State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh suffered a setback Thursday when a judge threw out perjury charges against Mayor Sheila Dixon and tossed the bribery case against City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton.
It was a high-profile loss for an office saddled with a reputation for rarely tackling big cases or landing noteworthy convictions, despite recent successes.
Prominent Baltimore defense attorney David B. Irwin said some may look at the dismissals and conclude, "Oh, the state prosecutor's office lost another one."
That's not Irwin's view, however. "They're being aggressive, biting off a lot," said the former federal prosecutor. "This one didn't go down too well."
But others noted that the City Hall corruption probe seems to fit a disheartening pattern that dates back years.
"What few and far between major cases they've had have tended to be ones where they don't succeed," said Byron L. Warnken, a University of Baltimore law professor. "Not that it's not honest and good people, but they can't seem to get the wins."
Rohrbaugh's office took on the corruption probe after former U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio ended his investigation into Dixon and other City Hall figures after it was disclosed that he told his staff he wanted them to obtain "front page" quality corruption indictments.
Early this year, Rohrbaugh obtained indictments against Dixon, Holton and developer Ronald H. Lipscomb that involved gifts Lipscomb provided Dixon and Holton, allegedly in return for favorable decisions on tax breaks for projects he was involved in. All three deny the charges.
On Thursday, all charges against Holton were dropped, as were five of 12 counts against Dixon. Retired Howard County Circuit Court Judge Dennis M. Sweeney said that Rohrbaugh never effectively rebutted defense arguments that Holton and Dixon could not be prosecuted based solely on their decisions as elected officials.
Warnken said it appears Rohrbaugh "was caught off guard" by the judge's legislative immunity finding. "In the short term, there is an emotional hit their office takes," Warnken said, calling the ruling "a major setback."
The state prosecutor's office dates to 1976, when the General Assembly created it after a spate of public corruption scandals in Maryland. The office is designed to be free of political influence, and can launch its own investigations or act at the behest of the governor or other top officials.
