Following is the brutal sentencing memo written by State Prosecutor Richard Rohrbaugh about soon-to-be-former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon as described by the Sun. Hide the children, folks, because this prosecutor is not holding back!
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR BALTIMORE CITY, MARYLAND
STATE OF MARYLAND *
V. *
SHEILA ANN DIXON *
*
* * * * * * * * * * * *
CASE NOS: 109210015, 109210016
STATE’S SENTENCING MEMORANDUM
The recent pronouncements by Ms. Dixon to the press only reinforce the need for this Court to impose the agreed upon sentence. It seems Ms. Dixon’s unrepentant position is that the people of Baltimore should be willing to tolerate some corruption from their political leaders. Such defiant arrogance by a political leader is simply unacceptable.
While it has been difficult for everyone, including the prosecution team, to swallow the fact that this defendant will receive a substantial, life-long pension from the people of Baltimore, the alternative to accepting the plea agreement was equally, or more, unattractive. Continued litigation would have cost the taxpayers substantial sums. Ms. Dixon would have been only a suspended mayor while lengthy appeals dragged through the court system, possibly for years. If, in the future, some appellate court reversed the jury finding, Ms. Dixon might have had to be re-instated as mayor, receiving not only her pension, but her position and back pay as well. And, if she later prevailed, the people of Baltimore may have had to pay for her stable of seven (7) lawyers – a bill that might well exceed a million dollars. This plea agreement and sentence forecloses those possibilities.
In recent articles, Ms. Dixon purportedly has confessed that “[s]he should have reported the gifts she received from Lipscomb, but said they didn’t amount to much.” (Ex. 1) If, as the press has reported, Ms. Dixon made this and other statements, it suggests that she has lost touch with reality, is in a state of total denial and/or is trying to re-write history. It matters not which, or all, may be correct.
Ms. Dixon had already succeeded in making Baltimore fodder for the late-night comedians. But, even after the jury finding, Ms. Dixon has insisted upon not only bringing further disgrace to herself, but to the City by outrageously exclaiming the gifts she received “didn’t amount to much.” Could the citizens of Baltimore have continued to accept a mayor who somehow has talked herself in to believing gift certificates for fur coats, lavish trips and expensive dinners “don’t amount to much”? That taking a few gift cards meant for the needy is no big deal? Such an arrogant attitude can only be described as shameful.
The incredible claim by Ms. Dixon’s lawyers that she was not required to report gifts from Mr. Lipscomb was little short of laughable. Although Ms. Dixon has finally admitted the obvious -- that she knew Ronald Lipscomb was doing business with Baltimore – she has continued to tarnish the Office of Mayor of Baltimore. While the people of Baltimore are owed a full, complete and truthful explanation from their former mayor, it is probably too much to expect. Even in the face of Mr. Lipscomb’s sworn grand jury testimony that he gave Ms. Dixon cash to help her pay for her extravagant shopping spree, Ms. Dixon denies anything of the sort happened. But, if Lipscomb did not give her the cash, what is the source of the almost $9,800 in cash that was magically deposited into her account in 2004? (Ex. 2) And, at the same time, what was the source for the additional $4,000 in cash that Ms. Dixon gave to her driver, Howard Dixon, to launder through his account? Was it just a coincidence that the cash was deposited at the exact moment she needed to pay for her extravagant purchases, including those Jimmy Choo shoes? Was the $13,800 the only cash she received or was there more? Most importantly, why was the then president of the City Council dealing in cash in the first place? And, the gift cards – what is Ms. Dixon’s explanation of how they were received? Did she receive gift cards from others? Why were two unused Safeway gift cards which had been purchased for the Bea Gaddy Day celebration found in the defendant’s purse along with the used Giant gift card purchased by Doracon for the needy families? (Ex. 3) This defendant needs to answer these, and many other, questions. The people of Baltimore are owed the truth -- finally.
