Closing arguments start this morning; last chance to sway the Dixon jury 

Posted: 9:05 pm Wed, November 18, 2009
By Brendan Kearney
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

What a difference a week makes.

Seven days ago, State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh laid out his gift card theft case against Baltimore Mayor Sheila A. Dixon, and veteran litigator Arnold M. Weiner responded by telling the jury it was all a big misunderstanding and that the state’s key witness was not to be trusted.

But the state rested without calling that witness, Dixon’s former boyfriend, Ronald H. Lipscomb, leading Visiting Judge Dennis M. Sweeney to throw out two of the seven counts against Dixon.

And on Wednesday, the defense rested without calling its own star witness.

“We’ve had numerous discussions with Ms. Dixon about the decision to testify…,” Dixon attorney Dale P. Kelberman told Sweeney. “On our advice and at our concurrence, she made the decision not to testify.”

Closing arguments this morning will be the prosecution’s last chance to convince the 12 citizen jurors to convict their mayor and the defense’s final opportunity to cultivate seeds of doubt about her guilt.

Each side will speak for about an hour, the lawyers said in Baltimore City Circuit Court Wednesday afternoon.

Local lawyers believe the defense will harp on the gaps in the state’s case, most notably the absence of Lipscomb’s testimony. Since the Lipscomb counts were dismissed, seven witnesses’ entire testimony, portions of four witnesses’ testimony, and 36 documents — the majority of the state’s evidence — has been stricken from jury consideration.

The prosecution will focus on the “reverse Robin Hood” nature of the charge and the effect such behavior has on trust in public officials, and question the nature of Dixon’s defenses.

“The government’s obviously going to talk about the impact on public integrity and make a big deal of these gift cards showing up in the mayor’s house instead of the house of some poor kids,” said Timothy Maloney, whose practice at Joseph, Greenwald & Laake P.A. includes white-collar criminal defense.

The defense, on the other hand, will “spend a lot of time telling the jury what they can’t consider,” said Maloney.

And, Maloney said, the defense might also point out the jury never heard from any victims, that is, the needy families who were deprived of the $25 or $50 gift cards to big-box stores at Christmastime.

“Not only is this a missing-witness case but it’s a missing-victim case,” he said.

Towson criminal defense attorney Richard M. Karceski, a 40-year member of the bar, offered some conventional wisdom for both sides.

“The old theory is if your case is strong … there ain’t a whole lot you got to say,” he said. “The facts will speak for themselves.”

Karceski said that even though the charges related to Lipscomb are out of the case, he will play a role in the counts involving developer Patrick Turner.

To give one’s girlfriend as a present hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards in small denominations is “a bit unusual to say the least” and doesn’t make the most sense, he said.

“I’m sure the prosecution is going to argue just that,” said Karceski. “‘It’s a pretty silly defense’ is what their argument will be.”

One thing the jury won’t be considering is the ramifications for Dixon herself.

In hammering out instructions Wednesday afternoon, the state asked Sweeney to tell the jury that it would not be sentencing Dixon. Sweeney agreed.

Sweeney rejected Kelberman’s request to tell the jury it could not find Dixon guilty of taking “certain gift cards” purchased by the city’s housing authority for the Holly Trolley, if in fact she had misused only one of the cards.

Neither side would say who would be making the closing arguments.

Melissa Phinn, a black woman who joined the defense team in September, said at the time she was “very good at closing arguments.” But Weiner, who examined Bethel A.M.E. Rev. Frank M. Reid III Wednesday morning at the close of the mayor’s defense, did not attend the afternoon discussion about jury instructions.

Weiner was “doing some other work in connection with the case,” Kelberman said.

“He’s not working on the appeal,” said Maloney.