Gift Card Scandal Could Sink Baltimore Mayor

"Even people who voted for her are disturbed by what's come out," said Matthew Crenson, a retired Johns Hopkins University political scientist.

Dixon, whose salary is $151,700, has assembled a high-priced team of seven lawyers. She has refused to say how she is paying her legal bills, although she has been quick to criticize the State Prosecutor's Office, which investigates public corruption, for the cost of its lengthy probe.

Some legal experts believe Dixon, like many criminal defendants in Baltimore, could benefit from a jury pool that is skeptical of police and prosecutors. David Gray, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, said prosecutors could have a difficult time meeting their burden of proof.

"The prosecutor must prove a specific intent to deny the benefit of those cards to the party who had lawful title in the cards," Gray said. "It's really not Mayor Dixon's job, nor is it her attorneys' job, to explain anything."

While a conviction would end Dixon's career, an acquittal would leave her plenty of time to shore up support before the next citywide election in 2011, said Donald F. Norris, professor and chairman of the public policy department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.