At the behest of Mayor Sheila Dixon's legal defense team, the theft and perjury charges against the mayor will be separated into two trials. Her lawyers aren't talking about the strategy behind the shift, but other attorneys tell The Sun's Annie Linskey that trying the charges separately might make Ms. Dixon look less culpable - it lessens the possibility of a cumulative effect on jurors in which a profusion of charges might make her seem guilty - and could also give her momentum in the second trial if she prevails in the first.
But aside from the strategic questions, this division definitely means one thing: The city is going to be in a state of limbo for a lot longer. The first trial is due to start Nov. 9, and we have no idea when the second might come.
The mayor has gamely moved on with big issues - switching to once-a-week trash pickup, cutting the city budget - but it's impossible to believe that the impending trial is not a distraction. It has certainly quashed any benefit Baltimore might get from her early support for President Barack Obama, who has steered clear of her since she was indicted.
Moreover, it extends the time in which Ms. Dixon is running up legal bills. That is of public concern because she won't say how she's paying for her bevy of lawyers. Will taxpayers ever be on the hook for them? Does she have a legal defense fund? If so, who has given to it, and what business do they have with the city? This lingering uncertainty does nothing to enhance her ability to lead.
It can also have a day-to-day impact on city business. Take the case of a proposed contract that came before the Board of Estimates this week for work on the Montebello reservoir, a $39 million project funded by federal stimulus grants that has been in the works for six months. The low bidder was found to be out of compliance with the city's minority contracting goals. The second-lowest bidder, whose proposal was only slightly more expensive, was in compliance with those goals, but one of the minority contractors on that team was Doracon Inc.
That's the construction company owned by Ronald H. Lipscomb, whose gifts to Ms. Dixon are at the heart of the perjury charges against her and who furnished some of the gift cards she is accused of taking. He's also now a witness for the prosecution against the mayor. Ms. Dixon abstains on matters related to Doracon, but she still controls two of the other four votes on the Board of Estimates. What was her administration to do - give the business to the company partnered with Doracon, or give it to the slightly lower bidder and hope that firm is able to come into compliance with the minority contracting laws?
The board deferred action. Who knows how long it will now take to perform the work - and, not incidentally, pump $39 million into the local economy?
Maybe splitting the trials is good for Dixon's defense. But it's certainly not good for Baltimore.
