmas season bought a whole bunch of gift cards that prosecutors say Dixon mostly spent on herself.
Asked back in January if he was Developer B, Turner told The Baltimore Sun's Annie Linskey that he'd never been "B" at anything. When Linskey pressed him, Turner said, all kidding aside, he wasn't the guy.
Well, Turner's report card is in, thanks to papers prosecutors filed in the case this week, and he gets an F in truthfulness.
Turner has not been charged with any crime. Dixon's indictment does not say whether the developer thought the then-City Council president was hitting him up for a bribe or a legitimate charitable donation.
It does suggest that Turner, who at the time was trying to win city approval for his Silo Point condo project, was eager to please Dixon. She asked him to buy cards for "needy families" at 11:04 a.m. on Dec. 13, 2005, the indictment states. Within two hours, he'd dropped $1,000 at Best Buy and Target.
So what does Developer B have to say for himself? Turner did not return a call seeking comment.
Spokeswoman Deb Kleiner said this much about his previous denial: "Pat just feels very strongly that it's a legal matter, and he just doesn't feel comfortable talking about it when it's still in process."
Which is why, maybe, Turner should have given Linskey a "no comment" instead of a smart-alecky lie.
And what about the gift cards? Did Turner think Dixon was shaking him down or just asking him to do a good deed?
"I" - long pause - "I can't really give you an answer," Kleiner said. She said she'd check with Turner and get back to me. I never heard back.
Turner's lawyer, at least, was prepared to vouch for his client's good intentions.
"He's simply a guy who was asked to give a contribution to whatever charity it was," said attorney Gerard Martin. "Beyond buying the cards, he doesn't know what happened to them. That's what he told the grand jury, and that's the truth."
We'd expect nothing less from him.
Where's the dog?
My colleague Frank Roylance passed a fender-bender on the JFX near Reservoir Hill last week, and he's still wondering: What happened to the little dog that hopped out of one of the cars?
