BALTIMORE (AP) -- Baltimore's mayor was convicted Tuesday on a single charge of taking gift cards from a program intended for the city's poor children and using them to buy electronics, including an Xbox video game system.
The misdemeanor charge could eventually lead to Sheila Dixon's removal from office, but she said after the verdict she would return to City Hall and her attorneys said they would begin an appeal.
Her conviction of fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but prosecutors have not yet said whether they will seek jail time.
The jury acquitted her on three other counts, including felony theft, and failed to reach a verdict on a second count of misappropriation.
Jurors deliberated more than six days before finding the Democrat guilty of the single count: Sometime between mid-December 2005 and late January 2006, when she was City Council president, she solicited at least $525 in gift cards from developer Patrick Turner and bought electronics at Best Buy and knickknacks at Target.
Prosecutors portrayed Dixon as a corrupt official who used the $25 gift cards on shopping sprees for items including an Xbox, a PlayStation 2 and a video camera found in a raid of her home.
Defense lawyers had argued that Dixon thought gift cards delivered anonymously to her office were personal gifts from developer Ronald Lipscomb, a married man who was pursuing her romantically with presents, including an anonymous bouquet. Dixon, who is divorced, has acknowledged having had an affair with Lipscomb.
A juror who identified herself only as Shawana told reporters after the verdict that a key piece of evidence was Turner's testimony that the gift cards he bought were meant for children.
"There's no explanation for why you would use gift cards that were for children," Shawana said, adding later, "there's no excuse for what she did."
The verdict marks "a sad day" for the city of Baltimore, State Prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh said outside the courthouse. "The message is that there's nobody above the law," he said. A decision on whether to try Dixon on the undecided charge could be made by the end of the week.
More from The Washington Times here.
The jury acquitted her on three other counts, including felony theft, and failed to reach a verdict on a second count of misappropriation.
Jurors deliberated more than six days before finding the Democrat guilty of the single count: Sometime between mid-December 2005 and late January 2006, when she was City Council president, she solicited at least $525 in gift cards from developer Patrick Turner and bought electronics at Best Buy and knickknacks at Target.
Prosecutors portrayed Dixon as a corrupt official who used the $25 gift cards on shopping sprees for items including an Xbox, a PlayStation 2 and a video camera found in a raid of her home.
Defense lawyers had argued that Dixon thought gift cards delivered anonymously to her office were personal gifts from developer Ronald Lipscomb, a married man who was pursuing her romantically with presents, including an anonymous bouquet. Dixon, who is divorced, has acknowledged having had an affair with Lipscomb.
A juror who identified herself only as Shawana told reporters after the verdict that a key piece of evidence was Turner's testimony that the gift cards he bought were meant for children.
"There's no explanation for why you would use gift cards that were for children," Shawana said, adding later, "there's no excuse for what she did."
The verdict marks "a sad day" for the city of Baltimore, State Prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh said outside the courthouse. "The message is that there's nobody above the law," he said. A decision on whether to try Dixon on the undecided charge could be made by the end of the week.
More from The Washington Times here.
26 comments:
Arrogant B!@#$ she needs to be in in jail !
Another case of a minority elected official getting away with "murder." So much for a jury of your peers. If that was a white mayor accused of those crimes they would be found guilty and thrown out of office. Welcome to Liberal America and a country full of Obama lovers.
Can she stay in office?
According to the Maryland constitution, public office holders are automatically suspended if they are convicted of certain crimes. But the state attorney general has said that Dixon will not be officially “convicted” until she is sentenced – a legal step that might not happen for months, and only if the judge rejects a number of post-trial motions her lawyers have vowed to file.
Even then, legal experts give different opinions about whether her conviction fits one of the criteria for removal: that the offense be related to the office holder’s public duties and responsibilities.
On the one side, lawyers say, the gift cards came through the mayor’s office. But on the other, she could argue that they were not directly related to any of her official duties.
“The distinction might be drawn between embezzling city funds versus embezzling funds from a charity donation kitty that was never part of city funds, and never part of her duties as mayor,” says David Gray, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law.
(From The Christian Science Monitor)
NOONE should be above the law! Unfortunately we all know that this is never going to happen. It's just politics as usual. If this was a regular citizen, black, white, asian or hispanic, their butt would be sitting in jail! It's all about who you know!
I am so glad to be out of that nasty city, but wait until you see the new mayor, she is even worse!
Another politician caught with her hand in the cookie jar...Dem or Rep, black or white, male or female, they all do it. What a shame. Will someone with dignity and morals please run for office!
600 dollars of gift cards over a political career???! Unbelievable!
We all know that LOTS of people are above the law. The quesiton is: Is SHE above the law?
7:24, the conviction of William Jefferson proves your BS theory wrong. More selective memory from the right.
