Expert: Baltimore mayor should testify

BALTIMORE, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon will need to take the stand in her own defense to prevail in her trial on theft charges, an expert says.

The trial, which is set to start Monday after four years of investigations dating back to her time as City Council president, will determine if Dixon is guilty of misappropriating city-supplied gift cards meant for the needy and using them to buy clothes and electronics for her family and friends, The Baltimore Sun reported Sunday.

"She's going to need to (testify). Absolutely, positively," Warren Brown, considered one of the city's best trial lawyers, told the newspaper. He is not connected to Dixon's defense.

"She is going to have to talk to (the jurors). Not talk down to them," he said, adding that because the mayor can come across as brash, she will need to watch her body language.

"When you have been immersed in power for a while, you take on all of these trappings," he told the Sun, saying Dixon "is going to have to harken back to the day when she was like these jurors, trying to make ends meet."