A Baltimore City councilwoman and a prominent city developer who once dated Mayor Sheila Dixon professed their innocence Wednesday after a grand jury probing corruption at City Hall indicted them earlier in the day on bribery charges.
“I am confident that justice will be served in this case and I will be exonerated of these charges,” Baltimore City Councilwoman Helen Holton, D-8th District, said in a statement.
Holton, 48, is charged with bribery, malfeasance in office and nonfeasance in office, while developer Ronald Lipscomb, 52, is charged only with bribery.
Lipscomb’s attorney, Gerald P. Martin, expressed outrage at the indictment.
“This has been going on for a long time now,” Martin said. “The feds looked at it. The state looked at it. It’s dragged on and on. We’re looking forward now to getting into court and proving his innocence.”
The charges stem from a payment of $12,500 made by Lipscomb’s company, Doracon Contracting Inc., in 2007 for a political survey for Holton.
At the time, Holton was seeking re-election and requested the invoice be sent directly to Doracon — and the company paid the bill, prosecutors said.
Lipscomb’s company was seeking tax incentives at the time on projects in which his company was a partner, prosecutors said. Holton then failed to report the gift on her Financial Disclosure Statement to the city’s ethics board, prosecutors said.
Holton reported that she did receive gifts, but when asked the nature of the gifts, wrote only: “Events for which council members were invited,” according to the indictment.
“The citizens of Baltimore have every right to expect their public officials to not be influenced by personal motives, greed or gain,” State Prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh said in a statement.
Dixon, whose Southwest Baltimore home was raided last year during the long investigation, declined to comment, her spokesman said.
City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she was “deeply troubled” by the charges, but would withhold judgment.
“As representatives of the citizens of Baltimore, members of the City Council must abide by the highest ethical standards,” she said in a statement. “My prayers are with Councilwoman Holton and her family during this difficult time.”
State prosecutors have been targeting Dixon and Lipscomb and have already won convictions against two Dixon associates.
Bribery carries a maximum penalty of 12 years in prison. No trial date has been set.