Sadly, Ms. Dixon is seemingly unwilling, or unable, to deal with the truth. If the people of Baltimore aren’t going to get the truth from their disgraced Mayor, at least they are entitled to finality, stability, and the chance to move forward. Accordingly, it is absolutely essential that this Court sentence the defendant in accordance with the plea agreement. In doing so, this defendant will finally become yesterday’s news.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert A. Rohrbaugh
State Prosecutor
Thomas M. McDonough
Deputy State Prosecutor
Shelly S. Glenn
Senior Assistant State Prosecutor
Tamara M. Gustave
Assistant State Prosecutor
Suite 410, Hampton Plaza
300 East Joppa Road
Towson, Maryland 21286
(410) 321-4067
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Prosecutor Slams Dixon
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Sheila Dixon's Plea Agreement
Below, we reprint all seven pages of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's plea agreement. According to the agreement, Dixon pleads guilty to one count of perjury; withdraws any post-trial motions related to her previous conviction of misappropriating gift cards; resigns as Mayor on the date of her sentencing; gives up the X-Box, camcorder, mink coat and lamb coat purchased with the gift cards; and agrees to perform 500 hours of community service, pay $45,000 to charity and be subject to probation for four years during which she cannot hold a city or state job. In return, she gets to keep her government pension.
Mayor Dixon Resigns (Updated)
The Marc Steiner Show is reporting that Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has resigned her office.
Update: Baltimore City Delegate Jill Carter has confirmed the story on her Facebook page.
Update 2: Now the Sun has it.
Update 3: The Post has Dixon's statement.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Best and Worst of State and Local Political Media, 2009
List-mania is alive and well in Maryland and everywhere else, as everyone and their Aunt Ethel are issuing lists left and right. But no one else is offering a list like this: the best and worst of state and local political media over the past year.
Best Mainstream Media (MSM) Political Reporter
We still miss the Gazette’s Janel Davis and the Examiner’s Kathleen Miller, both of whom are no longer covering local politics. But we are going with Post reporter John Wagner, who has been following Annapolis for five years. Wagner gives you the meat and potatoes of state political reporting – who, what, when, where and why. Other reporters may throw a few morsels on the plate, but statehouse political coverage starts with the steady, objective writing provided by Wagner.
Runner-up: The Examiner’s Alan Suderman, who delights in uncovering misbehavior in local government. Suderman picked up one of the best quotes of the year from County Executive spokesman Patrick Lacefield, who responded to a question about a county-funded $25,000 staff retreat by sputtering, “Are you really asking me that question?”
Best New MSM Political Reporter
The Post’s Jonathan Mummolo, who has substantially improved the paper’s reporting on Prince George’s County politics. Now all the Post has to do is find five more Mummolos and they might have a shot at doing that county justice.
Best MSM Column
This one is easy: Blair Lee’s epic and touching column on his old foe, former Baltimore Mayor and Governor William Donald Schaefer. We know that some of you liberals don’t agree with Lee, but you really should read his work because of his unequaled LONG memory of state politics.
Runner-up: Barry Rascovar’s comparison of Governor O’Malley to Dracula.
Worst MSM Columns
Most material appearing on the Sun’s Second Opinion site, which has five contributors and just ten Google subscribers (one of whom is your author). Most of this stuff is pure opinion without additional original research. The Sun’s editors need to understand what the best bloggers already know: no one cares what your opinions are! Readers primarily want new information. This experiment by the Sun is failing because almost no one is interested.
Best Move by the MSM
Last summer, the Post’s Maryland Moment blog was moribund and rarely publishing new content. But Aaron Davis turned the blog around by creating First Click, possibly the most thorough daily aggregator of state and local political stories in Maryland. The success of First Click is that it creates the illusion that the Post is offering more content by linking to everyone else’s work when the Post is actually producing less content in-house. But site visits are site visits, and lots of first clicks are going to Davis’s picks.
