Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon(D) 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
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-dixon-trial0106,0,1965267.story?page=2
Dixon was convicted in December for misappropriating gift cards donated to her office and intended for distribution to needy Baltimore residents. Instead, Dixon used some of the cards for a personal shopping spree. In effect, she was convicted of robbing from the poor to benefit herself.
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
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-dixon-trial0106,0,1965267.story?page=2
Dixon was convicted in December for misappropriating gift cards donated to her office and intended for distribution to needy Baltimore residents. Instead, Dixon used some of the cards for a personal shopping spree. In effect, she was convicted of robbing from the poor to benefit herself.
