BALTIMORE — Mayor Sheila Dixon accepted fur coats and airplane tickets from a prominent Baltimore developer and took several lavish trips with him in 2003 and 2004, according to court documents made public Tuesday.
Documents obtained by the Baltimore newspaper The Sun detail several gifts from developer Ronald H. Lipscomb to Dixon and revealed the focus of an investigation into Dixon’s financial dealings.
The mayor, who was City Council president at the time, did not include the gifts on her financial disclosure statements, the documents show. City officials are required by law to disclose gifts from people doing business with the city.
The disclosure prompted Dixon and Lipscomb to acknowledge a personal relationship in late 2003 and early 2004. They denied that the relationship affected Lipscomb’s dealings with City Hall.
The state prosecutor’s office has been scrutinizing Dixon’s financial dealings for more than two years. But it had no comment Tuesday on the documents and refused to confirm or deny the existence of specific investigations.
At the time of the relationship, the city gave tax breaks to Lipscomb’s company, Doracon Contracting Inc., for a $97 million apartment, condominium and retail complex, the documents suggested.