Runner-up: The Sun editors chose to let go of transportation reporter Mike Dresser’s leash and he mutated into “Baltimore Guy,” the ranting MoCo basher who excoriates the I-270 project and protects the rest of the state from our alleged arrogance. Few MoCo insiders will ever see Dresser as an “objective” reporter again, but that is beside the point. Dresser’s anti-MoCo screeds are refreshingly honest and should warn our politicians about how the rest of the state feels about us. One of our favorite spies paid Baltimore Guy the ultimate compliment recently, fuming, “I HATE Mike Dresser.” Mike, it just doesn’t get any better than that!
Worst Move by the MSM
Hands down, the Washington Post’s colossal Boy King scandal. The Post’s hiring of a non-resident, crazed, ignorant intern to write local editorials totally destroyed its credibility with Maryland’s political community. Even worse, the Post continued to let the Boy King run amok for five months(!) after we broke the story, revealing its utter contempt for Maryland readers.
Runner-up #1: The Sentinel’s hiring of Republican activist Glynis Kazanjian as a “reporter” while overlooking her continuing advocacy for the GOP.
Runner-up #2: Massive turnover at the Post and the Gazette.
Runner-up #3: The MSM’s uncritical, pack-animal coverage of the Dana Beyer-Duchy Trachtenberg-KGB story. None of them bothered to look into whether Beyer’s allegations had any credibility at all. The MSM needs to remember that part of its job is to investigate allegations, not merely transcribe them.
Best New Blog
Yes, we know that Darkness Rising started in December 2008, but the blog did not gain recognition until last year. Former Ehrlich hatchet man Joe “Prince of Darkness” Steffen is hilarious, more than slightly deranged and better connected to the GOP establishment than any other blogger in the state. The only problem is that he just doesn’t post often enough. Everybody should put aside their preconceptions, visit this blog at least once a week and laugh along with the rest of us.
Runner-up: Nobody. There are actually fewer good political blogs in Maryland today than there were in 2006.
Best Move by Online Media/Blogs
Annapolis Capital Punishment author Paul Foer changed the course of that city’s mayoral election with his dynamite scoop about Democratic nominee Zina Pierre’s legal problems. The MSM exploded without mercy and Pierre had no choice but to bail. Few if any blog posts have ever had a bigger impact on Free State local politics than this one.
Runner-up: MPW contributor Paul Gordon’s scoop on MTA spying, which generated successful pressure from the Sun’s Mike Dresser to abandon the practice.
Worst Move by Online Media/Blogs
Marylandreporter.com’s failure to acknowledge its conservative funding. Look guys, the secret is out. Why not admit that your money is coming from far right-wing organizations but say that you are still trying to be objective? Ignoring our research just raises even more questions.
Runner-up: The failure of many blogs to provide publicly-available site visit statistics. Come on bloggers, what are you hiding? Everybody knows that most blogs have almost no readers so you may as well fess up.
Best Politician at Driving the Media
Has anybody ever been better at this than Delegate Saqib Ali (D-39)? Whether it’s hustling the MSM for glowing editorials on his Legislative Sunshine bill, arranging for stacks of letters to the Gazette targeting potential primary opponent Senator Nancy King, writing four(!) anti-King guest blogs or directing his legions of Facebook friends to read articles about him and vote for him in online polls, Ali does it all. He makes no distinction between media formats. If anything - paper, radio or web-based - is discussing state politics, Saqib Ali is on it like butter on toast.
Runner-up: No one, because nobody else is on Ali’s level. Here’s a quick idea for how Ali could raise money: he should hold a workshop for candidates about how to deal with both old and new media, as well as social networking sites, and charge $500 attendance fees. Every smart politician in the state would ante up and Ali would have more money than E.J. Pipkin.
