Baltimore Sun

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon’s legal defense received a boost yesterday from the city Law Department, less than a week after her indictment on public corruption charges.

A two-page letter from the department, headed by a Dixon appointee, said a list of companies doing business with the city fails to meet technical requirements laid out in city ethics laws.

That conclusion is consistent with arguments last week by Dixon’s attorney, who said charges that she accepted gifts from a city developer and failed to report them wouldn’t stick, in part because the city did not keep a list of eligible companies as required.

Dixon’s attorney Arnold M. Weiner viewed the letter as a victory. “It confirms that everything I said was accurate,” he said. But the determination undermines the long-standing practices of the Ethics Board, which helps elected and appointed officials avoid conflicts of interest by making available the names of businesses that have received checks from the city in a given calendar year.