Investigators raided the home of a prominent Maryland black Democrat for the second time in three weeks Tuesday.
State prosecutors searched Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon’s house for several hours in the morning, apparently continuing a two-year probe of her financial dealings as City Council president.
The investigators removed documents from Mrs. Dixon’s Southwest Baltimore home, but would not confirm the focus of the investigation.
Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, expanded their investigation into state Sen. Ulysses Currie this week, requesting records from the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, both of which own land near a mall in Baltimore that houses a new grocery store for which the powerful senator had consulted.
Mrs. Dixon’s spokesman did not return calls for comment, though her attorney criticized state investigators Tuesday.
“The public should be aware of the State Prosecutor’s reports for the last couple of years, which disclose that the State Prosecutor has spent hundreds of thousands on investigations which went nowhere,” said Dale P. Kelberman, a white-collar criminal defense attorney representing Mrs. Dixon.
“This investigation is another example of those,” said Mr. Kelberman, who also represents Mr. Currie.
State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh, whose office conducts public corruption investigations, would neither confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation into the mayor.
Agents from the state prosecutor’s office arrived at Mrs. Dixon’s home at 6:30 Tuesday morning and left at 1:40 in the afternoon with six boxes of documents and a large cooler on wheels.
Mrs. Dixon’s colleagues on the City Council supported her yesterday.
“This has been ongoing and Sheila Dixon will continue to serve the citizens of Baltimore,” said council member Robert Curran, District 3 Democrat and a relative of fellow Democrat Gov. Martin O’Malley by marriage. “I’m very much supportive of her and continue to be.”
Mrs. Dixon leads one of the state’s most powerful jurisdictions and enjoyed broad support from Mr. O’Malley in her successful run for mayor last year. She has supported many of Mr. O’Malley’s initiatives, including lobbying last year for a plan to place a slots parlor in downtown Baltimore.
But Mrs. Dixon’s term in office has been clouded by ongoing investigations into city contracts given to minority contractors.
Prosecutors won a conviction of Mrs. Dixon’s former campaign chairman, Dale Clark, in September for failing to file income tax returns. He agreed to cooperate with authorities in the investigation.
The state raided the offices of Doracon Contracting Inc. in Baltimore in November. The company is run by Ronald H. Limpscomb, a close confidant of Mrs. Dixon and a well-known Democratic donor. Investigators seized computers and financial data as part of a City Hall corruption probe.
In December, Mildred Boyer, owner of Union Technologies, or Utech, was indicted on charges of forgery, theft and filing false and counterfeit documents. She pleaded guilty in March to falsifying tax returns.
Utech, which employed Mrs. Dixon’s sister, Janice, was hired as a subcontractor to Mr. Lipscomb’s company in 2003 while Mrs. Dixon was City Council president.
Mr. Lipscomb lauded Mrs. Dixon and then-Mayor O’Malley in a minority business newsletter from March 2005, saying three major deals were the result of “The Best Mayor in the Country” and an “able” City Council president.
The prosecutor’s office also has issued subpoenas to the Baltimore Development Corp., a quasipublic agency that negotiates the city’s most important development deals, and to the city Finance Department and the city Board of Estimates. A subpoena also was issued to Howard Dixon, a special assistant to the mayor. He is not related to the mayor.
Government watchdog groups said the close relationship between public officials and businesses vying for government contracts shows the need for better public oversight.
“The more power someone has, the more transparency you want the process to have,” said Ryan O’Donnell, executive director of Common Cause Maryland. “At the end of the day it’s the peoples money. When you spend public money you incur public oversight.”
Federal investigators raided Mr. Currie’s home May 29, seizing records relating to his consulting for Shoppers Food Warehouse.
Mr. Currie, Prince George’s Democrat, consulted for the company but did not disclose that in ethics filings. He advocated for the grocer - including attending land-sale meetings of Metro’s board of directors and helping relocate a liquor license from a Shoppers in Takoma Park to one in College Park.
Mr. Currie is chairman of the powerful Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, which approves the state’s $32.4 billion budget, and is a top lieutenant of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.
cAmanda McClure contributed to this report.
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