Considering the makeup of the jury and the early screwups of prosecutor Rohrbaugh, it was a miracle that any judgement but "not guilty" was handed down. The removal of Dixon from office based on a conviction is another question, one that will be decided soon, although in many peoples' minds a conviction is made when the guilty-not guilty gavel signals it at trial's end, not when sentencing is completed.
I'm all for punishing bad politicians but the story doesn't seem like the usual case of corruption or pay to play. I'll also add that this lady is HOT!
Baltimore City politics are corrupt with a capital C. Always have been ...Dixon knew damned well that she was stealing. If she had any character at all ( which she does not) she'd resign.
I'm with 8:56 on this one. When the judge says "guilty", the person is convicted of the crime. The penalty is related to the conviction, but it doesn't change it.
Keep in mind that she is facing another trial in March.
I think she is done as a mayor and rightfully so.
9:12 if she is your definition of "hot" then I sure as heck don't want to see your definition of "ugly".
Just goes to show , the brain of a moron. Minorities , bigggg mistakeeee!
I don't think electing minorities is a big mistake , it's when you vote for a minority because their a minority just like in the Presidential election !
1:29, ok so really, 53% of voters voted for Obama simply because of race. I think Obama put it perfectly; there are some people who voted for him because of race, there are some who didn't because of race. The sword cut both ways.
I'll still never understand her motive for stealing these gift cards. Her nephew that she raised his entire life PLAYS IN THE NBA! He makes several million per year I'm sure she can have all the Xboxes she wants. Also, don't forget assistants on her staff just settled a lawsuit with dominoe's pizza in OC because they were refused service due to being drunk and beliggerant at 2 AM. They claimed they weren't served because they were black. These are the character of people running baltimore.
1:34 I would say the overwhelming percentage of the black vote was because of race which I understand to a degree but I believe now there is a bit of buyers remorse .
8:37, are black folks proud of having a black President? Yes, most are. Even Michael Steele would probably agree that it is a proud moment in history. But your statement implies blacks must be somewhat simple in their logic. Also under your logic, white folks would have voted for McCain simply because he is white. And buyer's remorse? What information do you base this on? Because you personally don't like what the Pres. has done?
I know this blog is opinion, but I would love to see more peoples opinions' backed up with facts, not simplified logic based off of what you might see on t.v., what you read in a forwarded email, or what someone else tells you to believe.
10:43 How about his falling poll numbers ? How about the black voters who voted for Obama and now are are involved in the tea party movement .As to your passive allegation of racism do you deny most blacks probably voted for Obama just because he is black ? If you can't see that maybe you are simple minded !
7:04, do you have poll numbers that show a steep decline in support among the black community? Any real numbers on how many former Obama supporters are involved in the tea party movement? Do you even talk to black people? Most black people I talked to pointed to several key planks in the Obama platform that they either supported or where against including:
1)stance on the Iraq war
2)approach to global affairs and foreign policy
3)health care and environmental initiatives
4)views on reforming the judicial system
The list can go on. By saying that most blacks don't or didn't have these issues on their minds, just as many other voters (both those that agree and disagree), you are painting the black community as being a shallow monolithic group unable to comprehend the bigger picture. This is especially true in the absence of any hard evidence. You only provide opinions spouted from an unreliable source; yourself.
9:57 Talk about spouting from an unreliable source you just did what you accused me of how funny. As for his slumping poll numbers are you suggesting that the pollsters excluded blacks from the poll ? Can we say paranoid ? Why is it so hard for you to admit most blacks voted for him because he's black ? All you have to do for evidence is look around the country of complete failures and crooks who happen to be black yet keep getting voted into office. I.E. Marion Barry ,Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick , Sheila Dixon, William Jefferson,New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the list goes on and on do I need to write down for you what each did or failed to do sorry some people can't handle the truth even when it's thrown in their face !
The views I stated come from extensive conversations over the course of the entire campaign with fellow African Americans at work, in church, at family functions, in public forums, and the average Joe on the street. Unlike you, I see first-hand the diversity of views within the black community.
As for polls, obviously you don't have a firm grasp on basic mathmatics, let alone statistical analysis, if you think that national polls (unless they explicitly take the time to focus on this group)provide a firm indication of what occurs within the black community. As for your "evidence", I could just as easily turn it around and say the same about all of the white politicians that have been caught up in scandal.
1:22 OK so your a self proclaimed expert in blackness is that it ? All the national polls have support for Obama dropping these include African Americans as well or will you only accept a special poll only for blacks ? You seem to be all over the place trying to make a point or at least sound intelligent which you can't seem to do . You asked for proof of black people voting for black people because of skin color I gave you a bunch of examples but that's not good enough because you talked to a couple of black people give me a break . For a person who make an accusation about someones ability to comprehend basic math you yourself can't seem to be able to add and subtract !
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