Sep 22, 2009 6:21 pm US/Eastern
Prosecutors Can't Determine Source Of Dixon's Cash
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Mayor Sheila Dixon is speaking out after the prosecutor released embarrassing grand jury testimony in her corruption case. It centers on her personal and financial relationships.
CBS
Mayor Dixon is speaking out after the prosecutor released embarrassing grand jury testimony in her corruption case. It centers on her personal and financial relationships.
Mike Hellgren has her response.
WJZ pored through more than 300 pages of documents the prosecutor filed in the mayor's corruption case. They include once-secret grand jury testimony from the mayor's former boyfriend, developer Ron Lipscomb, and her driver and bodyguard, Howard Dixon, who is no relation.
In them, the prosecutor goes straight to the mayor's bank account, noting "unexplained cash."
"In the period of a month-and-a-half or just a little bit less, there was $13,800 in cash that went into her accounts. This cash is over and above her salaries from the city," he said.
Dixon was making $80,000 at the time.
Her driver recounts the mayor asking him to deposit 40 $100 bills into his account and use the cash to pay her American Express bill.
"She said, `I overspent and this bill is too high.' That's not unusual for her. She's a shopaholic," Howard Dixon said.
When asked if he heard the term money laundering and if that is what he did, Howard Dixon replied, "Well, I didn't ask her where the money came from, so I really don't know where the money came from. I didn't want to know, absolutely didn't want to know."
This was the mayor's response: "I'm not going to allow the media to try me out in public. There are many sides to this situation and I'm not going to take this time and deal with it."
Ex-boyfriend Lipscomb's testimony centered on the thousands of dollars he paid for trips, shopping and furs. He says he paid the mayor cash and his business partner charged some of it on his credit card, "because I didn't want my wife to know about it."
The mayor is accused of failing to report those gifts, which the prosecutor claims is required because Lipscomb was doing business with the city.
Lipscomb said, "No, we didn't talk about disclosure. My whole idea was, you know, whatever you have to do, you do. You know. I wasn't against disclosure, no."
When asked whether he ever asked Dixon not to put it on her financial disclosure statements, he said no.
"Who don't you ask the prosecutor who's spending millions of dollars on this case, on a personal relationship, that the state could use the money. Why don't you ask him about the millions of dollars he's spending?" Dixon said.
Lipscomb, along with another high-profile developer John Paterakis, have already entered guilty pleas in the City Hall corruption investigation. They pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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