BALTIMOREûA recent early morning raid of the Southwest Baltimore home of Mayor Sheila Dixon’sùthe latest action in an investigation that has lasted more than two years and yielded no charges against herùhas prompted some officials to wonder if the city’s
“This latest situation was handled in a very disrespectful manner, I think,” said Maryland Sen. Nathaniel McFadden the Senate Majority Leader. “I say that because it’s apparent that someone tipped off the newspaper to this raid, and I’m strongly of the belief that a person is innocent until found guilty.
Now it looks as if it’s harassment with the leaking of the raid into the media,” added McFadden, who represents the 45th legislative district in East Baltimore. “I think that the office of mayor deserves the kind of respect that, at a minimum, that wouldn’t happenùespecially with a woman with a family. I don’t think that this would have been done to any other chief executive officer of any city, county in this state.”
The investigation by the State Prosecutor’s Office stretches back to Dixon’s days as president of the Baltimore City Council. That investigation ensued after a federal investigation of the council’s financial dealings by the U.S. Attorney’s Office concluded after two years in March 2005 without filing charges against any member of the city council.
“If the state’s special prosecutorùand this is what my understanding isùis investigating procurement issues related to contracts, the president of the city council is the chair of the Board of Estimates; however, the mayor controls the Board of Estimates,” said Clarence Mitchell IV, a former state senator and current host of a politically-oriented radio talk show. “No contract could be let without Mayor Martin O’Malley’s vote and authority. So, I’m saying you cannot mention the president of the city council with an investigation and not mention the mayor.”
He added, “When they come to your home as they’ve done with Senator (Ulysses) Currie and as they’ve now done with Mayor Dixon, and they serve you with a search warrant and then they take boxes out of your home, that’s the step that leads to an indictment.” But McFadden observed that no indictment has been issued. “She simply serves as the presiding officer of the Board of Estimates, and if there are any allegations of any kind of wrongdoing, then it should fall on the entire Board of Estimates,” McFadden said.
“That’s why this thing is beginning to smell awfully fishy with respect to this very aggressive and focused harassment of the chief executive officer of this city.” Some Dixon supporters note that Black officials at the federal, state and local levels have been routinely investigated at disproportionate rates, often only to later be found not guilty.
In the process, however, their reputations were stained and some are still viewed as criminals even though they were exonerated. For example, former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy was forced to resign his cabinet position in 1994 amid allegations from a special prosecutor that he took $35,000 in illegal gifts. Espy was acquitted in 1998 of 30 corruption charges brought at the end of a $17 million investigation. Local officials have suffered a similar fate.
Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspapers
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