John Paterakis Sr., the self-made baking magnate and developer of the Harbor East complex, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of campaign finance violations accusing him of contributing $6,000 to help pay for a city councilwoman's political poll.
The councilwoman, Helen L. Holton, also was indicted for alleged campaign violations, after winning a dismissal two months ago of bribery charges in connection with the political survey.
The new charges were handed up by a Baltimore grand jury at the request of State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh, whose three-year investigation of alleged corruption at City Hall has reached the highest rungs of the city's business community.
In January, Rohrbaugh indicted Mayor Sheila Dixon on charges that she stole gift cards donated to her office by developers who believed that she would distribute the cards to needy families. She is scheduled to go on trial in September.
"All we are doing is following the evidence, wherever the evidence takes us," Rohrbaugh said Tuesday.
Charles P. Scheeler, an attorney for Paterakis, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Joshua Treem, an attorney for Holton, 48, called Tuesday's charges a "desperate attempt" by prosecutors to "salvage something from its relentless effort" to convict the councilwoman.
A January indictment accused her of accepting a bribe from Ronald H. Lipscomb, a developer who was a partner with Paterakis in Harbor East projects and who contributed $6,000 toward the political poll commissioned for her 2007 re-election campaign. Those charges were dismissed in May, when Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney ruled that her shepherding of tax breaks for the Harbor East projects could not be used as evidence in a bribery case.
Prosecutors are appealing Sweeney's ruling.
City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, as she had done in January after Holton was first indicted, stripped the councilwoman Tuesday of her position as chairwoman of the council's powerful Taxation, Finance and Economic Development Committee. Holton had regained the chair after the bribery charges were dismissed.
New legislation that would provide a multimillion-dollar tax incentive for Paterakis' planned Harbor Point project, a mix of hotel, office, retail and residential space, is expected to be introduced shortly and would likely be referred to Holton's committee.
