Baltimore mayor indicted on 12 counts

BALTIMORE — Mayor Sheila Dixon was indicted Friday on charges that she accepted illegal gifts during her time as mayor and City Council president, including travel, fur coats and gift cards intended for the poor that she allegedly used instead for a holiday shopping spree.

A grand jury indicted Dixon on 12 counts, including four counts of perjury and two counts of theft over $500. She was also charged with theft under $500, fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary and misconduct in office.

The State Prosecutor's Office, which has been investigating corruption at City Hall for nearly three years, said Dixon received holiday gift cards for four years from several people. Prosecutors said the gift cards were to be distributed to needy families, but were instead used by Dixon to buy electronics — including an Xbox, a PlayStation 2 and a camcorder — clothes and other merchandise and also handed out to members of her staff.

"I am being unfairly accused," Dixon said in a statement. "Time will prove that I have done nothing wrong, and I am confident that I will be found innocent of these charges."

Dixon said she would not step down. "I will not let these charges deter me from keeping Baltimore on the path that we have set."

Her attorney, Arnold M. Weiner, leveled an angry verbal attack against State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh at an afternoon news conference.

"Sheila Dixon has been the state prosecutor's singular, personal obsession over the past four years," said Weiner. "There wasn't a bedsheet that he failed to look under or a lead that he found too trivial for him to pursue personally."

Rohrbaugh declined through his office to respond to Weiner's comments.

Weiner also criticized Rohrbaugh for failing to secure an indictment for bribery, which he described as "the offense that every prosecutor looks for when he or she investigates a public official."

After consulting with City Solicitor George Nilson, Weiner said the charges would not affect Dixon's ability to continue in her job.

The charges of theft over $500 are felonies and each carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Each perjury count carries a maximum of 10 years; misappropriation by a fiduciary carries 5 years; misdemeanor theft carries at most 18 months; and misconduct in office has no specific penalties.