Worst Politician at Driving the Media
First, the state prosecutor’s gift card theft indictment made Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon look like a Charm City Marie Antoinette. Then she refused to testify at her trial and cut off most comments to the media, which just compounded her problems. In the wake of her conviction, she desperately clings to power in a state of complete denial. The narrative of her character over the past year, that of a haughty and selfish politician, was eagerly promoted by the media but was in fact fashioned by the mayor herself.
Runner-up: Former Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan built a bully pulpit that has been lost in the basement by his successor, Ike Leggett. Leggett is an immensely intelligent and likable man who could wrap local reporters around his finger if he gave them access. Instead, he has taken a back seat to the Council Presidents – especially Phil Andrews - who are well served by able press officer Neil Greenberger. No executive should ever be overshadowed by a legislative leader unless such leader is named Mike Miller.
So that’s 2009. How well will the media perform in 2010? We’ll find out in a year!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
How Far Will Baltimore’s Corruption Scandal Go?
Developer Ronald Holt Lipscomb, whose alleged showering of gifts on Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon led to her indictment, is now cooperating with State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh. That’s not just bad news for Dixon. It’s also potentially bad news for many other politicians too.
The state’s case against Dixon revolves around the provision by Lipscomb and fellow developer Patrick Turner of gift cards that were supposed to be used for needy city residents, but were instead used by Dixon for herself while she was City Council President. The state issued a twelve count indictment in January alleging that Dixon had committed perjury, theft, fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary and misconduct in office. After Lipscomb agreed to squeal in June, the state withdrew the original indictment and issued a new seven count indictment in July alleging theft, fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary and misconduct in office.
Whatever happens to Dixon, the state scored a coup by flipping Ronald Lipscomb. The 53-year-old owner of Doracon Contracting Inc. was one of the most influential minority contractors in the state at his peak. The best thing about cooperating witnesses is that they do not get to pick and choose which matters they discuss with prosecutors. Remember how the Jack Abramoff investigation eventually led to Congressman Bob Ney?
Lipscomb has many, many relationships other than his connection to Mayor Dixon. Prosecutors claim to know of 57 Lipscomb-connected LLCs. We have not been able to locate that many, but we have traced fifteen business entities and five individuals to Lipscomb’s residential and business addresses. They are:
301 E. Lombard Street LLC
6th Street LLC
Arizona Crossings LLC
Dart Consulting LLC
Doracon Contracting
Doracon Contracting of D.C.
Doracon Development
Doracon Development of Puerto Rico
Lambda Development LLC
RHL Arizona Crossings LLC
RHL Development LLC
RHL Strathdale LLC
RHL Waterview Avenue LLC
RT Ventures LLC
Street LLC
Dennis Cullop (a Doracon Vice-President)
Sharon R. Grinnell
Michael E. Herndon
Ronald H. Lipscomb
Zaiafanice J. Lipscomb
The above businesses and individuals contributed a combined $500,988 to state politicians. Here are all candidates and political funds that received at least $5,000.
A few notes. Helen Holton is a Baltimore City Council Member who was also indicted in connection with Lipscomb. Bernard Young is another Baltimore City Council Member. Talmadge Branch is a Baltimore City Delegate who is the Majority Whip in the House. Verna Jones and Nathaniel McFadden are Senators from Baltimore City. Delegate Pete Rawlings of Baltimore City chaired the House Appropriations Committee before passing away in 2003. The other list members should be familiar to our readers.
Branch’s presence on this list is interesting. In July 2008, the Baltimore City Paper wrote about his participation in two 2007 meetings at a Catonsville Diner with Lipscomb, Mayor Dixon and two businessmen who were the subject of state and federal investigations. Both of these businessmen – Brian D. Morris and Owen M. Tonkins – served as former Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley’s minority-business chiefs. Lipscomb was playing an ancient game popular in both Baltimore City and his resident county, Prince George’s, of seeding state and local politicians with money, plugging into networks of current and former bureaucrats and keeping the kettle warm for public contracts. In Lipscomb’s case, the kettle was VERY warm due to his $205,000 in contributions to the state Democratic Party.
