Dixon pleads guilty, receives probation, resigns post, effective in February

Surrounded by members of her staff, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon announces that she will resign, part of a plea deal that brought a years-long corruption investigation to a close and ended the tenure of the city's first female mayor.

Dixon left office Feb. 4, the day she was sentenced both for a guilty plea she entered in a perjury case and for her embezzlement conviction in December 2009. She kept her $83,000 pension, and her criminal record will be wiped clean if she completes the terms of her probation within four years.

A teary Dixon returned to City Hall to announce her resignation, saying that she was doing so "with deep regret and sadness." She did not apologize but said there would come a time, after sentencing, that she could give her full side of the story.

"I love the city. I love the people of this city," said Dixon, who was raised in West Baltimore, where she still lives. "Now it's time to move on."

January 6, 2010