Prosecutors criticize Baltimore mayor for comments she made after her conviction

Prosecutors scold ‘unrepentant’ Baltimore mayor

BALTIMORE — Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon’s comments show she is “unrepentant” and “has lost touch with reality” after her convictions on perjury and embezzlement charges, prosecutors said in court papers filed Tuesday.

Dixon, a Democrat, will step down from office after her sentencing Thursday. Under a plea deal, she will receive probation before judgment, meaning the convictions can ultimately be wiped off her record.

State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh did not ask for a stiffer sentence in a memorandum filed Tuesday, and Judge Dennis M. Sweeney has already bound himself to sentence her under the terms of the plea deal.

But Rohrbaugh upbraided Dixon for her comments to The Associated Press in which she downplayed the significance of the gifts she received from her former boyfriend, developer Ronald H. Lipscomb.

“It seems Ms. Dixon’s unrepentant position is that the people of Baltimore should be willing to tolerate some corruption from their political leaders,” Rohrbaugh wrote. “Such defiant arrogance by a political leader is simply unacceptable.”

Dixon pleaded guilty to perjury last month for failing to report the gifts she received from Lipscomb. Prosecutors said Lipscomb lavished her with cash, travel, fur coats and other luxuries during their brief romance in 2003 and 2004, when she was City Council president.

A jury convicted her in December of embezzling gift cards donated to the city by another developer for needy families.

Dixon told AP the day after her guilty plea that prosecutors scared Lipscomb into lying about the gifts he gave her, and that he did not give her nearly as much as prosecutors alleged. She specifically denied that he gave her cash to help pay her American Express bill after a shopping spree with him in Chicago.

Lipscomb told a grand jury that he gave Dixon cash on two occasions and that the amount totaled between $4,000 and $5,000. He said he did not know what she did with the money.

Dixon also told AP she did not realize that a gift certificate she used to buy two fur coats was from Lipscomb. Instead, she said, she thought it was from a group of her friends.

Such statements suggest “that she has lost touch with reality, is in a state of total denial and/or is trying to rewrite history,” Rohrbaugh wrote. The prosecutor’s filing included a copy of the AP article with Dixon’s comments.

Dixon’s attorney, Arnold M. Weiner, declined to comment on Rohrbaugh’s memo.

Dixon’s plea deal also allows her to keep her pension of at least $83,000 a year and to run for office again after she completes her probation.