By Stephen Janis
Baltimore officials have been tight-lipped about the upcoming trial of Mayor Sheila Dixon on charges she stole gift cards intended for poor constituents. Dixon spokesman Scott Peterson will say only that the mayor plans to be in the courtroom come Nov. 9, when her trial is scheduled to begin, despite speculation she may cut a deal with prosecutors.
“From the beginning she has always maintained her innocence; nothing has changed,” Peterson said in a telephone interview with Investigative Voice Tuesday.
Since her indictment earlier this year on 12 counts of perjury, theft, and misconduct in office, the case against the first-term mayor, has been subject to intense media scrutiny.
But the people that work, live and play in Baltimore had much to say about the fate of the city's first female mayor just days before her trial was set to begin.
Some expressed weariness with the mayor’s legal travails, characterizing the entire saga as an unnecessary distraction in a city with a host of more pressing ills. Others said the charges were further evidence that the city is irreparably corrupt.
Others, like city resident Rufus Purdee, said the mayor should stand trial, and if convicted, pay the price.
“If it were you or me, we’d be locked up by now,” he said, as he swept the sidewalk outside the York Road Barbershop in Govans Tuesday. “She needs to stand trial, just like we would have to.”
“But she should still fight it,” added Purdee’s friend, Doreen Brown, 56.
Standing at a bus stop on 33rd Street and Greenmount Avenue, “Cue-ball” Austin, 42, said that although he thought the mayor was doing a good job, the gift card charges were significant enough to give him pause.
“It’s serious; they might not have been a lot of money but they were something to somebody," he said.
“Everybody makes mistakes, but if she took them she has to deal with it.”
Enjoying a mid-afternoon lunch at Mamma's Pizza just across the street, Anthony Plummer, 46, said he was hoping the mayor would stand trial to settle once and for all the questions in his mind.
“How are we ever going to know if she was telling the truth, if she doesn’t stand trial?” he asked. “I want to know if she was telling the truth when she said she did nothing wrong.”
But others said the mayor should step down now and spare the city an unnecessary spectacle.
“She should resign,” said Anthony Moore, 50, as he sat outside Sam’s Bagels in Charles Village.
“She shouldn’t drag the city through the distraction of a trial; too many quality-of-life issues are being ignored.”
Retired city employee Stanley Burke, 66, said a trial was unnecessary.
“She hung herself, she did it to herself," he said. “How can she run the city if she is a crook?”
“As Bobby Kennedy said, this is the most corrupt state in the union. The only honest ones were Mayor [William Donald] Schaefer and Tommy D’Alesandro,” he added.
“She ought to resign and save the taxpayer’s money.”
Walking up Charles Street in Mt. Vernon, Chris Laun, 30, an employee of Agora Publishing, said he had not been following the case closely, but still worried that the three-year investigation along with the trial was hampering the mayor’s ability to govern.
“I see it as a distraction,” he said.
Some city residents said a jury of Dixon’s peers were unlikely to convict a mayor who embodies progress for black women. Outside Lexington Market, Denise Sauer, 45, said she believed any black women sitting on the jury would be hesitant to find Dixon guilty.
“I think black women will stick together,” she said. “I don’t think they will convict her; she should not 
resign.”
But inside the bustling marketplace, Donetta Mitchell said race had nothing to do with Dixon’s troubles.
“White, black, brown, green, and purple, it doesn’t matter — if she’s guilty she should be punished,” she said.
“They would have us in handcuffs already,” added her friend Maria Higgs, 38.
Still, working behind a coffee bar near the city’s Harbor East development, Terry Watson said the trial was a setback for Baltimore.
“I admire her,” she said. “But I think this has been very difficult for the city.”
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