Baltimore Democrat Mayor Sheila Dixon to resign due to conviction of embezzlement – Lame Stream Media ignores party affiliation

democrat-logoAdd another Democrat to the early retirement list. This one, Sheila Dixon who is/was the mayor of Baltimore because of a conviction of embezzlement charges. If I didn’t already mention what party she belongs to, could you guess it? If you read reports from the lame stream media such as the Baltimore Sun’s story, you would never know.  As the Patriot Room mentions, the story in the BS (appropriate initials), they conveniently left out that she is a Democrat. I’m quite sure once/if this story makes the rounds on the AP/Reuters/ABC/CBS/CNN/NBC, etc, we will see the same detail left out.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon will resign next month, part of a plea deal reached Wednesday that brings a years-long corruption investigation to a close with a guilty plea in a perjury case in addition to last month’s jury conviction on an embezzlement count.

Dixon, 56, will be sentenced Feb. 4. Under the terms of the agreement, she will cease leading the city that day and may not hold any city or state position for at least two years. She is to perform 500 hours of community service and pay $45,000 to charity. None of her attorneys’ fees can be paid with public money.

If she completes her probation within four years, her criminal record will be wiped clean, and she will likely be able to keep her $83,000 pension.

A former public school teacher raised in West Baltimore, where she still lives, Dixon was first elected to the City Council in 1987.

She became City Council president in 1999. After Mayor Martin O’Malley was elected governor in 2006, Dixon assumed the city’s top job. She was elected in her own right in fall 2007

City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will become mayor when Dixon steps down. Both are Democrats.

A teary Dixon announced her decision hours after the court proceeding, choking up as she said it was “with great sadness” that she would leave office. She did not apologize and said there would come a time, after sentencing, that she could give her full side of the story.

Rawlings-Blake did not attend the press conference at City Hall. She later released a statement calling this “a sad and difficult time for Baltimore.” She did not mention Dixon but said the city would “remain strong, rise to this current challenge, and continue to protect public safety and deliver essential services.”

Lead defense attorney Arnold M. Weiner said earlier that Dixon agreed to the terms because she was “dragging the city behind her, and she spent too many years doing great things” to let the criminal case linger over the city.

“The balance of the terms are terms which, for the most part, Ms. Dixon accepts as reasonable and proper,” he said. “I think this is a result that makes a lot of good sense for Ms. Dixon and the people of the city.”

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January 6, 2010 · Filed Under Corruption, Democrats


Comments

  • Curmudgeon

    Although not prominent it is mentioned in the story. That’s why I gave up trying to speed read this kind of stuff, missed too many little details.