The core of the Dixon indictment is that the Mayor became too close to her contributor, in many more ways than just the financial ones. Anyone who contributes tens of thousands of dollars to state and local politicians, and possibly raises tens of thousands more, has plenty of opportunity to get close to them. Who else was Lipscomb close to and how far did it go? Prosecutors will find out by asking questions about every name on the above list. One person not on the list, Delegate Jill Carter (D-41), may already have a Lipscomb-related problem.
As bad as Lipscomb’s cooperation is, there is something even worse on the horizon. Lipscomb is helping prosecutors in their indictment of Baltimore City Council Member Helen Holton, whom they allege accepted an off-the-books election poll financed by Lipscomb and John Paterakis. Paterakis, who was also indicted, is a MUCH more powerful figure than Lipscomb. He is the developer of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor East project, the largest private project in the city’s history, and has been described by the Sun as former Mayor William Donald Schaefer’s “go-to guy.” He was also linked to the massive Bromwell scandal. Paterakis just pleaded guilty to two counts of violating campaign finance rules and agreed to pay $26,000 in fines. Is he now also cooperating with prosecutors?
Only three people may know where as many bodies are buried in Baltimore as does Paterakis: Sheila Dixon, Martin O’Malley and God. So far, only one of them has been indicted.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Pols Party While Budget Burns (Updated)
Governor Martin O'Malley made a big deal about wanting to have a "sober" Maryland Association of Counties conference last week. But one of his staffers proved otherwise by releasing a whopping 115 party-time photos to the public on Facebook. Who knew that hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts could be so much fun?
Update, 11 AM: The MACO partiers are covering their tracks. Eleven of the photos, including the three featuring the Governor and the Baltimore Mayor, have been deleted. But we still have them here.
Update, 3 PM: We can no longer see the content on Facebook. It has either been access-limited or deleted.
Governor O'Malley and indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon.
Indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon.
Baltimore City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (left) and her Chief of Staff, Kim Washington (right).
The Governor's wife, Katie O'Malley, with Jeremy Rosendale. Rosendale is a former staffer for Baltimore City Council Member Mary Pat Clarke and is currently the Governor's Deputy Director of Correspondence and Constituent Services. He posted all of these photos on Facebook, where they can be seen by anyone, and helpfully identified most of the people in them. Thanks, Jeremy!
From left: Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin, Jeremy Rosendale and Montgomery County Council Member Valerie Ervin. We hear plenty of other Council Members were there as well.
Colleen Martin-Lauer (left) and Colm O'Comartun (right). Martin-Lauer is a fundraiser for the Governor and former Prince George's political boss Al Wynn. O'Comartun is the Director of the Governor's Office.
Sophia Silbergeld, former staffer for Senator Ben Cardin and Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, now a Democratic fundraiser. Observe her amazing dexterity as she hoists four drinks.
From left: Maryland Democratic Party Executive Director Travis Tazelaar, Baltimore City Council staffer Kim Washington, Laborers Union lobbyist Jayson Williams and Sophia Silbergeld.
Nick Stewart, a former spokesman and campaign staffer for the Governor (left) with Travis Tazelaar.
Jim Gillis, Executive Assistant to Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith (left) with Jeremy Rosendale.
A staffer in the Governor's press office (left), Stacy Landolt Mayer (second from left), the Governor's Deputy Legislative Officer, and Tom Hickey (right), the Governor's Board of Public Works liaison.
O'Malley staffer Colm O'Comartun (left), Democratic fundraiser Sophia Silbergeld (top) and Ashley Valis, a Special Assistant in the Governor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Board of Public Works liaison Tom Hickey must love those budget cuts!
Here's some assorted booze-fueled mayhem proudly posted by O'Malley staffer Jeremy Rosendale. Pay special attention to his captions. We hope Facebook's 250 million users enjoyed them as much as you will.
