Dixon jury mostly black, female 

Posted: 7:49 pm Tue, November 10, 2009
By Brendan Kearney
Daily record Legal Affairs Writer

An anonymous jury has been selected to decide whether Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon used gift cards intended for needy families instead for personal purposes has been selected.

The 12-person panel and six alternates are mostly black and mostly female. They were seated Tuesday around 3 p.m. in Baltimore City Circuit Court — the culmination of two days of whittling the pool from hundreds to 137 on Monday, to 59 by Tuesday afternoon.

On the jury are five black women, two black men, two white women, one white man, one Asian woman and a woman whose race was unclear. The alternates are three black women and three black men, one of whom claimed to have had a personal or business relationship with Dixon. The group is diverse in terms of age.

“We’re satisfied with the jury and we look forward to a fair trial,” said Arnold M. Weiner, one of Dixon’s lawyers. “And you know the result we’ll be asking for.”

State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh, who has been investigating Dixon’s finances for years, declined to comment on the jury he approved or on the upcoming trial, which could run through Thanksgiving.

Proceedings will resume Thursday morning — the courthouse is closed Wednesday for Veterans Day — with evidentiary motions in the morning followed by opening arguments.

Visiting Judge Dennis M. Sweeney told the jurors, who wore special brown stickers, to avoid telling people beyond their families and employers that they are hearing the case.

“We’re trying to insulate you as much as possible,” said Sweeney, who writes a column on jury management for The Daily Record.

“I hope you have a pleasant experience,” he continued, before adding “that may seem like an oxymoron.”

“You are performing a very important public service for the parties in this case.”

Baltimore criminal defense attorney Margaret Mead, who is not involved in the case, said the panel appears to be a “typical Baltimore City jury.”

“It doesn’t sound like anything out of the ordinary,” she said. “And I think it’s consistent with the population.”

‘Hallelujah!’

Much of Monday and Tuesday involved bench conferences between Sweeney, the attorneys and prospective jurors that were purposely masked from other potential listeners by the sound of static playing through the courtroom speakers.

Just before lunch on Tuesday, Sweeney stepped down from the bench and walked over to the remaining potential jurors in the gallery to tell them their services would not be necessary since enough people had already qualified for the last stage of cuts.

“Hallelujah!” one woman said, clearly relieved that she would not have to decide her mayor’s fate. “I can shout on that one, yes I can!”

The final winnowing occurred after lunch, when members of the pool were called to stand before the judge and attorneys in the center of the courtroom.

If they were “acceptable” to both the prosecutors and the defense, there were seated; if not, they returned to their seat. Both sides had four so-called peremptory challenges for jurors and fewer for alternates.

The first three jurors were seated. The defense challenged the next three.

One of the women stricken at this point had previously answered affirmatively to a question about bias for or against law enforcement and to a question about any religious or moral qualms with judging another person.

The next three jurors were seated before the defense used its last challenge on a woman who had disclosed she had been either victimized or charged with theft in the past five years and that she knew someone on the mayor’s legal team.

The candidates before and after the 12th juror was seated were both challenged by the state: each had said pretrial media coverage biased them.

Of the six alternates, juror 257 was one of three people who, on Monday, had answered affirmatively to a question from Judge Sweeney about any personal or business relationship with the mayor. Another alternate has either been a victim of or charged with theft.

“We had our strategy and we executed it,” said Weiner.

After the jury and alternates were chosen, Sweeney let the rest of the pool go.

“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart,” the judge said. “I know it was a grueling, grueling experience.”

Actively engaged

Dixon has been very actively engaged with her lawyers in the courtroom, reviewing juror spreadsheets and standing up at the bench for much of the personal interview process.

Lutherville criminal defense attorney Joseph Murtha isn’t surprised.

“She’s really differently situated: she’s a person who relies upon individuals’ decision-making to vote for her,” said Murtha. “I would think that she would have a better read on people than the average defendant because of her professional background and experience and interaction with so many people.”

The prosecutors were joined by an unidentified man thought to be a jury consultant.

Mead and Murtha agreed the large number of alternates makes sense given the expected length of the trial and the desire to avoid a mistrial should a juror become ill or otherwise compromised.

Dixon, who entered the courthouse around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday noting that she had slept “fine” the night before, exited Courthouse East by a freight elevator on the south side of the building once again. [For the record, that elevator has a “No Passengers” sign on its wall, and its state license expired in September.]

The mayor is scheduled to speak at the Citizens Planning and Housing Association’s annual meeting on Tuesday evening and at the city’s Veterans Day ceremony on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, others are already looking ahead to the just-seated jury’s eventual verdict.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway Sr. called upon the state legislature Tuesday to convene a special session and change the mayoral succession law so that if Dixon is convicted and has to step down, she will be replaced by a special election, not simply by the ascension of the president of the City Council.